On Thursday, around the time that advance clips of the interview between Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were released on CNN, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance took to the Twitter/X machine to poke a little fun at the incumbent vice president ahead of the release of the full interview.
“BREAKING NEWS,” Vance wrote. “I got the full CNN interview with Kamala Harris.”
The clip he shared was the infamous viral clip of Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina Teen USA, from 2007, in which she gave a really bad, verbose answer to host Mario Lopez’s question during the Miss Teen USA beauty pageant: “Recent polls have shown that one in five Americans cannot find the United States on a map of the world. Why do you think that is?”
BREAKING NEWS: I got my hands on the full CNN interview with Kamala Harris. pic.twitter.com/c6nfcJrFJy
— JD Vance (@JDVance) 29 August 2024
SEE ALSO: CNN ‘Reporter’ Dive Into Next Week After ‘Fact-Checking’ JD Vance’s Tim Walz Joke
In fairness, Upton’s voice sounded much more coherent than Harris does on most days.
But perhaps because the video shared by Vance was closer to the truth than Harris’s media defenders would like to admit, a mock-offended CNN anchor John Berman made an issue of it during an exchange with Vance on Friday, attempting to embarrass the Ohio senator by pointing out that Upton once admitted she had suicidal thoughts due to the consequences of her response.
A stern Berman then asked Vance if he “aware” that Upton had once considered ending her life:
“I’m not sure if you’re aware, but in 2015, Caitlin Upton gave an interview to New York Magazine about all the attention that clip was getting on social media, and she said, ‘I definitely went through a period where I was very, very depressed, but I never showed that to anyone except people I could trust. I had some very dark moments where I considered suicide.’
So when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you posted a picture of had considered committing suicide because of the attention it was attracting?”
Vance was have none about it, not the first time Berman asked him about it, and not the second time Berman suggested that Vance should perhaps apologize:
“No, of course not, John. My deepest sympathy goes out to her and I hope she is well.”
Look, I’ve said a lot of things on camera. I’ve said a lot of stupid things on camera. Sometimes you make mistakes when you’re in the public eye. And I think the best way to deal with that is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at these things and try to have a little fun in politics.
I posted a meme from 20 years ago, and I think we should be focused on this crisis, not on the fact that American families can’t afford food or health care, or that juvenile families can’t afford a house to raise their children in. And there’s nothing wrong with telling a few jokes along the way while we get on with the very earnest business of reforming our public policy.
Politics has become far too tame, John, far too tedious. You can have fun while making a good case to the American people about how you are going to make their lives better.
[…]
John, I won’t apologize for posting a joke, but I wish Caitlin the best.”
Watch the Exchange below:
CNN is NOT happy about this meme that @JDVance posted a dunk against Kamala Harris.
“Were you aware that the woman you posted a picture of had considered committing suicide?” pic.twitter.com/UgkRsQNLhW
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) 30 August 2024
The good news here is that Ms. Upton – who has retweeted conservatives/Republicans like Donald Trump in the past – was not a fan of the tweet she said she made much better in the years since the video became a hit. Vance is doing well, too.
As for John Berman, well, the real shame should be felt by him and his colleagues for Thursday’s “interview” that wasn’t one. It was embarrassing on every level, but yes, the real topic should be JD Vance’s tweets. Sure.
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