Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said on Wednesday that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris “can go to hell.”
The caustic comment came in response to a reporter’s question about an “altercation” Monday at Arlington National Cemetery, where Trump reportedly posed for photos over the objections of cemetery officials.
Vance said Trump had been invited by family members of some of the 13 service members killed during the disastrous U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
“If she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up, she can go to hell,” Vance said at a campaign event in Erie, Pennsylvania, where his supporters burst into chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
Even in a campaign marked by insulting rhetoric, “go to hell” stands out as one of the cruder public condemnations of a political opponent this year. Trump has previously called Harris “dumb” and as recently as Tuesday shared a social media post by a user on his “Truth Social” platform insinuating Harris used sexual favours to advance her political career.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, meanwhile, have said Republicans are “out of their minds” and that Vance is “weird” and “creepy.”
Harris hasn’t commented on the cemetery incident, contrary to Vance’s suggestion. When Vance was asked about it, he said the media was blowing it out of proportion.
“I think our veterans care a lot more about that Kamala Harris’s VP nominee lied about his military service,” Vance said, referring to Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’ 2018 misstatement about having carried a weapon “in war” even though he never saw combat.
“The other thing our veterans care a lot more about, is that three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died,” Vance said. “They died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there hasn’t been a single investigation or a single firing.”
Vance is known for making other rude remarks. In 2021, he described Harris and other prominent Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”