Last week, J.D. Vance took a break from saying weird things about childless people to visit a doughnut shop in Valdosta, Georgia. Presumably, the Trump campaign wanted to show off how well the VP nominee connects with regular people. Instead, it got a viral video that has been compared unfavorably to an infamously cringeworthy episode of The Office.
So what happened? Vance addressed the incredibly awkward doughnut-shop visit in an interview with NBC News published Wednesday, explaining that his staffers are to blame:
“I just felt terrible for that woman,” Vance said Tuesday on the plane, referring to the bakery worker. “We walked in, and there’s 20 Secret Service agents, and there’s 15 cameras, and she clearly had not been properly warned, and she was terrified, right? I just felt awful for her.”
Vance said that [he] enjoys engaging in that kind of retail politicking and added that he has made it clear to his staff that such visits must be planned more carefully in the future.
“We don’t to have these scripted events — I don’t want to go and do three takes of buying Doritos at a Sheetz,” Vance said, referring to a recent Harris stop at a Pennsylvania gas station. “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.”
On the one hand, sure, Vance’s team is partly at fault. They brought him to an empty shop where he could not mingle with fellow patrons, apparently didn’t tell the staff they were coming, and didn’t coach their candidate on what to order.
On the other hand, it’s not staffers’ fault that every line that came out of Vance’s mouth was bizarre and uncomfortable. He started off with a confusing quip, saying “the zoo has come to town” (he probably meant “circus”). Then he made small talk with the employees by asking how long they’ve worked at the shop and replying, “Okay, good,” with no follow-up. And Vance behaved like he’d never ordered a doughnut in his life, requesting “some sprinkle stuff, some of these cinnamon rolls. Just whatever makes sense.”
Vance did manage to express empathy for another human with his comments to NBC about the bakery worker. Now someone just needs to explain to him that people typically don’t like it when leaders blame their mistakes on underlings. And it’s a particularly dumb move when those staffers are all that stand between you and another embarrassing viral video.
