Tim Walz Hopes J.D. Vance Will "Get off the Couch" to Debate Him — What Does He Mean?

While appearing onstage with Kamala Harris during their first rally as official running mates, Minnesota governor Tim Walz certainly had a lot to say about Republican VP pick J.D. Vance. Now that the two are in opposing positions, Walz has wasted no time in positioning himself against the senator, comparing their experiences as men from "small-town America" and expressing his desire to debate.

However, while doing so, Walz made a comment that had the crowd going wild — though some viewers may have been confused. What did he mean when he said he hoped J.D. Vance would "get off the couch" to debate him?

During the portion of his speech about Vance, Walz said, "I got to tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy ... if he's willing to get off the couch and show up." To this, the crowd went wild, but some weren't sure exactly what he meant. Has Vance expressed hesitation to debate Walz in the past? Is he lazy? Why wouldn't he get off the couch?

Well, it turns out that his joke was in reference to a meme surrounding J.D. Vance, which alleges that the senator had an intimate relationship with his couch cushions. It stems from a tweet that claimed Vance wrote a passage in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, detailing the experience — which, of course, never happened. At least as far as we know.

And don't even get us started with the double entendre of "get off" — we don't think it was Walz's intention, but the joke's X-rated extra layer certainly hasn't been lost on social media users.

"Tim Walz really went up there, bragged about taking a high school football team from a winless record to state champs, said he's ready to debate J.D. Vance, and basically called him a couch f--ker. He's locked in," one X user said.

Since Harris made her running mate announcement, J.D. Vance has had a few things to say about Tim Walz, as well. After a rally that took place just hours before Harris and Walz's first public appearance, Vance took reporter questions — and, of course, quite a few of them were about the Minnesota governor.

When asked about Walz's political record, Vance called it a "joke," saying that he is "one of the most far-left radicals in the entire United States government at any level."

Vance has also fired shots at Walz's military record, with some right-leaning constituents saying that he dodged deployment to Iraq: "You know what really bothers me about Tim Walz? When the US Marine Corps asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it," Vance said. "When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, he dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him. I think that's shameful."

And in a CNN interview clip that has been widely circulating online, Vance criticized the governor's handling of the BLM riots in Minnesota. "[Walz and Harris] make an interesting tag team because of course Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and the few that got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail."

So far it seems that Vance isn't holding back, and while Walz's full retaliation has yet to be seen, his couch joke suggests that he'll have plenty more to say about the Republican.