The White House Rapid Response Team account's attempt to defend Vice President JD Vance following an onstage mishap backfired when social media users pointed out the person responsible for the blunder was Vance himself.
Vance traveled to Milwaukee on Wednesday to highlight the Trump administration's campaign against benefits fraud. Midway through his remarks, he unveiled a large poster that was supposed to show a photo of Markita Barnes, who was found guilty in March on 10 healthcare fraud charges. But because of the lighting inside the venue, the image was barely visible to the audience.
Unaware that the display had failed, Vance pressed ahead with his prepared remarks.
Pointing to the poster, he said the woman in the background had "done nothing wrong" before criticizing the woman in the foreground, describing her as wearing a Louis Vuitton bag and accusing her of stealing from expectant mothers:
“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."
The awkward moment quickly gained traction online after Acyn Torabi, the senior digital editor for MeidasTouch, shared a video of the exchange.
Here's what it should have looked like without the glare.
White House/YouTube
The White House's @RapidResponse47 account later reshared Torabi’s clip and provided a clear image of the photo of Barnes, suggesting Torabi had tampered with the video:
"Your dumb ass 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. She's spending the next decade in federal prison thanks to this Administration's relentless work to end the fraud."
You can see the post below.
The official account for MeidasTouch later followed up to point out the White House's own error—and to point out that it "essentially just called Vance a 'dumb ass'" given it was Vance who made the initial gaffe:
"“Um... Do they think @Acyn blurred their faces? It was Vance who obscured her by placing the board the way he did. The White House essentially just called Vance a ‘dumb ass."
You can see the post below.
The mockery was swift.
Vance has made more than his fair share of gaffes, so he probably shouldn't be trusted to act as a smooth talker for the administration.
A couple of months ago, in his announcement that the Trump administration will be withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid payments from California due to alleged fraud, Vance had people raising their eyebrows after claiming that Trump "takes fraud seriously."
Vance completely overlooked the fact that Trump has used his presidency to enrich himself at the expense of taxpayers at a dizzying rate, whether it's false promises about a "made in America" Trump phone, his $10 billion suit against the IRS, or his sons investing in companies that win no-bid contracts with the U.S. government.
He probably should have considered the fact that Trump was convicted in 2024 on 34 felony counts, including falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels to illegally influence the 2016 election—to say nothing of a long history of fraud and abuse that has landed him in court for decades.
@tgjn988/TikTok
@AutumnTweets / X
@AutumnTweets/X