Andy Beshear Apologizes To Diet Mountain Dew After Knocking JD Vance For Drinking It
Kentucky Democratic Governor Andy Beshear said on Thursday that he went too far in his criticism of Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) for drinking Diet Mountain Dew.
During an interview with CNN earlier this week, the governor quipped about comments made by Vance, Republican nominee Donald Trump’s newly tapped running mate, at a rally in Ohio. Vance, speaking to supporters, blasted Democrats for labeling voter identification policies “racist.”
“I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday, and one today, I’m sure they’re gonna call that racist too but — it’s good,” Vance said.
Beshear, who has been floated as a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, told CNN that Vance’s comments were “weird,” adding, “Who drinks Diet Mountain Dew?”
At a press conference on Thursday, the Democrat apologized for his remarks about the beverage, The Hill reported.
“Folks, I’ve been a person that when sometimes I’ve gone over the line, I’ve wanted to make sure that I set the record straight, so, I do owe an apology to Diet Mountain Dew,” he said.
“So if you enjoy Diet Mountain Dew, you be you, we wanna support you,” Beshear added. “And, to Diet Mountain Dew, very sorry, didn’t mean to say negative things about you.”
A Vance spokesman told The Hill that Beshear “is an out of touch elitist who grew up with a silver spoon.”
“His wealthy lawyer/politician daddy, secured him his first job out of law school at the law firm he was partners at, and then went on to basically gift his son his political career,” spokesman Taylor Van Kirk said. “Beshear will never relate to working-people in the heartland because he had everything handed to him and never had to struggle.”
In another interview earlier this week, this one with MSNBC, Beshear also slammed Vance over the senator’s depiction of Appalachia in his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“And I want the American people to know what a Kentuckian is and what they look like. Because let me just tell you that JD Vance ain’t from here,” Beshear said. “The nerve that he has to call the people of Kentucky, of eastern Kentucky, lazy. Listen, these are the hard-working coal miners that powered the industrial revolution, that created the strongest middle class the world has ever seen.”
In his book, Vance describes growing up in a poor family that moved from Kentucky’s Appalachian region to western Ohio in search of a better life.
