The non-handshake heard round the world might have amounted to a politically-motivated snub. Or, the elderly man who refused the handshake might have had any number of non-political reasons for doing so.
Either way, those who make it their business to draw conclusions based on insufficient information have once again beclowned themselves.
Moreover, if blame for the awkward incident belongs anywhere, it belongs with Vice President Kamala Harris.
During the Senate swearing-in ceremony on Friday, Bruce Fischer, husband to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, appeared reluctant to look the vice president in the eye or to shake her hand. In the end, he did neither, at least not for more than a brief glance.
Predictably, the most annoying liberals on the social media platform X went apoplectic.
Harris, however, effectively caused the incident through her trademark obtuseness. Inexplicably, she tried to shake the hand of an elderly man with a cane in his right hand and a Bible in his left.
Of course, Harris’s boss, President Joe Biden, committed a similar gaffe in 2008 while running for vice president.
A closer look at the Fischer incident, however, reveals Harris’s gaffe as even worse than Biden’s.
“This is my husband, Bruce. Do you want to come here, Bruce?” the senator said at the beginning of a 56-second clip posted to X.
Meanwhile, Bruce walked very slowly behind his wife.
“And hold the Bible,” she added, trying to position her husband to her left and the vice president’s right.
The swearing-in took only a few seconds, at which point Harris congratulated the pair.
Then, rather than shake Harris’s outstretched hand, Bruce simply responded “thank you.”
He did not refuse to shake her hand. He is using a cane. https://t.co/TPqbG1YQtF
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) January 6, 2025
So why does Harris deserve blame for the incident?
Well, not only did she see Bruce’s cane, but she also witnessed the interaction between the Fischers.
According to the senator’s website, she and her husband married in 1972.
On a personal note, my parents, both in their 70s, married that same year. I see them every day, so I know how it looks and sounds when a wife cares for a husband with mobility issues. It looks and sounds like the Fischers.
Moreover, shrieking liberals also complained that Bruce refused to look Harris in the eyes. In the clip above, however, he did not look his wife in the eyes either. Instead, he looked directly at the ground.
Even shrieking liberals get old. When they do, perhaps they will learn how a person feels when the prospect of falling down could mean a life-threatening injury.
I do not say that Bruce looked down because he felt fear. After all, I do not know what Bruce felt or thought.
Fear of falling, however, and clinging to one’s cane, offers at least as plausible an explanation of the non-handshake as suggesting that the senator’s husband snubbed the vice president. Social anxiety or early dementia would sound equally plausible.
We need not speculate, of course, because we cannot know. And that ignorance of motives should produce humility, even in noisy liberals.
In sum, whatever Bruce Fischer’s intentions, the non-handshake occurred because Harris, once again, had no clue.
