Are good manners now a partisan issue? Guess it depends on who’s doing the snubbing and who’s being snubbed.
Bruce Fischer, the husband of Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer, played to his tribe today with a grade school slight, ignoring Vice President Kamala Harris‘ outstretched hand during Monday’s Congressional swearing-in ceremony.
Treating Harris as if she was the plague, Bruce Fischer is shown on video resisting even proximity to the veep, clinging to his wife as the vice president reassures him, “It’s OK, I won’t bite. I’m not going to bite. Don’t worry.”
After finally assuming the traditional position for a spouse in a swearing-in ceremony between the vice-president and his wife, Bible in hand, Bruce Fischer is seen watching glumly as his wife completes her pledge to serve Nebraska in the 119th Congress. Harris, presiding over the ceremony, as the Constitution requires, shakes the third-term senator’s hand without incident, saying, “Congratulations. Thank you for your work.”
She then turns to Bruce Fischer, who resists eye contact. “May I give congratulations to you?” Harris says, holding out her hand. He briefly looks up and responds with a curt “Thank you,” refusing the handshake and directing his eyes back to the Bible.
Harris, taken aback, maintains her smile, perhaps remembering that she has only a few weeks left in the pettiness zoo that is Washington, D.C.
For his classless response, Bruce Fischer was treated as you’d expect on social media: Archvillain to the left, hero to the right.
“@SenatorFischer’s husband, Bruce, today refused to make eye contact with, or shake the hand of the Vice President of the United States,” wrote @NickESmithNYC on X. “Regardless of her @VP title, this display is racist, misogynistic, and anti-Black. It just is. Stop this foolishness. She deserves our respect.”
“What an absolutely pathetic display of fragility and hate,” echoed @allenanalysis. “The bare minimum—shaking someone’s hand—is apparently too much for these people. This is cave-dweller behavior, plain and simple. No class, no decency, just pure spite.”
Added @QondiNtini, “We will stop talking about race when people stop doing things like this Deal?”
Filmmaker Princella D. Smith, who shared the video on X, may have said it best, observing, “Bruce Fischer is exactly what is wrong with American culture right now. We have put civility on the shelf.”
Seems reasonable. After all, good manners are the glue that holds a society together, right?
MAGA’s response? A rhetorical middle finger.
“No one is more deserving of the cold shoulder,” posted @stoneformom, joining many on the increasingly right-leaning social media platform who cheered on Bruce Fischer’s childish stunt.
One wonders what their reaction would be if Bruce Fischer snubbed Russian President Vladamir Putin.
“Looks like even Nebraska’s finest know a handshake with Kamala is like shaking hands with a political blender—full of mixed signals and awkwardness,” wrote another. “Respect to Mr. Fischer for avoiding that train wreck!”
Of course, it got much worse.
“Kamala Harris was burnt here by Bruce Fischer. Commies do not deserve handshakes, EVER. No respect for her,” posted @TheEagleEyeNews.
Bruce Fischer, according to Newsweek, met his future senator wife at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Married since 1972, the couple owns and operates a ranching business in Nebraska’s Sandhills and have three sons and three grandchildren, each of whom received a terrible lesson from their grandfather on Monday.
As Nebraska native Fred Astaire once noted, “The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any.”
