The zoo has come to town.
While Democrats selected Kamala Harris as their nominee at their convention in Chicago, the Ohio senator traveled across the country to meet with voters.
In Valdosta, Georgia, Vance stopped by Holt’s Sweet Shop to take some photos. On American campaign trails, candidates like to show up at a pizza place or burger joint to show their closeness to the people.
Vance was clearly down on his luck. The lady behind the counter didn’t even think about joining the conversation and contributing to the Republican campaign in any way.
The awkward situation in the store was filmed by someone who happened to be in the store at the time. The recording quickly found its way online and became very popular on the X platform, where it has already received more than 10 million views.
J.D. Vance walks up to the counter and says to the saleswoman, “The zoo is coming to town.” The woman’s answer is very curt. “Yes, sir,” she says, before adding that she doesn’t want to be photographed.
The Republican responds eagerly, “The lady doesn’t want to be photographed, so stop it.”
When no one answers, he introduces himself: “I’m J.D. Vance. I’m running for vice president.”
“Okay,” the saleswoman replies casually, clearly not interested in the conversation.
“I couldn’t watch it, it was too embarrassing.”
Vance tried to salvage the situation with small talk. He asked how long the donut shop had been in business and how long the employees had been working there. But the conversation didn’t want to continue. Donald Trump’s presidential candidate asked the same questions over and over again: How long have you worked here, and how long has this shop been open?
The conversation seemed extremely unnatural, awkward and disturbing. This did not go unnoticed by netizens who were quick to voice their opinions on social media.
There was a barrage of sarcastic comments under the recording posted on the X platform. Vance and his team were showered with hatred, sarcasm and crude jokes.
Here are some examples of user posts that went viral:
- “I couldn’t watch it, it was so embarrassing,” wrote a user named “ID. Venture.”
- “Has JD Vance ever bought a donut? He has no idea how to talk to people,” user Polly sighed.
- “How did this man become a senator?” asked Ann McCarthy.
- “You can’t embarrass yourself like that in two minutes,” wrote a user named Symfony.
- “These idiots went to the wrong cake shop to take a stupid photo,” wrote a user named @WUTangKids.
- “The man with the fork in the soup world,” said an anonymous user.
Vance’s mistake may anger Trump for one important reason. Georgia is one of the seven states in the US that will decide the White House race. In 2016, he narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton there, and in 2020, he lost by a narrow margin to US President Joe Biden.
It is now increasingly clear that Kamala Harris made the right choice when she selected Tim Walz as her running mate. On the other hand, Vance is not very popular among Americans.Only 27 percent of American voters have a good opinion of him. 44 percent said the same of Walz. U.S. residents surveyed.
Harris gains the upper hand.
