While campaigning for the Democratic Party during the 2024 presidential election, even before Kamala Harris picked him as her VP running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called some Republican policies and politicians “weird,” including GOP nominee Donald Trump and his VP pick Senator JD Vance (R-OH).
Walz said: “These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away. They want to be in your exam room.” He also said: “These guys are creepy and yes, just weird as hell.”
When The New York Times asked Trump about Walz’s name-calling, Trump replied, “Not me, they’re talking about JD.”
Vance admitted that he was more the target of the “weird” comments than Trump, and said of the Democrats: “I think it drives home how they’re trying to distract from their own policy failures.” He added, “This is fundamentally schoolyard bully stuff.”
On Wednesday, as news broke that the House Ethics Committee is going to release its report regarding allegations made against former Congressman Matt Gaetz (Trump’s first pick for Attorney General), Vance drew his followers’ attention to a different ethics platform — the advice column “The Ethicist” in The New York Times Magazine.
What should you do?
Accept it as a sweet gesture and stop being a weirdo.
Or: consider that the woman praying for her neighbors has it more figured out than the person whining to the paper. pic.twitter.com/jrmwJJeVeX
— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 18, 2024
A Times reader wrote to the column and asked: “My Neighbor Won’t Stop Praying for Me. What Should I Do?” and added “I’m trying to ignore this but it’s really bothering me that she can’t respect my wishes.”
Vance reacted by writing: “What should you do? Accept it as a sweet gesture and stop being a weirdo.”
The Vice President-elect added: “Or: consider that the woman praying for her neighbors has it more figured out than the person whining to the paper.”
Note: The Ethicist replied to the reader’s question: “The only reason you give for objecting to her prayers is that she has failed to comply with your wishes. Yet I don’t find that she has thereby treated you with disrespect, because I don’t see that you have the right to have those wishes complied with. You seem to be asking her not to do something she thinks there are compelling reasons to do. I’d have thought that this was disrespectful.”
The Ethicist also encouraged the reader to “learn to accept this woman for who she is, hearing her prayers as a sincere expression of her loving feelings toward you.”