Governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear (D) is apologizing to Diet Mountain Dew after he inadvertently insulted the soda brand in a dig aimed at Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Donald Trump’s pick for vice president.
During a press conference on Thursday, Beshear said at the podium that he wanted to “set the record straight” before grabbing a bottle of the diet soda.
“I owe an apology to Diet Mountain Dew,” he said, before giving a shout out to Kentucky-based soft drink brand Ale-8One. “Ale-8One is definitely Kentucky’s soda. But I don’t believe the government should make its own decisions.”
“So if you like Diet Mountain Dew, be you, we want to support you,” he continued. “And to Diet Mountain Dew, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say negative things about you.”
“Just remember that I’m from here, just like everyone else who is demonstrating,” he added.
The soda ordeal started bubbling after Vance tried to mock Democrats at a rally in his hometown of Middletown, Ohio, earlier this week, saying liberals would see racism in his choice to drink Diet Mountain Dew.
“[Democrats] they say it’s racist to do anything,” he told the crowd. “I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday and one today – I’m sure they’ll call that racist too.”
Beshear he responded to Vance’s comments soon after, telling CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on “The Source” that he found the Ohio senator’s comments about racism and Diet Mountain Dew strange for more reasons than one.
“What was weird was him joking about racism today and then talking about Diet Mountain Dew — who drinks Diet Mountain Dew?” he said.
Beshear also criticized Vance for the way he characterized rural America in his best-selling 2016 memoir, “Redneck Elegy: Memoirs of a Family and Culture in Crisis.”
Kentucky’s governor said on CNN that Vance, who was raised in Ohio and spent time in Kentucky during his upbringing, is “not” from Kentucky.
“He’s not from Kentucky,” Beshear said, before accusing the Ohio senator of writing a book about Kentucky and Appalachia “to profit from our people.”
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