Vance Serves Up Fake Outrage, Primanti Brothers Pays the Price

In this episode of the Keystone Reckoning Podcast, we dive headfirst into J.D. Vance’s campaign disaster at Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh. Vance's failure to essentially call ahead for reservations turned into a full-blown MAGA meltdown, as Vance and his crew manufactured fake outrage to rile up their base. We break down how Vance’s poorly planned, unannounced visit didn’t just disrupt the restaurant, but also turned Primanti Brothers into the latest pawn in the GOP’s culture war, leaving them to handle the backlash of a social media firestorm and targeted threats.

We contrast this fiasco with Kamala Harris’s smooth, pre-planned visit to the same restaurant chain, highlighting the stark difference between genuine outreach and cheap political theater. You’ll also get an insider’s look at the logistics behind political events and how missteps like Vance’s can create public relations nightmares for innocent businesses. Join us for a sharp, witty analysis of how Republicans like Vance use local institutions as props in their grievance politics, while Pittsburgh’s beloved Primanti Brothers is left picking up the pieces.

Learn more about the Keystone Reckoning Project at www.keystonereckoning.com

Show your support for progressive values with True Blue Gear! Get 20% off bold, pro-democracy apparel—whether you’re rallying for voting rights, climate justice, or reproductive freedom. Use code KEYSTONE at truebluegear.com to gear up, stand out, and make a statement in 2024.

Chapters

• 0:00 Primanti Brothers Incident
• 13:22 Permanis Brothers Restaurant Incident
• 18:03 Political Hijacking of Business Outrage

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

So it looks like the Republicans have decided that they like their fake outrage with fries and coleslaw on top. Good afternoon and welcome to the Keystone Reckoning podcast. I'm Jesse White. It is Sunday, september 29th 2024.

Speaker 1: 0:43

The story circulating on social media that's the big outrage generator today has to do with Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance making an appearance in Pittsburgh yesterday. He was out there for a couple of other events and they decided to do a stop at a Primanti Brothers restaurant in North Versailles. I'm from the Pittsburgh area because I know it's pronounced North Versailles and not North Versailles. The whole thing went sideways very quickly. The initial reports were that Vance and his campaign were not welcome in Primanti Brothers, that they were thrown out by employees. Then that quickly morphed into a statement from Primanti saying wait, no one ever told us they were going to be here and that was what it was all about. Then the outrage machine kicked into high gear and all hell broke loose. So let's go back and deconstruct this for a minute, because there are a lot of actually interesting angles that aren't being talked about and it is really kind of a microcosm of what this campaign is like and really how Republicans in general approach, using people and things as props to kind of keep the outrage machine running at full tilt. So to give myself a little bit of street cred on this one, the Venn diagram of things involved here actually checks off several boxes for me.

Speaker 1: 2:04

I am a former elected official from that area, from Southwestern PA. I've been a candidate and I'm a self-proclaimed yinzer. I lived in Pittsburgh for the first 40 of my 46 years and have made myself a proud yinzer in every respect of the word. And even though I'm here in central PA now, I still call Pittsburgh home. So these are things I'm familiar with. This is home to me. So when I saw this story, it just kind of really pinged me on a lot of different fronts.

Speaker 1: 2:39

So let's go back for a minute and if there's anybody that's at fault, right. If we want to go back and say, okay, this whole thing fell apart from the beginning, whose fault is it? That's easy. It is undeniably JD Vance's campaign's fault, for one fundamental reason, which is they did not notify Permanente Brothers in advance that they were going to be going there. And that is a massive, massive piece of this that cannot be overlooked, as much as the MAGA crowd would like to overlook it.

Speaker 1: 3:02

It reminded me of one of the first things that I ever learned as a candidate, which is, if you were going the way I applied. It was if you're going into a senior center to campaign, a, you better bring cookies and B, you better get the hell out of there before bingo starts, because they came to play bingo. They didn't come to hear you, and what that really means is you have to be mindful and respectful of the places you're going to campaign, because you are undeniably kind of taking advantage of their organization, taking advantage of their facility, taking advantage of the fact that they have a group of people in one place you want to be in front of, and being able to do that is a delicate ask, or it should be a delicate ask. You have to do it the right way if you want it to actually work for you, and that's something that is fundamental at basically any level of politics. Right, you always call ahead, you always ask to make sure it would be okay or what the ground rules are, and that's like when you roll in just a couple of people, you're showing up somewhere, not when you are a United States Senator and vice presidential candidate coming in with a motorcade, with Secret Service with a huge entourage in a way that will be so incredibly disruptive.

