Anderson Cooper chimed in Thursday on Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s recent claim that former President Donald Trump is likely to win the “normal gay guy vote.”
During a panel discussion on his show, “Anderson Cooper 360,” the CNN anchor said he was curious to know exactly where Vance would make a distinction between “normal” and “not normal” gay men.
“At first I was like, ‘Oh, JD Vance thinks there’s normal gay people.’ So I guess that’s sort of progress,” Cooper, who is gay, said. “I’m curious to know what the difference — where the line is between a ‘normal’ gay person and a ‘not normal’ gay person.”
He then suggested Vance may possibly draw the line at “anything related to drag,” before taking a cheeky dig at Trump.
“Wearing as much makeup as Donald Trump wears, that would be considered not normal,” he quipped. “It’s fine for Donald Trump, but on a gay guy, that wouldn’t be considered normal.”
Vance made the questionable claim in a Thursday interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast in which he alluded to a gay friend who was a committed conservative. He contrasted this man with other members of the “crazy” broader LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender and nonbinary people.
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“I wouldn’t be surprised if me and Trump won just the normal gay guy vote because again, they just wanted to be left the hell alone,” he said, before suggesting implausibly that more high school graduates were identifying as transgender to boost their odds of getting into Ivy League colleges.
Vance’s comment overlooked the staunchly anti-LGBTQ platform that Trump embraced during his first term ― something which many supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris quickly pointed out on social media.