Far-right pundit Ben Shapiro was mocked online after calling Vice President Kamala Harris "racist" for teasing her running mate, Tim Walz, over him not seasoning his food.
During a wide-ranging conversation with Harris about their childhoods, careers, and their vision for the country in the event they win the 2024 election, Walz revealed he doesn't season his "white guy tacos."
During a talk about tacos, Walz said he has "white guy tacos," to which Harris responded:
"What does that mean? Like, mayonnaise and tuna? What are you doing?"
When Walz replied that his tacos are "pretty much ground beef and cheese," an amused Harris asked him if he "put[s] any flavor in it." When Walz replied with a "no," Harris turned away and said, "Ohhh," laughing at the revelation.
You can see their exchange in the video below.
Walz later joked about the exchange in a post on X, formerly Twitter, describing himself as "just not much of a spice guy."
But this angered Shapiro, who called Harris' reaction to Walz's admission "racist":
"See, folks, it's funny that white people hate spices! Not racist at all! Just funny!"
"(FACT CHECK: Europeans liked spices so much that they literally got involved in several hundred years of war in order to determine control of the spice trade.)"
You can see his post below.
The mockery was swift.
Shapiro has criticized Harris and Walz more than once in the last few weeks, only to face pushback as a result.
Last month, shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris to be his successor, Shapiro claimed the enthusiasm around Harris' campaign for the White House is "manufactured" before claiming the same about pop star Taylor Swift.
Shapiro said this enthusiasm is "the sort of intersectional magic of Kamala Harris and the fact that Democrats have to manufacture enthusiasm for—I've never seen as much manufactured enthusiasm for anyone outside of maybe Taylor Swift's last album."
Critics pointed out that Swift is currently in the midst of the European leg of her "Eras" tour, which added $4.3 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023. She has also been promoting her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, which has continued to dominate the charts.
Shapiro later took aim at Walz by
referring to him as a "Marxist Don Rickles," a remark that sounded like a compliment because Rickles, who died in 2017 at the age of 90, was highly regarded for his insult comedy, his many talk show appearances, and the mark he made on both television and film, notably as the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise.
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