“Enjoy the long weekend,” Harris tweeted on Saturday. The four words and accompanying smiling photo were enough to propel the vice president to the trending charts on social media, as critics blasted her for not acknowledging the true meaning of the holiday.
“Is this intended to insult the memory of the fallen? Because that’s how it reads,” National Review’s Kyle Smith, a veteran, tweeted in response.
“I know you think the ‘long weekend’ is a chance to post a pic of yourself and get some mimosas as you plan to rip our country apart but it’s actually a time to appreciate the brave soldiers who died for our country & to reflect on the LIFETIME their families spend without them,” conservative pundit Robby Starbuck added.
Others similarly targeted the “disrespectful” tweet.
Harris’ tweet did find its defenders, however, who pointed to the outrage as overblown and politically motivated.
Though Harris did not directly address her tweet or the ensuing heated reactions, she did appear to attempt to course-correct on Sunday when she put out a new message, honoring fallen veterans.
“Throughout our history our service men and women have risked everything to defend our freedoms and our country. As we prepare to honor them on Memorial Day, we remember their service and their sacrifice,” she tweeted, adding no smiling picture this time.
Harris’ Memorial Day tweet is just the latest public flub she’s made in relation to the military. During a recent commencement speech for graduates at the US Naval Academy, Harris addressed the pandemic and found little positive response when she joked about naval engineers turning to green energy and called climate change a “threat to national security.”
“Just ask any marine today, would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or a rolled-up solar panel, and I am positive she will tell you a solar panel, and so would he,” she said, laughing and earning a few groans from the audience.
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