JD Vance told Joe Rogan that he thinks there’s a good chance Donald Trump could win the ‘normal gay guy vote’ in next week’s presidential election.
The vice presidential candidate, 40, said he ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if his ticket won the traditionally left-leaning voters because things have simply gotten too ‘crazy’ for them.
‘They just want to be left the hell alone and now you have all this crazy stuff on top of it,’ Vance said.
He backed up his claim by citing an unnamed ‘gay friend’ who sent him a clip of Elizabeth Warren talking about gender identity in 2020.
Vance’s remark divided opinions online, with opponents calling him ‘absurd’ and questioning what a ‘normal’ gay person is. Supporters, however, argued he was making a wider point about transgender issues being lumped in with gay rights.
JD Vance raised eyebrows during his appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience as he predicted he and Donald Trump could win the ‘normal gay guy vote’
Vance’s appearance on Rogan’s popular podcast comes days after Donald Trump first joined the comedian for a widely watched episode earlier this week
Vance’s appearance on Rogan’s popular podcast came just days after Donald Trump first joined the comedian for a widely watched episode earlier this week.
A 10-second clip of Vance talking about the ‘normal gay guy vote’ was quickly shared by Kamala Harris’ campaign on social media, however some said the remark was taken out of context.
In a longer clip, Vance draws a comparison between religious fanatics stubbornly believing their faith and transgender activists arguing for minors to receive gender-affirming treatment.
He pointed to liberal ‘in this house we believe’ signs, such as those that say ‘we believe in science etc.,’ and said they reminded him of a Catholic creed that children say when in school.
‘There is almost a similar cadence between the Christian creed and what these guys are doing with this hyper woke stuff,’ he said.
‘And then of course there’s the rallies, and there’s rituals, and it (transgenderism) absolutely is a religious faith.
‘When you get into the really radical trans stuff, you actually start to notice the similarities between a practiced religious faith and what these guys are doing.’
Vance predicted he and Trump, pictured Thursday in New Mexico, would win the traditionally left-leaning voter bloc because ‘they just want to be left the hell alone and now you have all this crazy stuff on top of it’
Vance went on to say a gay friend of his sent him a clip of Elizabeth Warren during her 2020 presidential run paying tribute to her ‘two spirit’ supporters – a Native American gender identity for a person who identifies as both male and female – and saying this left him bewildered.
He said his friend’s response to the video was: ‘I don’t know what the hell two spirit is, I just want to be left alone.’
Vance then said he would ‘not be surprised’ if he and Trump gained the votes of gay men like the one who sent him the Warren tweet, repeating: ‘They just want to be left the hell alone and now you have all this crazy stuff on top of it.’
Vance’s comments were criticized by liberals on social media after the Rogan episode aired on Thursday evening, with one branding him ‘appalling.’
‘It’s rich to hear JD Vance try to talk about ‘normal gay guys’ as if he hasn’t spent years pushing the idea that being gay alone is abnormal and immoral,’ said another. ‘Now he wants to move the goal posts to create divisions within our community. It’s gross.’
Vance’s comments were criticized by liberals on social media after the Rogan episode aired on Thursday evening, with one branding him ‘appalling’
Later in the podcast, Vance appeared to try and clarify his comparison between transgenderism and religion.
He said there was ‘one big difference’, in that ‘woke stuff’ doesn’t have ‘forgiveness and redemption.’
The senator also said most Americans do not hold strong opinions on transgender people, but draw the line at transgender women playing sports against biological women.
‘(Americans) don’t really care who you sleep with,’ he said.
‘They’re pretty open-minded about most lifestyle choices. But when you talk about having a biological male compete with their teenage girl, right, in competitive sports, Americans are saying, no, no, no, no. Yeah. This is crazy. You’re causing injury to my kids. We have to stop this.’