Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro hit out at Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance over a “weird” insult that accused him of imitating former President Barack Obama.
Shapiro, a popular governor in a swing state, is a leading candidate to become the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. She is expected to announce her pick at some point before Tuesday, when the Democratic ticket will hold a rally in Philadelphia.
Vance, the Ohio senator whom former President Donald Trump announced as his running mate amid last month’s Republican National Convention, accused Shapiro of doing a “bad impression” of Obama when asked about the potential Democratic rival during an interview on the Full Send podcast.
Hannah Beier
“There’s a lot of talk it’s gonna be this guy Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania,” Vance said. “I’ve seen a couple clips of him talking. He talks like Barack Obama. It’s like if I tried to do a really bad impression of Barack Obama, that’s what it would sound like.”
Shapiro responded to the remarks during a press conference on Friday, saying that Vance made “kind of a weird insult” because Obama is a historically “gifted orator.”
“I don’t know, Barack Obama was probably our most gifted orator of my time,” Shapiro said. “It’s kind of a weird insult, I guess. Look, I’ll say this about JD Vance: It is real hard being honest with the American people when you’re not being honest with yourself.
“JD Vance is a total phony baloney,” he added. “He is the most inorganic candidate I think I have ever seen on the national stage….This guy is really not off to a good start.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.