A toothless campaign jab proved that the vice president is determined to stoke division after Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance’s “grace and class” diverted talk of a business boycott.
Where civility could have won the day, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign decided to heat things up in the battleground state of Pennsylvania Sunday when word spread that her GOP rival’s running mate had been snubbed by a Primanti Bros. location.
Despite the restaurant chain’s statement about the “momentary confusion” that recognized “Senator Vance’s supportive comments that our manager got a little nervous given the Secret Service, police and crowd,” Harris’s team posted a video from her August stop at one of their other restaurants over a report about the lawmaker’s denied entry with the message, “Nothing beats a stop at Primanti Bros.”
Nothing beats a stop at Primanti Bros https://t.co/OvpcYLIO69 pic.twitter.com/lfYzVzgF6Y
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) September 29, 2024
Writing for Fox News, columnist David Marcus addressed the stakes of what the vice president was doing and said, “…what Harris has wrought here isn’t just the disingenuous papering of the house at a political event. She is doing real harm to Primanti Bros.’ effort to walk this situation back and make clear that everyone, of every political stripe, is welcome here.”
“That was the point Vance was trying to make when he spoke after being denied entry, saying of the manager, ‘Don’t hold it against her, she just got a little nervous, but it’s a good local business,'” reminded Marcus as the senator made the most of greeting supporters outside the restaurant.
“It didn’t matter to Harris that the matter had been settled, that calls to boycott the restaurant were dying down, or that people were ready to move on to more serious matters,” continued the columnist. “No, the vice president of the United States had to spike the football on X over her astroturf event at the greasy spoon, even if it meant hurting the business. You see, Harris winning is more important than any individual small business.”
In his rebuke of the Democratic Party’s nominee that included Pennsylvanians expressing their beliefs that, “I think she’ll say anything to get elected,” Marcus noted but set aside how much ridicule surrounded Harris after reports said she’d bused in supporters for her own visit to Primanti Bros.
“Customers at Primanti Bros restaurant in PA were kicked out to make way for paid actors during a Kamala Harris photo op,” said the X account I Meme Therefore I am. “There is no organic support, everything is staged and paid for by the Harris-Walz campaign.”
As social media users went on to assert the powerful impact that conservative boycotts were having on companies embracing the left, the chronically online campaign seemed unconcerned and the columnist contended, “The brutal fact is that the only moral compass Harris and her campaign have is set squarely on a north star of victory, not helping actual people, even if they think they might get around to that part eventually.”
“In the meantime, much like the bused-in participants at her event at Primanti Bros., we are all just extras in Kamala’s Excellent Adventure,” concluded Marcus.
This will not end well for Primanti Bros. It isn’t the flex they think it is.
— Paratrooper Brady (@82ndairborneBT) September 29, 2024
This is a great look. Keep showing America who you really are.
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) September 30, 2024
Who is running your campaign? This is post is not a good look in light of yesterday. You are misreading the room…
— MisterBobDobolina (@dobolina_mister) September 29, 2024
@primantibros is about to lose a fvck ton of business and money
Good job, idiots
— Sara Rose (@saras76) September 29, 2024
So the whole unity thing is a lie? That sounds right.
— Penny (@pennyelizabeths) September 29, 2024
Nothing says unity and joy like kicking out actual customers and bussing your folks in.
— Jesse Sweeney (@JesseASweeney) September 29, 2024
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