‘She can see he’s a putz’: Another deeply cringe JD Vance moment has resurfaced to Ohio’s eternal embarrassment

The 2024 presidential campaign has seen several high-profile gaffes and awkward encounters with GOP Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance. Exhibit A: the Ohio senator’s ham-fisted conversation with some doughnut shop employees in Atlanta, captured by C-SPAN cameras. In Sept. 2024, another Vance video emerged proving the politician’s interpersonal skills have always been lacking.

The video from Ohio news outlet 13 Action News, posted on Reddit and shared on social media, shows Vance with Ohio Representative Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat, at the Toledo Assembly Complex picket line in Oct. 2023, where United Auto Workers (UAW) union members were on strike. About a year later, Vance called the Trump-Vance ticket the “most pro-worker in GOP history.” The UAW still endorsed Harris-Walz.

Vance doesn’t recognize a fist-bump when he sees one

In the footage, JD seems immediately out of place chatting at the picket line with Representative Kaptur, who explains why organized labor remains unconvinced about the Trump-Vance ticket’s claim to be the best choice for workers. Kaptur then gamely extends her fist for a bump, but Vance grabs her hand for a handshake, before chuckling to himself uncomfortably. Kaptur then turns away and says, “Good to see you,” but the look on her face says something more like “he’s a putz,” as one X comment on the 13 Action News post pointed out. Another comment added, sarcastically, “I’m shocked that an Ivy-League Hollywood multimillionaire venture capitalist like JD fails to connect with regular Ohioans.”

Kaptur asked Vance, “First time here?”

In the video footage, even Kaptur seems unconvinced by Vance’s attempt to support striking workers. After the failed fist-bump, Kaptur asks, “First time here?” and Vance says yes, that’s the case. With the question, Kaptur seemed to understand Vance’s appearance was mostly for a photo opportunity, not out of any real concern for the striking worker’s contract demands. At the end of the video clip, Kaptur turns away from Vance and turns toward the press, announcing, “Alright, what can we do for you,” like the seasoned union supporter she’s known to be.

This footage, along with the doughnut incident, and comments like calling leading female Democrats “childless cat ladies,” and so on, were summed nicely by the X comment below.

Or as another prescient X user put it, “Stark difference between Democrats and Republicans demonstrated in this short clip. Vance admits it is his first time on the picket line. And he is standing there like he doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t care about workers. Rep Marcy Kaptur is great. Knows the workers,” their comment said.