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Since Kamala Harris<\/strong> and Tim Walz<\/strong> rose to the top of the Democratic ticket, their campaign has proven to be light on its feet in delivering wickedly funny, instantly viral blows on social media, wielding memes as an effective political tool. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance,<\/strong> who can\u2019t effectively order a donut<\/a>, apparently decided that it was time to see what he could dig up in the ol\u2019 meme mines on the occasion of Harris and Walz sitting for their first on-camera interview Thursday evening.<\/p>\n \u201cBREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview,\u201d he tweeted<\/a> Thursday before the interview aired, alongside a clip from the 2007 Miss Teen USA pageant, when South Carolina\u2019s Caitlin Upton<\/strong> stammered through an answer to a question from Friday Night Lights<\/em> star Aimee Teegarden<\/strong> about one-fifth of Americans failing to locate the country on a map.<\/p>\n This content can also be viewed on the site it originates<\/a> from.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The jab failed to connect even at face value: Responses poured in berating Vance for making fun of a young woman and resurfacing a moment that in later years she admitted had her contemplating suicide<\/a>. \u201cIt was awful, and it was every single day for a good two years,\u201d she told New York Magazine<\/em> in 2015.<\/p>\n On Friday, Vance was asked by CNN\u2019s John Berman<\/strong><\/a> if he was aware of the impact that the clip had had on Upton\u2019s mental health. He said that he hadn\u2019t been, and that \u201cmy heart goes out to her and I hope that she\u2019s doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPolitics has gotten way too lame, John, way too boring,\u201d Vance added. \u201cYou can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you\u2019re going to improve their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n When pressed by Berman about whether he\u2019d like to apologize to Upton, Vance declined.<\/p>\n \u201cJohn, I\u2019m not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope that she\u2019s doing well and, again, what I\u2019d say is one bad moment shouldn\u2019t define anybody and the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement to Vanity Fair,<\/em> Upton said, \u201cIt\u2019s a shame that, 17 years later, this is still being brought up. There\u2019s not too much else to say about it at this point. Regardless of political beliefs, one thing I do know is that social media and online bullying needs to stop.\u00a0For anyone else going through something similar, please visit\u00a0EndCyberBullying.Org\u00a0and WhiteFlag<\/a>\u00a0as resources.\u201d<\/p>\n A touch of context takes Vance\u2019s attempt at humor from a painful misstep to a headfirst tumble off the side of a rhetorical cliff. For one thing, Donald Trump<\/strong> owned the Miss Universe, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA pageants from 1996 to 2015. For another, Trump was accused of (and denied) walking in on teen beauty queens changing backstage at the 1997 Miss Teen USA pageant. As former Miss Vermont Teen USA Mariah Billado<\/strong> told Buzzfeed News in 2016<\/a>, \u201cI remember putting on my dress really quick because I was like, \u2018Oh my god, there\u2019s a man in here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the contestants that year were as young as 15. Billado said she remembered Trump saying something like, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, ladies, I\u2019ve seen it all before.\u201d Some other contestants anonymously corroborated her account, while others said they didn\u2019t have a memory of it happening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nX content<\/h4>\n