A video that captured an encounter between a donut shop worker in Valdosta, Georgia, and vice presidential candidate JD Vance went viral this week, and now the running mate of GOP nominee Donald Trump says he feels “awful” for the clerk.
While on a campaign stop last week, Vance was trying to make small talk with a woman who was working at the donut shop. It didn’t look as if she wanted to be on camera with Vance, though, which led many people online to surmise that she didn’t like him and/or support him.
Vance introduced himself to the woman by saying:
“I’m JD Vance. I’m running for vice president. Good to see you.”
She only responded by saying: “OK.”
At the end of placing his donut order, he just asked for “whatever makes sense.”
It was an awkward encounter, to say the least, and it was all caught on tape — on purpose.
Speaking with NBC News this week, Vance discussed the situation more, saying:
“I just felt terrible for that woman. We walked in, and there’s 20 Secret Service agents, and there’s 15 cameras, and she clearly had not been properly wanted, and she was terrified, right? I just felt awful for her.”
After this incident occurred, Vance said that he told his campaign staff that they needed to adjust their strategy a bit to not catch people in public off guard. As he explained:
“I like to get out there and talk to people, and we want to make sure we’re doing it, but definitely make sure that people are at least OK with being on camera, or we’re going to walk in and you’re going to have a person who has, practically, a panic attack because she’s got 15 cameras in her face.”
While a portion of Vance’s interview with NBC News discussed the encounter with the donut shop employee, he of course made sure to attack his opponents in the upcoming election. He took a dig at Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz when he said:
“We don’t want to have these scripted events. I don’t want to go and do three takes of buying Doritos at a Sheetz.”
What Vance was referring to was a recent campaign stop the pair made in Pennsylvania when they stopped at a Sheetz gas station. Video shows Walz handing Harris a Doritos bag.
Many people believe that the stunt was a purposeful jab at Fox News when, back in 2016, the conservative network reacted negatively to Harris being seen eating Doritos.
Candidates do these types of interactions with people in the public all the time. Vance just got extra flack from the social media world for his interaction with the donut shop employee this week because of how awkward it appeared.
Liberals attacked him, suggesting that it shows just how out of touch with “ordinary people” that Vance is, even as he says that he comes from ahumble background.
