Years after accusing former President Donald Trump of spreading minformation and conspiracy theories, Democrats are now using false, vulgar rumors to poke fun at his running mate.
The rumor, first reported on X last month, allegedly involves a fake passage about sex and a couch in Sen. JD Vance’s 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy.
Although the author of the original joke clarified that it was not real and later kept his account private, the hoax spread like wildfire, with jokes and memes spreading. Several news agencies published fact-checks of the claim.
The day Vice President Kamala Harris nominated Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz as her running mate, excitement reached its peak in Philadelphia. “I have to tell you, I can’t wait to debate,” Walz told an arena filled with thousands of excited supporters. [Vance]. If he wants to get off the couch and show himself.”
As the crowd roared and Harris grinned behind him, Walz, who began calling Republicans “weird” a few weeks ago, said, “See what I did there?”
The Harris campaign’s Kamala HQ TikTok account posted a video of the moment, which has been viewed more than 5.3 million times.
As the rants spread, Republicans criticized Democrats for helping spread the joke — even Trump and his allies continue Sharing lies about Harris and Walz.
Conservative lawyer Jonathan Turley attacked the “sofa story” in X, writing that “exposed many times.”
“We’re not even in the post-congress era, and our leading candidates are already “rolling in the mud” with trolls. he wrote.
Democrats defend their jokes as harmless fun, pointing to damaging past conspiracies that Trump and other Republicans have spread about Democrats. operates clandestine sex-trafficking networksbeing pedophiles or they change their identities for political purposes worse than a meme about a sofa.
“For 2 years we had to hear about Joe Biden becoming an international super criminal from Despicable Me 3. he tweeted last week In response to Turley’s complaints.
The content and speed of the hoax is designed for the age of social media, when information that is real, false, and sometimes a mix of both is presented and disseminated in similar ways — and fact-checks never have the coverage of that information. bad information.
The incident also caused rival political camps to argue over the blurred line between which misinformation is worse than others and whether it’s harmful or just satirical.
Walz wasn’t the first to joke about a viral hoax. On July 27, nearly two weeks after the original false tweet was posted and a week after it was hidden by the author, the Harris campaign account posted a screenshot of a 2021 tweet from Vance on X. mocking “cat ladies”.
The caption reads, “JD Vance doesn’t express his hatred of women.”
On July 26, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent it around news release Vance explosion. The opening sentence read: “House Republicans compliment public praise of Donald Trump’s vice presidential nominee with personal criticism.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, then considered on the short list to be Harris’ running mate, joked twice in the days that followed.
On it July 28 edition of ABC News’ “This Week,” Pritzker blasted Trump, saying, “He talks about all kinds of crazy things,” adding, “You know, his assistant, as you’ve probably heard, is known for his love of couches.”
On July 29 “White Friends for Harris” At the Zoom fundraiser, Pritzker told attendees, “I’m going to keep my remarks short. I know we have a lot of speakers. After that, of course, I invite you all to another Zoom called ‘Anti-Trump Thrones.'”
After Walz’s speech, some Democrats continued to get the joke.
Moskowitz quoted a tweet from Vance criticizing Harris for not taking questions from the media, to which Moskowitz told him, “I’ve been in an Air Force 2 JD with a great couch on it.”
And speaking in front of Walls and Harris at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, Rep. Dina Titus told Vance, “You better hide behind that couch, because we’re coming for you.”
“I think we’ll just go with what’s on the tape,” said a spokesman when asked about Titus’ comments.
Representatives of the Trump and Harris campaigns, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Pritzker and Moskowitz did not respond to requests for comment.