JD Vance made one other gold-medal blunder.
Not lengthy after the U.S. ladies’s gymnastics crew topped the Olympics podium on Tuesday, yet one more spherical of poorly aged feedback from the Ohio senator and Republican vice presidential candidate got here to gentle, this time specializing in star gymnast Simone Biles.
Again in 2021, earlier than he was a U.S. senator, Vance had a wierd take on Biles’ determination to step again from the Tokyo Video games after she was overcome by a case of “the twisties,” an often-dangerous situation wherein athletes quickly lose their sense of spatial consciousness whereas midair.
Whereas he was considerably sympathetic to Biles’ state of affairs, Vance informed a panel on Fox Information’ “Outnumbered” that celebrating her determination to withdraw from the Video games confirmed how gentle the world has gotten.
Anna Moneymaker by way of Getty Photos
“Well, I think, obviously, it’s understandable that she was going through an incredible amount of pressure,” the “Hillbilly Elegy” writer started. “What I find so weird about this, and it reflects on the media more than it does on Simone Biles, is that we’ve tried to turn a very tragic moment — Simone Biles quitting the Olympic team — into this act of heroism.”
“And I think it reflects pretty poorly on our sort of therapeutic society that we try to praise people not for moments of strength, not for moments of heroism, but for their weakest moments,” Vance added.
“Being an athlete at that level is incredibly tough,” he acknowledged. “A normal response in this moment would be to say, ‘It’s just a shame that she’s going through this. It’s a shame that she quit,’ but instead, what our press has done, I think, is turn this into this weird therapeutic moment. ‘Let’s praise her for doing this.’ And I think that’s really where the problem herein lies.”
PAUL ELLIS by way of Getty Photos
Vance’s 2021 remarks clearly didn’t enhance with time.
Biles made historical past on Tuesday when she received her eighth Olympic medal, turning into probably the most adorned gymnast in Staff USA’s historical past.
Watch Vance’s full feedback right here:
