the vice president told a texas rally he loves a man "in a totally platonic way" because he's "not james talarico." no homo, said the second most powerful man on earth.
Photo: Daniel Torok, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
via AL.com, HuffPost and Raw Story, from the rally clip
A man in the crowd told him he loved him. A normal politician says "love you back" and moves on. JD Vance had a bit prepared.
"I love you too, sir. In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I'm the vice president, not James Talarico."
That's the line, word for word, from a clip of the speech Aaron Rupar posted Tuesday. Vance was in Tyler, Texas, at a Republican rally at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport, according to KLTV and the Tyler Morning Telegraph, campaigning for Ken Paxton, who is trying to beat Talarico, a Democratic state representative, for a U.S. Senate seat. AL.com, HuffPost and Raw Story all ran the quote.
what vance said about talarico
The joke has exactly one moving part: that being gay is the punchline. Talarico, for the record, is straight and has a girlfriend, AL.com and HuffPost both note, which is the least interesting fact in this story, because the joke does not need it to be true. It only needs the room to agree that gay is bad.
It is also a bold bit from a man who has been photographed in drag, as HuffPost pointed out and as we wrote about in September. Texas Republicans have been working this angle for a while. Paxton's campaign already made an attack ad starring a drag queen who isn't on the ballot.
kari lake got there first
Talarico told a business forum on Sept. 30 that he'd come down with the flu, per The Dallas Morning News, and he stepped off the trail for a stretch. On the evening of Oct. 8, Kari Lake replied to a post speculating about his absence with no words at all, just a screenshot of a chatbot being asked how long it takes to recover from "bottom surgery." The Advocate covered it on Tuesday.
So in one week, the Republican theory of James Talarico went from "secretly trans" to "secretly gay." Neither one is a policy. Both of them are an admission that the party thinks you will vote on vibes about a man's body, which, after Monday night in Ohio, is at least consistent.
Talarico's campaign had not responded to the joke in any coverage we could find by Tuesday evening.
the internet reacts
the consensus was that this belongs in a middle school cafeteria, and the middle schoolers are offended.
Zeeshan Aleem @ZeeshanAleemVP says “no homo” and calls a candidate gay as a joke. We’re in high school, maybe middle school5,294 likesBilly Binion @billybinionI remain amazed and mystified that some of the most powerful people in the world think “James Talarico seems gay!!” is a compelling critique. I bet it goes so hard with JD Vance’s 9-year-old. It’s so desperate and small.815 likesMatthew Yglesias @mattyglesiasHaving made inroads with various traditionally blue constituencies in 2024, Republicans have spent the fall telling everyone that they really do hate gay people and all non-white immigrants.1,206 likes
