JD Vance was ghosted by practically every player on the Cincinnati Bengals football team during what he apparently believed would be a spontaneous meet and greet Wednesday evening.
The vice president waited outside the locker room. Just about every team member looked at Vance and decided not to interact with him—save for tight end Drew Sample, who gave Vance’s son a fist bump. Sample then gave Vance a handshake.
The entire situation—and its terrible optics—echoed a similar locker room visit by FBI Director Kash Patel, who unexpectedly appeared in videos with the U.S. men’s hockey team after their Olympic gold medal win earlier this year.
At the time, Patel was caught on tape chugging beers inside the locker room in Milan, spurring nationwide backlash as the American public questioned if the conspiracy podcaster turned intelligence chief had utilized taxpayer funds for the excursion. But at least Patel made it inside.
Despite occupying the number two office in America, Vance quietly waited for attention in the Bengals’ hallway. When it became clear that a meet and greet wasn’t going to happen, Vance wandered off with his entourage.
It was not immediately clear why the team snubbed Vance, but either way, the vice president should have bigger things on his plate. Earlier Wednesday, Vance sparked statewide backlash across Ohio for defending a disturbing advertisement by Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that featured the estranged mother of Ramaswamy’s opponent, Democratic candidate Dr. Amy Acton.
The advert had Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, claim that “Amy has a serious problem.” Acton has not spoken to her mother since she was 12 years old, ABC News reported. Arthur abandoned her two children to skip town with her husband, Acton’s stepfather, who was indicted for sexually abusing the Democratic candidate as a young girl.
“Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar,” Vance said on Wednesday.