The GOP is scrambling to find a line of attack against Kamala Harris’s VP pick — and it’s not going well

Tim Walz has made his debut as Kamala Harris’ running mate, and Republicans are struggling to apply their standard villainization playbook to the Minnesota governor.

Walz has been making waves for weeks now as a good-natured, relatable politician with a particular aptitude for dressing down the Republican agenda in terms that any voter can understand — and the GOP hates it.

Republicans are scrambling to paint the governor-turned-VP candidate as a devilish Marxist hellbent on running the country into the ground — their usual stuff — while leveling a bunch of other really weird attacks. Here are some of their most pathetic attempts to turn voters against Walz.

  • BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    I find that hard to believe. If they can’t find something true they’ll just make up something horrific and make him a villain out of that

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Just from what I heard of him now he really seems like a chill dude. I had no idea who he was before now.

  • Otakulad@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Well yeah. I mean look at this man. Free breakfast AND lunch. Sounds like the devil’s work to me. You have to be a good Christian like Sarah Huckabee and remove child labor laws.

    I mean, who hugs kids like this anyway?

    • chetradley@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      “I hope Tim Walz sexually assaulted teenage boys so we can use it against him” would be such an eye opener if these people had the ability to think about what they were posting.

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The original image is so much better. No need to add a dipshit, just the VP nominee with a baby pig.

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        I don’t like the whole “down to earth politician I could get a beer with” thing, but I legitimately don’t think I can picture trump or vance looking happy with a farm animal, and I think that says something about them as peoplecin a way that’s different than just “down to earth”.

        You should look like that if you’re at a fair and someone hands you a piglet. It’s just a funny, cute thing that’s supposed to make people happy.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          10 months ago

          I think the range of clothing I can picture them in is suit or golf polo. They just exude the energy of rich boys who don’t want to do anything “beneath their station”.

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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              10 months ago

              Vance probably has as he was in the military. Even a cushy press job has to make his own bed. But I’m sure he’s put that all behind him and now thinks of that as work for the servants.

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Trump couldn’t pull off holding a book for fuck’s sake. And this guy, he’s just charming. He’s a big lovable oaf.

        • Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          The “get a beer with” thing is about trust and being comfortable. Sounds like, “handing him a piglet” is your version of this. His reaction makes you trust and be comfortable with him as a decent human.

          I vote, you now use the phrase, “I’d hand that guy a piglet.” And make it your own.

          • barsquid@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            If we were in a novel or a movie the critics would have called that symbolism too heavy-handed. Of course they also would have said it is too unrealistic to have millions of dimwits voting for a con man because they are all racist.

      • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        You see, Republicans saying that exact thing would’ve been smart. It’s both true (as an acronym for his rank), but also dangerously close to “CSAM” that idiots would be up in arms about the guy being a predator.

        Still would be an incredibly scummy thing to do to attack opponents, but that might have actually achieved something for those amoral fuckwits.

    • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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      10 months ago

      how long before the inevitable “national guard isn’t real army men!!!” talking point is flying around?

  • EnderWiggin@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    He’s borderline the ideal version of what a family man looks like even in their own version of reality. He’s a white independently successful retired military, churchgoing, family man. Good luck with that one, couch fuckers.

  • ATDA@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    If Jesus were her running mate they’d find some way to double down on ‘Democrats bad’ by making a new hyper Christianity that’s even more theocratic and fascist.

  • So_zetta_slowpoke@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Maybe don’t make your whole political strategy about tearing people down and try to actually run candidates who are better in some measurable way

  • nifty@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Some info about the stolen valor comments:

    Left national guard after two decades to run off public office

    Eustice says he remembers Walz struggling with the timing of wanting to serve as a lawmaker but also avoiding asking for a deferment so he could do so.

    "He had a window of time. He had to decide. And in his deciding, we were not on notice to be deployed. There were rumors. There were lots of rumors, and we didn’t know where we were going until it was later that, early summer, I believe,” Eustice told ABC News.

    Also, he did carry weapons of war and “in war”, unless someone wants to correct this.

    Walz deployed with the Minnesota National Guard to Italy on Aug. 3, 2003, to support Operation Enduring Freedom, according to the Minnesota Guard. The battalion supported security missions at various locations in Europe and Turkey, according to the Guard, and Walz was stationed in Vicenza, Italy, until returning to Minnesota in 2004. He did not deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.

    On operation enduring freedom, part of war on terror

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Enduring_Freedom

    So, in fact he did carry weapons in war. Why are people saying he didn’t?

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I love the contrast this is painting between the far-left and far-right. On the one hand, you got fascists carrying tiki torches and chanting “jews will not replace us,” and on the other you got people saying “let’s make sure no children are starving.” And talking heads on Fox are super pissed about the latter.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      To be clear neither Harris or Walz are “far left”…

      This is what actual moderates looked like.

      I’m happy to have them, but we lose if we call what they’re doing “far left”.

      We desperately need to bring the Overton Window back where it should be.

      • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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        10 months ago

        As far as I understand, far left is anti-capitalism (communism), and/or anti-authority (anarchism), and/or maybe more recently radical ecologists who are ready to destroy property.

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        Oh, only the Wrong Wing calls them far left. Normal people know better. For one thing, they have a chance of being elected.

        • ceenote@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          That’s what I’m saying. Right wing talking heads are priming people to start thinking “The far left doesn’t seem so bad.”

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Normal people know better.

          We’ll see. I suspect we’re going to get a full-court press against Walz, particularly after the DC media circuit was shilling so hard for Shapiro and didn’t get what they wanted.

          He’s going to get the same tarring and feathering as the Sanders campaign did, back in 2020, after Chris Matthews nearly had a heart attack on air when Bernie won Nevada.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        To be clear neither Harris or Walz are “far left”…

        Policies that were considered centrist compromise planks back in the 70s and 80s are now “Fringe Leftist Views” in the modern media, because so much of our information is owned and manufactured by right wing extremists.

        • teamevil@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Who love to scream that the liberal media isn’t right enough… the right is the absolute scum of the earth, they can shove their Fuck you I got mine attitude right up their ass

    • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      There is no far left in mainstream US politics. That is nothing more than republican fear mongering.