Insults, Expletives and Fat-Shaming: Vance Trolls Critics on the Right and Left

It was hardly the first time that someone on social media called someone else fat. But it may have been the first time that a vice president of the United States did so.

Peeved at a conservative columnist who criticized his position on Iran, Vice President JD Vance jabbed on Wednesday at his physical appearance. “If you’ve ever met him in person,” he wrote on social media, “it’s quite obvious the man has never missed a burrito.”

...

“Vice President Vance’s willingness publicly to disparage others in personal terms stands apart from the behavior of modern vice presidents during the last half-century,” said Joel K. Goldstein, a scholar of the vice presidency at the St. Louis University School of Law. Whatever his motivation, Mr. Goldstein added, “it departs from the norms associated with the office and undermines the goal of promoting rational public discourse.”