‘Racist’ Mountain Dew, cat ladies — and is that eyeliner? The ‘weird’ times of JD Vance

It took eight years for a Silicon Valley-backed author and venture capitalist to ditch his very public criticism of Donald Trump; get elected to the Senate with Trump’s help; endorse widely derided ideas about women and childbirth; then get in line for next vice president of the United States.

Democrats have summed up JD Vance with one word: “weird.”

Kamala Harris’ campaign called him a “creep.” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Republicans have “weird people” and “weird ideas” on their side. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump probably regrets hiring a “weird” running mate.

Since his debut, Vance has faced nosediving approval ratings — and Democrats suggest those “weird” comments might have something to do with it.

Idiot, morally reprehensible, noxious, and America’s Hitler — Vance made it pretty clear what he thought about Trump before running for office.

In an April 2016 New York Times op-ed, Vance argued that Trump was “unfit” for office. That year, he also sent a message to his law school roommate saying that he was going “back and forth between thinking that Trump is a cynical asshole … or that he’s America’s Hitler.”

“He’s just a bad man. A morally reprehensible human being,” he wrote to another friend.

“There’s definitely an element of Donald Trump’s base of support that has elements in racism, xenophobia,” Vance told PBS. Speaking to NPR, he called Trump “noxious.”

He also liked a tweet labeling Trump “one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs.”

“What an idiot,” Vance wrote in another, now-deleted tweet. After the release of the Access Hollywood tape — in which Trump is heard admitting to grabbing women by the genitals in 2005, just weeks before the 2016 election — Vance wrote in another