Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance is being roasted online for an interaction with workers at a donut shop in Georgia, the latest in a string of food-related gaffes.
In a Thursday clip recorded by C-SPAN, Vance visits Holt’s Sweet Shop and thanks the woman behind the counter for letting them visit. Soon after she tells him: “I don’t want to be on film.”
Vance then turns to his entourage, saying: “She doesn’t wanna be on film, guys, so just cut her out of anything.”
After looking at the donut display case, he says: “I’m JD Vance, I’m running for vice president, good to see you.”
“OK,” is her only response.
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More:Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp endorses Donald Trump, reversing feud amid Dems’ rising odds
Internet calls interaction awkward, tries to help
Vance proceeds to ask those working in the shop how long they’ve worked there and how long the shop has been around.
When selecting donuts he suggested a few flavors, and said, “whatever makes sense.” The clip was widely shared on X, with users calling it “awkward” and “cringe.”
A few users, including comedian W. Kamau Bell, suggested Vance’s team should have orchestrated a better visit.
“Fire your whole team. They clearly hate you. This is TV production 101, and they failed it,” he wrote in a post on X.
Barely more than a month into his campaign for vice president, Vance has also gone viral for comments about Diet Mountain Dew and Swiss cheese on a cheesesteak sub restaurant in Philadelphia. USA TODAY reached out to the Vance campaign for comment, and Holt’s Sweet Shop declined to comment.
Donut shop misstep occurs in key battleground state
Georgia is a key battleground state, and in her short presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris has campaigned there, too.
After winning Georgia in 2016 by more than 5 percentage points, Donald Trump lost the state in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes, a margin of 0.2%.
Harris’ national average polls have been rising since she stepped up to take the top spot on the Democrats’ ticket from President Joe Biden.
As of Friday, FiveThirtyEight’s national polling average shows Harris trails Trump in Georgia by 0.6%, a smaller margin than July 30, when she was behind by 1.4%.
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