Megyn Kelly seemed to channel her Gretchen Wieners on Wednesday ― except instead of trying to make “fetch” happen, she tried to turn “Tampon Tim” into a trending term.
The appellation for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) is meant to be an insulting reference to his decision last year to sign a bill requiring schools in the state to provide free menstrual products in all public school bathrooms.
The bill allows for the feminine hygiene products to be placed in boys’ bathrooms as well as girls’ ― something that conservatives are hoping they can weaponize against Walz, whom Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen as her running mate in the 2024 election.
On X, formerly Twitter, Kelly approvingly responded to a post that described “Tampon Tim” as “Kamala’s dead weight.”
“Tampon Tim is the name,” Kelly wrote to her 3-million-something followers. “That’s it.”
The original tweet also declared that “Biden was Obama’s dead weight” and “Kamala is Biden’s dead weight,” referring to Democratic presidential tickets that voters elected to the White House in 2008, 2012 and 2020.
If Kelly expected people to fall in line behind her and promote “Tampon Tim” as a mocking nickname for Walz, she was sorely mistaken.
Instead, many folks, including Dr. Jennifer Gunter, an OB-GYN in Canada, pointed out that the bill Walz signed is actually, well, good for people.
“Imagine being upset that someone didn’t want kids leaking menstrual blood onto their clothes,” Gunter wrote in response to Kelly’s tweet. “You are pro period poverty, which seems to me to be very anti Christian. Would Jesus have said, ‘Let them leak blood onto their clothes because they deserve it?’”
Others also piled on Kelly, and declared that “Tampon Tim” honestly sounds like more of a term of admiration than derision.