JD Vance’s wife, lawyer Usha Vance, has been conspicuously absent from the campaign trail thus far except for a few brief appearances, prompting speculation and concern. But after a recent campaign appearance, folks who were previously sympathetic to Usha Vance’s plight (marrying a guy who may or may not have f*cked a couch) are thinking twice.
Last week, Usha Vance was seen with her husband at the stalwart Erie, Pennsylvania butcher shop Gordon’s Butcher & Market, where the owners talked to the couple about the shop’s importance in the community.
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There are just a few problems with this. Usha Vance is a vegetarian and a practicing Hindu. In Hinduism, the figure of the cow is not only celebrated, but sacred. Cows represent the divine and as such are associated with multiple deities, such as the Lord of Cattle and fertility god Shiva, Krishna, and the bull god Indra.
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So basically a butcher shop is one of the most tone-deaf places you could send Usha Vance, and in a short clip of the visit, her reaction speaks volumes.
In the clip, a Gordon’s worker talks to the Vances about the process of breaking a cow down into parts to cook and sell, and Usha looks distinctly uncomfortable, with good reason. As Vance explains that Usha, despite being a vegetarian “loves this stuff,” and often tells him to “get the beef tongue” at restaurants, Usha herself has no comment to make. She looks like she wants to get out of there real quick, and who can blame her?
“The things people will do just for a little bit of power,” TikToker Ariana Merchant said of the video, describing Usha’s predicament as something akin to schadenfreude. “Usha, blink twice if you need help,” one commenter posted.
The problem is, whether Usha is in line with her husband’s increasingly right-wing politics or not, it’s too late to back down now. “I think they are keeping Usha off the campaign trail because it would look bad that she’s there and Melania isn’t ,” another commenter suggested. “But that’s probably giving them too much credit 😂”
Possibly—even if Usha starts making more appearances, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be any less cringe than this one. It’s no surpise that folks in the comments keep tagging creator Franchesca Ramsey, originator of the “I didn’t know the leopards would eat my face” song in reference to folks of color who decide to align with right-wing causes and then are surprised when it backfires.
Usha, if you’re somehow reading this, there’s still hope. Divorce is always an option!
