Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), the GOP vice presidential nominee, said this weekend his feelings are not hurt by Democrats labeling him “weird” as past comments he made before being tapped as former President Trump’s running mate are resurfaced.
“No, not at all,” Vance told a Fox News reporter in an interview that aired Sunday. “It doesn’t hurt my feelings.”
“Look, the price of admission — meaning, the price of getting to serve the people of this country — is the Democrats are going to attack us with everything that they have. I think it’s an honor,” Vance continued.
“As Harry Truman once said, ‘if you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen,’” he said.
The brief interview, conducted during a campaign stop, comes nearly two weeks after Trump announced Vance would be his running mate on the GOP presidential ticket.
Vance has since faced scrutiny over remarks he has made in the past — including saying the country was run by “childless cat ladies,” which he has recently said was made as a “sarcastic comment.”
Democrats have broadly panned his comments as “weird.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Trump picking Vance as his running mate was “one of the best things” the former president has done for Democrats.
“Assigning extra votes to certain people based on the size of their family is weird. Banning library books is weird. Government being in people’s bedroom is weird. Government being in the exam room is weird. Saying ‘weird’ is not a schoolyard taunt – it’s an observation,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said on the social platform X on Sunday night.
Vice President Harris’s campaign has seized on those comments and has suggested that Trump is regretting picking Vance as his running mate. This comes as some House Republicans told The Hill that Vance was not the best choice to run as Trump’s vice president.