CNN's Jake Tapper accused Vice President JD Vance of hypocrisy for smearing Texas Democrat James Talarico with an innuendo-laden attack at a rally in Texas.
The vice president attacked the Democratic Senate candidate Tuesday at an event in Tyler, Texas, where he responded to a crowd member who shouted out, "I love you," by saying he loved them, too, but "in a totally platonic way," and then questioned Talarico's sexuality.
“To be clear, I’m the vice president, not James Talarico,” Vance told the crowd. “The best part about this guy is, you know, he was asked what he loves in life besides his own family and friends, and he responded, without skipping a beat, and I quote, trans children. Now you got to wonder what the internet search history of a man like that looks like.”
Tapper reminded viewers that Vance was on the receiving end of similar mockery during the 2024 campaign.
“When there were all those really crude jokes about Vice President Vance, then-Senator Vance and couches back in 2024, his team was very offended and thought it was really inappropriate when Governor Walz made a joke about it and they weren’t wrong,” Tapper said.
He called the couch jokes “really crude and invented nonsensical jokes” that were “beneath” the officials who told them.
“It’s hard to reconcile his team being offended by that and this,” Tapper said.
Tapper said the vice president had implied that Talarico, “who’s straight, is gay, as if that’s an insult,” and had made what “seemed to be a suggestion of [child sexual abuse material] on his computer or something.”
“Of course, it’s inappropriate and public officials should not be doing that,” Tapper said.
Tapper also argued that the attack shows Republicans are nervous about the race.
“It makes me wonder how competitive this seat is,” he said, noting that fewer than three weeks remain before Election Day.
He said he doesn’t put much stock in public polls, which he called “snapshots” rather than “predictors,” and instead, he watches the campaigns’ tactics and where their money goes.
The tactics against Talarico in the past week “have been smears,” Tapper said, pointing to baseless claims by right-wing influencers over the weekend that he was treated at a mental health facility in Ohio, as well as Vance’s remarks.
“That makes me think that this race is a lot more competitive than I necessarily would think so otherwise," Tapper said, "because why would the vice president be doing that?”
He said Republicans in Texas usually win by casting Democrats as “anti-oil” and “anti-gun,” lines that tend to work in a conservative state.
“But instead they’re doing smears,” Tapper said.