The Republican candidate for vice president has divided the internet, with some claiming he made a faux pas in Philly and others saying it was an old joke about John Kerry’s Swiss cheesesteak.
Ohio Senator JD Vance surprised many Philadelphians when the Republican candidate for vice president visited a popular cheesesteak place and asked why they hated Swiss cheese.
Vance stopped at Pat’s King of Steaks on Monday during his trip to North Philadelphia, where he spoke to a small group of supporters at the warehouse of a medical waste disposal company.
When Vance entered the restaurant, he asked the staff why they were so picky about their cheese selection.
“I don’t like Swiss cheese either,” the Republican vice presidential candidate said through the window to several employees at the cheesesteak shop, CBS News reported. “But everyone says it’s offensive. Why do you hate it so much? What’s going on?”
A Pat’s employee responded to Vance, according to the outlet, “We don’t hate it, we just don’t use it.”
Vance eventually ordered a “Whiz Wit,” a cheesesteak with Cheez Whiz and fried onions, CBS News reported. The candidate then signed autographs for people standing in line at the restaurant and posed for photos with some of the staff.
John Kerry ordered a cheesesteak with Swiss cheese in 2004
Vance isn’t the only candidate who has asked for Swiss cheese at a cheesesteak shop in the City of Brotherly Love. During the 2004 presidential campaign, then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry asked a Philadelphia restaurant to make his cheesesteak with Swiss cheese instead of the traditional Cheez Whiz.
“Don’t come to Philadelphia and try to do us a favor and then order Swiss cheese, nobody does that in Philadelphia,” said Ed Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania and mayor of Philadelphia, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
Democratic U.S. Representative for Philadelphia Brendan Boyle criticized Vance’s actions in an X-post, saying Vance had “committed a crime against humanity.” Graham Allen, a right-wing media star, commented on Boyle’s post, saying Vance’s question was “a dig at John Kerry, who asked for Schweizer and was laughed out of town…”
“JD Vance looks absolutely horrified”
Many social media users on X had a lot to say about Vance’s cheesesteak adventure, including whether he was trying to make fun of Kerry, his subsequent photo op, and his general demeanor when he came face to face with Cheez Whiz.
