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Democrats have continued to push a vulgar falsehood about former President Trump’s operating mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, regardless of the declare being debunked weeks in the past.
“It undermines their moralizing about Trump’s falsehoods and gives Trump an opportunity to say it’s ‘the pot calling the kettle black,’” Democratic strategist Julian Epstein informed Fox News Digital.
Epstein’s remark comes as Democrats present no indicators of ditching the Vance “couch meme,” a vulgar rumor that originated on social media final month that Trump’s operating mate described a intercourse act he carried out on a sofa in his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Despite the declare being rapidly debunked, its viral unfold was picked up by Democrats and spawned jokes and memes throughout social media.
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Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz gesture throughout a marketing campaign rally on the Thomas and Mack Center, University of Nevada in Las Vegas on Aug. 10, 2024. (RONDA CHURCHILL/AFP by way of Getty Images)
The falsehood even made its method to the highest of the Democratic ticket, with Vice President Kamala Harris’ operating mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, cracking a joke in regards to the rumor throughout a speech in Philadelphia the identical day Harris introduced he was becoming a member of the ticket.
“I got to tell you, I can’t wait to debate [Vance]. That is if — if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up,” Walz mentioned through the remarks as Harris smirked behind him, in keeping with a recounting of the occasion on NBC News. “You see what I did there?”
The second went viral on the Harris marketing campaign’s TikTok account, named Kamala HQ, garnering 5.3 million views, NBC reported, noting that Democrats have continued to make use of the joke regardless of the discharge of fact-checks debunking the rumor by a number of media retailers.
In one such instance, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee despatched a information launch on July 26 concentrating on Trump’s determination to select Vance, joking that Republicans are “couching their public praise of Trump’s vice presidential nominee with private criticism.”
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On July 27, the Kamala HQ X account shared a screenshot of Vance’s moments on “cat ladies” with the caption that the Ohio senator “does not couch his hatred for women.”
A day later, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, lengthy believed to be a possible candidate to hitch Harris on the ticket, joked on ABC News that whereas Trump “talks about all kinds of crazy stuff,” Vance is “getting known for his obsession with couches.”
Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker speaks through the Clinton Global Initiative assembly on the Hilton Midtown on Sept. 19, 2023 in New York City. (John Nacion/WireImage)
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., has additionally leaned into the joke, responding to Vance’s submit asking why Harris had not been taking questions from the media.
“I’ve been on Air Force 2 JD, there is a great couch on it,” Moskowitz mentioned in an August 7 submit on X.
The continued veiled jabs at Vance over a debunked rumor seemingly fly within the face of one of many essential Democratic criticisms of Trump, who the get together has lengthy claimed peddled misinformation and false claims for political profit.
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That criticism of Trump took middle stage through the 2016 Democratic National Convention, when then-first girl Michelle Obama famously declare “when they go low, we go high,” in reference to the assaults on her and her household.
“More than anything else, Democrats want to memory-hole the Biden/Harris record of the last four years. They want to memory-hole Harris’ fringe left views from just five years ago.”
Obama doubled down on the theme through the 2020 conference in assist of President Biden, declaring that “going high is the only thing that works.”
Moskowitz has nonetheless defended his get together’s obvious double normal, arguing on social media that persevering with the unfold of the rumor is simply jokes and doesn’t examine to the lies unfold by Trump.
“For 2 years we had to hear that Joe Biden was an international super criminal mastermind from Despicable Me 3. You will listen to couch story,” he mentioned final month.
Former first girl Michelle Obama attends Opening Night celebrating 50 years of equal pay throughout Day One of the 2023 US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium on the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Aug. 28, 2023. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/GC Images)
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Moskowitz’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a Fox News Digital request for remark.
However, Epstein believes Democrats are making a “mistake” by persevering with to lean into the falsehood, although she argued getting right into a “tit for tat campaign of insult comedy” would even be a “trap for the Republicans.”
“More than anything else, Democrats want to memory-hole the Biden/Harris record of the last four years,” Epstein mentioned. “They want to memory-hole Harris’ fringe left views from just five years ago.”
The Harris marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a Fox News Digital request for remark.
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