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Sen. JD Vance of Ohio filled in the details of his awkward stop at a Georgia bakery last week that went viral, expressing sympathy for the camera-shy worker he encountered.
"I just felt terrible for that woman," Vance told NBC News in an interview published on Wednesday. "We walked in, and there's 20 Secret Service agents, and there's 15 cameras, and she clearly had not been properly warned, and she was terrified, right? I just felt awful for her."
Vance stopped at Holt's Sweet Shop in Valdosta, Georgia part of a series of stops in South Georgia that he made during a campaign swing last week. Presidential hopefuls and their running mates often try to coordinate unannounced stops at local stores and restaurants during campaign swings. As Vance learned, things don't always go smoothly when candidates venture beyond campaign rallies.
In footage of the visit, Vance tried to introduce himself to workers as he ordered an assortment of donuts and cinnamon rolls.
"The zoo has come to town, thank you for letting us come in here," Vance told the worker, laughing as a pool of reporters watches his every move.
The worker, glancing around nervously, quickly adds, "I don't want to be on camera." Vance then urges the assembled press to try to avoid featuring her.
"I'm JD Vance, and I'm running for vice president. It's good to see you," Vance said. The worker, clearly not thrilled by all the onlookers, responded, "OK."
Social media users on X delighted in trolling Vance over the visit. C-SPAN's short clip of his stop has been viewed over 4.2 million times on the Elon Musk-owned platform.
The Republican vice presidential nominee said he enjoys going out and meeting Americans.
"We don't to have these scripted events — I don't want to go and do three takes of buying Doritos at a Sheetz," Vance told NBC, poking at Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz's recent stop at the famous Pennsylvania gas station chain. "I like to get out there and talk to people, and we want to make sure we're doing it, but definitely make sure that people are at least OK with being on camera, or we're going to walk in and you're going to have a person who has, practically, a panic attack because she's got 15 cameras in her face."
Both Walz and second gentleman Doug Emhoff handed Harris bags of Doritos during her visit, one of her favorite snack foods. Harris went viral in her own right after her campaign sent out a fundraising appeal saying she coped over Donald Trump's shocking 2016 win by eating "a family-sized bag of nacho Doritos."
"I did not share one chip with anybody. Not even Doug," Harris wrote in the email. "I just watched the TV with utter shock and dismay."
Before the press left the Georgia shop, Vance chatted up some other employees, asking them how long they had been at the bakery and when the business opened.
"When we selected this place, I didn't know if it had been here for 20 years or four years — you never know, sometimes you drop in," Vance said.
