Online critics piled mockery on Vice President JD Vance, and the White House's attempt to defend him backfired.
On Wednesday, Vance held a press conference in Milwaukee where he spoke about Markita Barnes, a Wisconsin woman who was convicted of federal healthcare fraud. He propped up a poster-sized picture of Barnes, and in an attempt to denounce her, he pointed at her, saying, "Look at this woman in front with the smug look and the Louis Vuitton bag!"
The lighting in the room created a glare that made it impossible to see the picture, however, and online critics slammed Vance for the mistake.
"Look at the bag of s— speaking," responded disability rights advocate James Tate in a post on X. "Can't see the photo due to the glare you moron."
"This f— idiot is second in line to the presidency," wrote podcaster Roy Bellamy.
Other onlookers decried Vance as "racist" because Barnes is Black, and he chose to focus on her as opposed to other convicted and alleged fraudsters.
"These people are aggressively, pathologically racist," political commentator Jim Stewartson wrote. "It's 2026. We should have flying cars, not this f— android trying to bring back apartheid for his owner."
"Yes. She committed fraud and is going to jail," posted Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI). "Where Trump and his family of crypto grifters and inside traders belong."
When a White House account stepped in to try to defend Vance, it ended up giving more fodder to critics. Rapid Response 47, the official Trump White House rapid response account, responded to a video by Acyn, which posts political video clips, and accused it of trying to hide the photo of Barnes with the glare.
"Your dumb a— is shielding a criminal," Rapid Response 47 wrote along with a screenshot more clearly showing Vance's poster.
"Um...Do they think @Acyn blurred their faces?" responded MeidasTouch, a political news network. "It was Vance who obscured her by placing the board the way he did. The White House essentially just called Vance a 'dumb a—'"