Vance's misogynistic attempt to mock VP Harris by comparing her to teen beauty queen backfires

Is JD Vance out to sabotage Donald Trump’s campaign to prevent the man he once called “America’s Hitler” from returning to the White House? He’s certainly doing a good job at it with his blatantly misogynistic comments that are especially alienating woman voters.

It’s not just that three years ago during his Senate campaign in Ohio he ranted about “childless cat ladies” ruining the country. Vance just continues to stamp his membership card in the he-man woman hater’s club.

So on Thursday afternoon — after CNN had posted a brief preview of its upcoming interview with Vice President Kamala Harris --Vance posted this on X, formerly Twitter.

Vance’s intent was to imply that Harris is stupid and can’t handle an interview. So he dredged up a clip from the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant in which Miss South Carolina Teen Caitlin Upton flubbed the answer to a question on live TV. That clip went viral at the time.

In the pageant, Upton was asked a rather difficult question in which she was asked  to explain why many Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map.

Q:  “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?”

Upton stumbled through her response.  

“I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, um, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future.”

Upton was only 18 years old at the time and was understandably nervous appearing on a live television broadcast.

“The Today Show” was kind enough back then to give Upton a chance to rephrase her answer in 2007.  And she said:

“Well, personally, my friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don’t know anyone else who doesn’t. And if the statistics are correct, I believe that there should be more emphasis on geography in our education so people will learn how to read maps better.”

Now if Vance wants to mock someone for giving rambling, incoherent answers to a question, he should just replay a tape of his 78-year-old running mate’s responses to questions posed by reporters.

The entertainment website Dateline and other news outlets reported that Upton had responded to Vance’s remarks in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that read:

It’s a shame that 17 years later this is still being brought up. There’s not too much else to say about it at this point. Regardless of political beliefs, one thing I do know is that social media and online bullying needs to stop.

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL AND SAFE LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Dateline wrote that in the past Upton has retweeted Donald Trump tweets and anti-lockdown messages. By Friday afternoon, the post had disappeared from X with a message: “This Post is from an account that no longer exists.”

 Vance dug himself into a deeper hole when he went on CNN Friday morning. Host John Berman asked Vance whether he was aware of a 2015 New York Magazine interview in which Upton said she suffered from depression, including “thoughts of committing suicide” after the beauty pageant clip resulted in widespread mockery.

Anchor John Berman asked whether he was aware of the clip resulting in Upton’s struggling mental health. Berman referenced a 2015 New York Magazine interview in which Upton said she went through a period of depression, including “some very dark moments where I thought about committing suicide,” after the clip circulated to wide mockery.

Berman asked: “So when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you were posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention it received?” Berman questioned.

Vance replied: “No, certainly not John. My heart goes out to her, and I hope that she’s doing well. .. Look I’ve said a lot of stupid things on camera. Sometimes when you’re in the public eye you make mistakes. I think the best way to deal with it, laugh at this stuff, and try to have some fun in politics.”

Vance then tried to defend himself by saying “politics has gotten way too lame, way too boring.”

“You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you’re going to improve their lives,” Vance said.

Berman gave Vance another chance to apologize  to Upton, and he replied:

“I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke. But I wish the best for Caitlin I hope she is doing well.”

“What I’d say is one bad moment shouldn’t define anybody,” he concluded. “And the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.”

Vance’s refusal to apologize drew a strong backlash

Chris Graham, writing in the Augusta (Va.) Free Press, called Vance “a soulless prick” and “a sociopath.” His column even highlighted the dictionary definition of sociopath:

Sociopath (n.): a person with antisocial personality disorder, a mental health condition that causes people to lack empathy and disregard the rights and feelings of others.

And former Republican Rep. Barbara Comstack of Virginia asked this question of Vance:

Did Trump Jr. (your real boss) make you put this up or do you come up with this endless misogyny on your own? (Does your wife laugh at this? Did you run it by her?)

And know here’s the kicker. The Bulwark, a website founded by anti-Trump conservatives Sarah Longwell, Charlie Sykes, and Bill Kristol, added an additional detail about a job that she accepted from Donald Trump’s modeling agency in New York City. 

Vance also left out the second part of the story. Shortly after that moment, Upton was offered a job . . . by Donald Trump, who gushed over her beauty.

“When I walked into his office, he said: ‘You are more gorgeous than I expected. You are going to model for my agency, and I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer,’ ” Upton recalls. “It was unreal.”

Upton, again, was a teenager at the time. 

Trump owned the MIss Universe Organization -- which also includes the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants — from 1996 to 2015 when he entered the presidential race and his derogatory comments about Mexicans drove away broadcasters NBC and Univision, Rolling Stone wrote.

Rolling Stone  detailed Trump’s scandalous behavior as the pageant owner, including allegations that in 1997 he entered the Miss Teen USA changing room where girls as young as 15 were in various states of undress.