Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s scathing rebuke of Vice President JD Vance has gone viral on social media.
At a press conference on Friday, Shapiro was asked about Vance, who had called a court order that directed the Trump administration to fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for November “absurd.”
Shapiro, a Democrat, called Vance a “total phony” who “doesn’t give a damn about all Americans” and had turned his back on the Appalachian communities he once said he represented.
A clip of Shapiro’s comments garnered more than a million views after it was posted on X by the senior digital editor of the liberal Meidas Touch website.
Newsweek has contacted the vice president’s office for comment via an email sent outside regular business hours.
Why It Matters
The fate of SNAP has become a critical flashpoint in the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history.
The Trump administration initially said it would not fund SNAP benefits for November because of the shutdown, but some states began issuing full monthly benefits on Friday after U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell ordered the Trump administration to provide the funds.
But Friday night, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily paused that judicial order to allow time for an appeals court to decide whether to issue a more lasting halt.
The twists in the legal battle have exacerbated uncertainty for the nearly 42 million Americans who receive SNAP benefits to help pay for groceries.
What To Know
During a roundtable at the White House on Thursday, Vance said the ruing was “absurd” because “you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the middle of a Democrat government shutdown.”
Democrats have demanded an extension of expiring health care subsidies as part of a bill to fund the government, but Republicans have said they would not negotiate on health care until the government is reopened.
Asked about Vance’s comments, Shapiro said the county “has a president, a vice president that don’t give a damn about all Americans. They have made that crystal clear. And I mean, at least with Donald Trump, he’s transparent about that. JD Vance is a total phony.”
Vance “rose to some prominence by writing a book about growing up in Appalachia, where there’s a whole lot of people who get SNAP,” Shapiro said, referring to Vance’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
“He made millions of dollars on the backs of telling their stories, and then he turned his damn back on those very people who he likes to write about and claim as his own.”
Shapiro also said Vance’s stance runs counter to his Christian faith.
“He claims to be a person of faith. I know my Bible. And my Bible teaches us that we are to love thy neighbor and we are to feed the hungry,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro added that for Vance “to turn around after claiming all these things his whole life and literally go to court to stop hungry people from eating, that is not only phony, it is shameful.”
What People Are Saying
Shapiro also said: “Folks gotta wake up and realize the people who are leading in America quite literally wanna keep people hungry. And you’ll excuse me for getting emotional about it, but when I see people in my state who are hungry because of Vance’s bulls*** politics, that makes me angry.”
Vance said on Thursday: “It’s an absurd ruling because you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the middle of a Democrat government shutdown.”
He added: “What we’d like to do is for the Democrats to open up the government of course, then we can fund SNAP and we can also do a lot of other good things for the American people. But in the midst of a shutdown we can’t have a federal court telling the president how he has to triage the situation.”
Political commentator Ed Krassenstein wrote on X: “Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro just absolutely torched JD Vance an Donald Trump over the instance on SNAP. This is a must-listen!”
What‘s Next
Jackson’s order pauses McConnell’s order, giving the appeals court time to review the case.
Meanwhile, SNAP recipients continue to face uncertainty about the timing of their benefits.
