The White House accidentally insulted JD Vance’s intelligence over a mistake the vice president made during a speech.
The vice president appeared in Milwaukee on Wednesday to deliver a speech promoting the Trump administration’s crackdown on benefit fraud.
During the speech, Vance unveiled a large placard featuring Markita Barnes, a Milwaukee woman who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March after being convicted of federal healthcare fraud.
“Now, I want to be clear that the woman in the back did nothing wrong. But look at this woman in the front with the smug look and the Louis Vuitton bag. A woman who quite literally stole from young mothers who needed prenatal care,” Vance said.
However, as noted by Acyn Torabi, who frequently posts clips of political figures on X in his role as senior digital editor for MeidasTouch, the lighting at the venue where Vance was delivering his speech completely obscured the photo of Barnes and the second woman standing behind her.
Embarrassingly for Vance, the cameras recording the speech were unable to make out the photo just as he declared, “look at this woman.”
Torabi posted the awkward six-second clip to his 761,000 followers on X.
In response, the White House Rapid Response 47 account, which was launched to combat so-called “fake news” about the Trump administration, seemingly thought it was Torabi who had obscured the photo of Barnes, rather than Vance.
“Your dumb a-- is shielding a criminal who stole $2.4 million in taxpayer-funded benefits meant to help at-risk pregnant women and women with young kids,” the White House Rapid Response 47 account posted. “She’s spending the next decade in federal prison thanks to this Administration’s relentless work to end the fraud.”
The error from the White House was quickly seized upon by MeidasTouch’s own X account.
“Um... Do they think @Acyn blurred their faces? It was Vance who obscured her by placing the board the way he did,” it posted. “The White House essentially just called Vance a ‘dumb a--.’”
Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, added: “The White House called Acyn a ‘dumb a--’ for posting an unedited video of Vance and quoting him. Quality day all around for the WH comms shop.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
