Kimberly Guilfoyle Was Once The Target Of 'Weird' Insults Launched By Trump's Campaign

"Weird" has become the unofficial war cry for the Harris-Walz campaign. First popularized by Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz while describing the fringe personalities and beliefs that have seized the Republican Party under Donald Trump, the label has proven effective at getting under Republicans' skin. But calling Trump's GOP "weird" hasn't always been a partisan pastime. There was a time when even Trump's own people were willing to call out weirdness in their ranks. Members of Trump's campaign staff once took aim at Kimberly Guilfoyle, finance chair of the Trump Victory Committee and Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée, following her bizarre performance at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

In a night of relatively unremarkable speeches, Guilfoyle stood out for delivering what can only be described as an aggressive, stilted tirade that frequently slipped into outright yelling, most notably at the end of the speech, when the former first lady of San Francisco infamously screamed, "The best is yet to come!" Trump campaign insiders were quick to distance themselves from the spectacle, with two advisors speaking candidly with CNN's Jim Acosta to express their concerns (via SFGate). One of the advisors compared Guilfoyle's speech to the notorious 'Dean Scream' that ended Howard Dean's presidential aspirations in 2004, while another described it as "strange in its delivery" and acknowledged that "Kimberly shouting is weird."

This willingness to question the weirdness within Trump's team reflects a degree of self-awareness the GOP has seemingly abandoned for the 2024 campaign.

When Tim Walz first levelled the "weird" criticism against his Republican counterparts, many in the GOP, including Walz's vice presidential competitor, J.D. Vance, attempted to frame the label as name-calling unbecoming of political discourse, according to CNN. Despite the obvious irony of this line of defense given Donald Trump's penchant for ad hominem attacks, the counteroffensive has apparently worked to some degree. In response, Walz seemingly tempered his usage of the term, most notably at the Vice Presidential Debate. Pundits noted how cordial the candidates were at their face-off, during which Walz didn't once accuse Vance of being "weird," according to Rolling Stone.

In an interview with "60 Minutes," Walz specified exactly what he had been criticizing when he originally applied the label, telling correspondent Bill Whitaker, "I was really talking about the behaviors: being obsessed with people's personal lives in their bedrooms and their reproductive rights, making up stories about legal folks, legally here eating cats and dogs, they're dehumanizing. They go beyond weird because I said this: it becomes almost dangerous."

With this added context, it would seem Walz didn't so much walk back his accusations of weirdness, as he has zeroed in on the precise reasons that label carried so much weight in the first place.