JD Vance’s latest appearance took an unforeseen turn as a coarse remark grabbed the spotlight.
The vice president uttered a crude remark on stage that immediately captured the crowd’s attention. He then attempted to tidy up his wording once he realized how it landed. Instead,
Vance’s response only worsened matters, inviting comparisons to his boss, Donald Trump, for a faltering bid at humor.
Footage from Vance’s Monday trip to North Carolina shows him working to help Republicans hold a crucial Senate seat.
By lunch, almost no one was discussing the seat. Instead, attention focused on a repulsive remark he had made in a crowded room, and on how he ended up repeating it.
“All You’re Missing Is the Sheets and the Hoods’: JD Vance Struts Like a Trump Mini-Me on Stage, Then Proves Everyone’s Worst Suspicions Right
Vance headlined a campaign rally at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro. The event centered on Michael Whatley, the former RNC chair running for the seat Sen. Thom Tillis is vacating.
Whatley faces former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in a closely watched race, and Vance’s visit came just days after Trump himself rallied for Whatley in Gastonia.
Two visits from the top of the ticket in less than a week underscored how anxious the White House is about keeping North Carolina red.
So Vance stood before a “Defend Our Future” sign, a wall of red hats crowding his back, and ran through the usual script about what Republicans are up against. He argued that the state needed a senator who would take the fight to Democrats.
Then he reached for a punchline no one in the venue anticipated.
“Because we need somebody who will fight back against the fart left,” Vance told the crowd.
He could have let it pass. Instead, he paused to walk everyone through it in case they hadn’t caught it the first time.
“Now, you may not have even heard that, but I actually, I usually don’t mispeak. But I just called them the fart left, not the far left,” VP said. “I promise that was an accident so the fake news will accuse me of bad language.”
In other words, the second-in-command in the country paused a Senate rally to ensure that no one missed the fart joke.
Vance insisted he doesn’t usually misspeak as he rolled out the line.
The clip spread quickly on social media, and the response was far from enthusiastic.
Several people pointed out that Vance had to explain his own joke, asking questions like, “OMG … seriously?” and “is he in first grade?”
“Yeah… jokes that need explanations aren’t funny,” a Threads user responded. Another noted, “Nobody noticed his pathetic joke so he had to repeat it by pretending it was a mistake.”
Vance may have been the one on stage, but the replies had their own surprise guest. Commenters quickly dragged Trump into the conversation, sharing photos of the president while criticizing Vance’s performance.
One commenter wrote, “He wants so badly to have any charisma or oratorical ability. Truly a sad pathetic little man.”
Two others joked, “Five-year-old potty humor, that’s true leadership,” noting that his delivery “reeks of desperation.”
This isn’t the first time Vance’s mouth has outpaced his message. In July, he apologized for cursing in front of children at a Milwaukee event, then blamed the slip on his grandmother.
Not to mention, in March he told a room of union members that the person running the spotlights must be a Democrat because he couldn’t see the crowd, a line that landed about as well as Monday’s.
And just days ago at the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas, critics argued he strode across the stage like a Trump mini-me while presenting himself as the president’s natural successor.
That’s the sting for Republicans. Vance is supposed to be the more polished, more disciplined version of Trump, the one who could carry the movement after the president departs. Instead, he keeps adopting the worst habits of his boss without any of the crowd-work.
For Whatley, the timing could hardly be worse. The November 3 election is barely six weeks away, and the biggest headline from his marquee rally has nothing to do with him, the economy, or anything he plans to do in Washington.
It centers on a joke the vice president thought was funny enough to repeat.
It has been a rough stretch on the stump for Trump’s would-be heir, who was left scrambling for a comeback after a heckler blindsided him in Kansas just last week. This time, though, nobody interrupted him. He did this one to himself.
