Republicans Are Being Weird to Kids at the 2024 DNC

It seems the weirdness of Republicans knows no bounds. At Wednesday’s Democratic National Convention, as newly anointed Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz gave a rousing pep talk, his son Gus, sitting in the audience with his mom Gwen and sister Hope, got understandably teary-eyed. Standing up, the 17-year-old, who is neurodivergent and has a learning disorder, pointed to his father on the stage and said, “That’s my dad.” The proud father-son moment melted hearts everywhere. Well, not quite everywhere.

In a since-deleted post, right-wing media pundit Ann Coulter mocked the emotional teen. “Talk about weird…” she wrote. It was one of several recent attempts made by Republicans to reclaim the word that Walz has been credited with masterminding as a political taunt. Unfortunately for Coulter, the internet wasn’t having it. “To prove that people like me aren’t the weird ones, I – a 62-year-old woman – am going to bully a 17-year-old for crying out of love for his father,” wrote one user on X.

Coulter wasn’t the only Republican to make fun of the child. Mike Crispi, a failed congressional candidate, took to X to call him both “stupid” and a “beta male.” The latter has been a favored putdown among MAGA-leaning men, whom many have pointed out stand in stark contrast to the masculinity being demonstrated by the “nice men of the left,” Walz, along with Kamala Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, being two of the most visible practitioners of the group.

Remarkably, beyond cyberbullying, there were also IRL confrontations at the DNC between MAGA media figures and a child. Knowa De Brasco, a 12-year-old content creator who was invited to the convention by the DNC chairman, was seen being yelled at by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder turned conspiracy theorist. Lindell, who had shaved his mustache for the occasion, purportedly in “disguise,” told De Brasco that the 2020 presidential was stolen, insisting there were hundreds of thousands of uncounted votes in Georgia, as he talked over the child and wagged his finger in his face. De Brasco, who hails from the state, calmly asked for his sources, and when Lindell couldn’t provide them, replied: “So your source is ‘Trust me bro’? That’s your source?” Walking away, De Brasco capped the exchange by telling Lindell, “You’re full of crap.”

And that wasn’t even the only weird moment De Brasco faced at the convention. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, also exchanged words with the pre-teen. When the content creator asked him why he said the Civil Rights Act should be overturned, Kirk replied that he hadn’t said that—he said it was “a mistake.” De Brasco, who is Black, was baffled. “Why? That’s crazy. I wouldn’t be here,” before adding, “That’s trouble.” Kirk, whose organization focuses on the conservative youth, walked away without answering. Later on X, De Brasco noted that the conservative activist “couldn’t even answer my question of why he thinks that.”

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