Vance calls booing firefighters "haters" during speech to union

The GOP candidate got the cold shoulder from firefighters, who, by comparison, warmly embraced Walz on Wednesday

Published August 29, 2024 6:27PM (EDT)

Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks at a rally at trucking company, Team Hardinger on August 28, 2024 in Erie, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks at a rally at trucking company, Team Hardinger on August 28, 2024 in Erie, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

JD Vance made another uncharismatic stop on the campaign trail on Thursday, making an appearance at an International Association of Fire Fighters event in Boston, where he was booed before his speech even began. 

“Sounds like we got some fans and some haters. That's okay,” Vance, who’s been dubbed the “negative rizz” candidate by social media users, said.

But Vance earned even more raucous boos, and some laughs, for dubbing his and Trump’s ticket the “most pro-worker Republican ticket in history.”

The boos mark just another entry in a seemingly endless list of Vance stump stops gone wrong. Last week, he was relentlessly mocked on social media after a donut shop worker shook him off during a stop in Georgia. On Wednesday, Vance gaffed, referring to the Abbey Gate bombing where 13 American troops and 60 Afghans were killed as “Abbey Road." 

In a statement from the Harris campaign, spokesperson Sarafina Chitika pointed out the stark contrast between the speech on Thursday and the one that took place the day before, in which IAFF members embraced Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz during his address before the union’s conference.

“JD tried selling firefighters on the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda to undermine workers, gut labor protections, and cut overtime pay - and got hosed,” Chitika said.

Walz, a former union member, championed his and Harris’ pro-labor agenda over that of Trump, who said in a conversation with Elon Musk earlier this month that he would fire federal striking workers, prompting the UAW to file NLRB charges against the duo.

The group, which endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, has yet to make an endorsement, though the Harris campaign has scooped up the support of several of the largest labor groups in the country.


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