JD Vance Has Critics Barking Over Weird Dog Leash Holding, But Is It Fair? Watch For Yourself

Vice-president Kamala Harris chose Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her vice-presidential candidate, and Walz has been credited with helping make "weird" happen when it comes to referring to former president Donald Trump and his somewhat left-field pick for vice-presidential nominee JD Vance. While there are certainly some ways that Vance does, in fact, seem weird, the internet seems to be divided over whether the recent clip of Vance and his dog makes the cut. Vance was seen with his German shepherd named Atlas getting onto Trump's plane, and his holding of the dog's leash and how the harness was fastened seem to be as controversial as some of Vance's policy stances. Here's the clip from X, formerly known as Twitter, which at the time of writing, had been viewed over 8.3 million times.

JD Vance has brought his dog, Atlas, to campaign with him today in Milwaukee pic.twitter.com/tpc4YNW4Ct

— Chris Cameron (@ChrisCameronNYT) August 16, 2024

One critic posted in response, "He has never walked that dog before and is clearly hesitant with it." Another said, "I have walked my dog at least two miles a day for more than 10 years and have never once held or seen another person hold a leash like that. Are we sure he didn't rent the dog?"

Another wrote: "It looks like they've got the poor dog's harness all twisted around his right front paw + the leash is attached to the underside instead of the middle of the harness, up on the dog's back (between his shoulder blades). Or is this some different kind of harness I've never seen?"

Others seemed to (reluctantly) come to JD Vance's defense over how he was handling his dog. One wrote, "So I loathe JD but harnesses do have a front clip." Another wrote, "i dont like him, and it is a bit awkward, but i dont see anything deeply wrong about his dog walking techniques. it was also raining and he was simply taking his dog from a car into an airplane up a narrow set of stairs. so it is to be expected that he would walk the dog a bit differently, say, than if walking the dog around the block."

But some were completely in support of Vance. "I see nothing weird here, looks like he's trying to not slip up wet stairs while the dog goes ahead. Looks leash trained so no need for a death grip on the leash... What am I missing?" wrote on X user.

Vance himself posted in response to the viral moment on X, "Can't really tell in this video, but he was *not happy* about the wet metal stairs." Vance fans came out in the comments of his post, noting how much they liked seeing him with his dog, and they didn't seem to have anything wrong with how he handled Atlas. So, which side are you on — does Vance know how to harness and handle his dog or doesn't he?