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.

  • @solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    2553 months ago

    LOL if “he gives away tampons” is the only thing you can find to criticize about your opponent, then you’re in pretty deep fucking shit

    • @CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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      1663 months ago

      Bet they wanted a Shapiro VP pick so bad. It would’ve been antisemitic space laser conspiracy theory bullshit 24/7 until the vote. Now all they’ve got is “how dare this man ensure school children have full bellies and necessary sanitary supplies every day.”

      • @solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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        973 months ago

        as it turns out, the strategy of “lets force everyone to have more babies, and then when kids go hungry, blame the parents specifically for having too many babies” isn’t panning out the way they hoped

        • @CountVon@sh.itjust.works
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          763 months ago

          I’ve always felt that “have more babies but also fuck you for ever having sex” was a bit of wildly contradictory policy stance.

          • @thefartographer@lemm.ee
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            673 months ago

            No, I actually get it. You ever seen a toddler jump in a puddle and then get upset that their legs got wet and dirty? It’s like that

            Fucking toddler logic.

      • @Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        273 months ago

        This tactic of picking someone that the Republicans didn’t expect and haven’t had time to build a narrative about is working extremely well.

        • If I put my conspiracy hat on for a split second I want to say this is a machiavellian (sp?) move by the DNC. I’m reluctant to give them that much credit though.

      • @Eccitaze@yiffit.net
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        203 months ago

        But hey, now they can claim that not picking Shapiro was antisemitic! 🙄

        Never mind the tiki torches and chants of “Jews will not replace us” in the distance…

        • partial_accumen
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          173 months ago

          Isn’t antisemitism a hard sell to Harris who is a Presidential candidate that is married to a Jewish man?

          • @f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz
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            193 months ago

            You would think so, but I’ve heard it on talk radio already. Verbatim: “Harris didn’t pick Shapiro because Democrats hate Jews!”

            Uh, there’s one major party that is so hard-up for votes that they now welcome neo-Nazis to their convention, and it’s not the Democrats…

            • Pelicanen
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              83 months ago

              I mean, I’ve also heard them parrot Russian propaganda that Zelensky is a nazi despite being, you know, jewish. Logic doesn’t really enter their minds.

            • @samus12345@lemmy.world
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              43 months ago

              Yes, Harris, whose husband is Jewish, hates Jews.

              I know reality means nothing to them, but it makes their floundering all the more funny.

          • @grue@lemmy.world
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            73 months ago

            They call Bernie Sanders antisemitic. Factual reality is absolutely irrelevant to the shit spewing from their mouths.

    • dactylotheca
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      503 months ago

      Conservatives don’t give a shit about what’s actually getting criticized – if they’re told that they need to think Walz is bad, then anything he does can be used as an example of him being a “villain”. Could be fucking “he donates to charity” and they’d find a way to doublethink that into being a bad thing

      • @ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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        303 months ago

        Could be fucking “he donates to charity” and they’d find a way to doublethink that into being a bad thing

        The fundraising spam writes itself!

        Tim Walz believes in REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH and ENCOURAGES FREELOADERS to TAKE HANDOUTS and not take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for their problems.

          • @lemmylommy@lemmy.world
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            163 months ago

            Dear leader Trump has asked my why you have not been supporting him lately. Donate now to help him fight the freeloaders.

        • @harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          123 months ago

          He stopped his speech in WI today when someone (nearly?) passed out from the heat and made sure they were being attended to. He also asked if there was more water to hand out.

          SOCIALISM! SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE! He wants to take the water that others paid for and redistribute it!

      • @kinsnik@lemmy.world
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        153 months ago

        True, but if only the deep maga cultists are buying your attacks, then it is not changing the election result

        The goal of the attacks is either to motivate some kind-of-conservative that doesn’t care that much about the election and might not vote to vote; or to demoralize a democrat voter into not voting

      • @frezik@midwest.social
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        143 months ago

        In this case, it’s not landing because they were already being called weird for similar behavior, and that is landing. It’s easy to dismiss the entire attack with a deadpan “that’s a weird thing to say”.

    • @ChillPenguin@lemmy.world
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      403 months ago

      Holy shit. They’re struggling to find stuff so they default to “he put tampons in schools”, “let Minneapolis burn to the ground” (which it didn’t, I lived downtown during the protests) or “rocks and cows” quote.

      That’s about it.

      • @iamtrashman1312@lemmy.world
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        313 months ago

        Yeah, that was weird how they kept on telling me the city had burned down and shit when I could turn my head 90° and see the skyline same as it ever was, nary a cloud or indeed plume of smoke in the sky

        • @Vladkar@lemmy.world
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          213 months ago

          Luckily we have Fox News and random strangers on the internet who are willing to magnanimously inform us about the desolation of our own city.

          Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go scavenge for hot dish in the smouldering ruins of Saint Paul.

        • @Sc00ter@lemm.ee
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          133 months ago

          I believe he was talking about a political map and how the state was a lot of red counties/ Land area and he said something like, "there’s not a lot of people there. It’s mostly rocks and cows. "

        • @ChillPenguin@lemmy.world
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          133 months ago

          At one point when he was talking about voting districts. He had referred to red districts as “mostly rocks and cows”. And well… Rural conservatives took offense to it like they do for everything. I still see billboards with that quote when I’m in the middle of nowhere.

          • ainokea
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            73 months ago

            I’m the middle of nowhere with rocks and cows?

          • @gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            43 months ago

            I’m sorry, I thought not having all that “big city bullshit” (imagine that was said with a comically over the top southern accent) was a point of pride?

            Like, literally, I’ve had family in rural Missouri and Minnesota and shit and heard that exact line before

            They’re only offended because a (D) said it

      • @JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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        63 months ago

        Didn’t you know tampons ruin a young girls ‘purity?’

        I’m sad to say that’s probably why conservatives are upset about it. They probably still think you can lose your virginity to a tampon…

    • partial_accumen
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      73 months ago

      Seems like the GOP are doing everything else to alienate the votes of women. That criticism from them wouldn’t surprise me in the least.