Speaker 1: 4:22

So think about this for a minute. You've got Primanti brothers out in a suburb of Pittsburgh. They have no clue that this is about to happen. All of a sudden, apparently a lot of the Trump supporters. They were tipped off. I think, ironically, the Trump supporters knew that Vance was going to Primanti Brothers before Primanti Brothers knew that Vance was going to Primanti Brothers. So a bunch of these Trump supporters show up there and they showed them. In some of the videos they're wearing sealer jerseys, I'm sure, trump apparel and everything. But OK, they show up at the place they go in because they're waiting for JD Vance to show up. Fine, the people working there have no idea that he.

Speaker 1: 5:22

That is obviously something that you would want the senior management of the restaurant to be there for, for a variety of reasons. Anybody that would be considered ownership would want to be there. Anybody that would be considered ownership would want to be there. It's kind of a big deal when the guy running for vice president shows up at your restaurant. None of that happened, so what you've got is just employees, waiters, waitresses, people bussing tables, hosts, the people in the kitchen. They're not equipped for something like this. How could they possibly be? So it's fundamentally unfair to them for this to happen. So what apparently happened was the Vance people showed up. They tried to go in and put on a show and the Peranis people were like no, you can't come in here and use this as a campaign photo op, most likely because whoever it was that said that probably didn't know what else to say, probably was not empowered to say anything else. Right, they're worried about losing their job if they let this turn into a whole thing. So they're basically told look, you can't come in and do this.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Jd Vance then stages a whole thing in the parking lot. There are people inside taking videos. All were being left out. Jd Vance says that OK, well, we're going to at least pay for the food of everybody in there. They came to see me. And then he throws in his no, no tax on tips thing, which is a horrible public policy, but that's something for another day and he tries to save a little face from later in the day.

Speaker 1: 6:51

So in the meantime then of course, it becomes hyper-politicized and you have progressives and Kamala supporters saying good for Permanes, and we're going to buy gift cards from there and we're going to do all these things, and good for them, and I'll be the first to admit I said to my wife hey, check this out. They basically told Vance to go screw off Isn't that cool? And we got a chuckle out of it. But then, of course, on the other side, you add all this outrage. So in the interim, primanti's issues a statement and it's short. I'm going to read it. They put it on social media. It says Primanti prides itself on being a staple of the Pittsburgh community and a proud American business that is hosted sitting presidents, politicians and political candidates from across the spectrum for over 90 years.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Our doors are open to all patrons who wish to dine with us Without any advance notice. Today's campaign stop caused some momentary confusion for our staff. However, senator Vance and his team were welcomed into our restaurant shortly after and engaged with our guests inside and on the property. Senator Vance's supportive comments that our manager got a little nervous, given the Secret Service, police and crowd, accurately reflect the nature of what occurred and we are glad that it was resolved quickly. That was a very polite way of saying boy did JD Vance try to F us over because he tried to come in without any advance notice, like any remotely cognizant or aware or considerate politician or political operation would do. But we agreed, once we got figured out what was happening, to let him in, because we let everybody in, cool. And then they also say at the end, again in nice language the manager on the scene didn't know what to do because you dropped this massive situation on our front doorstep literally. So there was some confusion while we figured it out, even though and they don't say this directly, of course, but while all of the Trumpers were there taking videos and trying to make it into something it wasn't. So the fault here lies with JD Vance and his team. That was inexcusable to not call ahead.

Speaker 1: 8:54

And there were a couple of articles in the press where local Republicans that were there were saying, oh, they definitely knew that Vance was coming. Well, at this point, if I've got to pick credibility and I've got to weigh the credibility of the Trump-Vance MAGA crowd versus Permanente Brothers, I know who I'm picking right. I mean that's a no-brainer. I'm picking Permanente Brothers. I know who I'm picking Right. I mean that's a no brainer. I'm picking Primanti Brothers, it goes without saying. So I don't buy any of it. And there were all sorts of the news stories.

Speaker 1: 9:21

The fallout that came out of it brought up to light another kind of a comparison thing. This wasn't a little bit of a gotcha, because I almost find it hard to believe that the Secret Service would even allow Vance to just roll in to somewhere like that, like totally without notice. It felt really weird, like if it had been planned all along. How did the supporters know, but no one thought to like secure the building? Did the supporters know, but no one thought to secure the building? Because you have to remember also, this is not far at all from Butler where the assassination on Trump's life took place, the attempt on Trump's life. I mean, it's not very far at all. So it feels weird. There's something there that I can't quite figure out. But the thing that people keep coming back to is they said well, kamala Harris and Tim Walz were there last month, and what's that all about? And then I thought about I went back and looked a little closer and I realized that MAGA and the Trumpers, they really did Permanente's dirty about a month ago and I haven't seen the connection made yet in a lot of places. But I remember at the time and I went back and looked.

Speaker 1: 10:37

So the, by the way, fox News has a story up of Vance not allowed to campaign in Pittsburgh Culinary Landmark despite Harris event at same restaurant chain. There we go right, there's the hook. There's the Fox News hook. It's going to quote, legitimize all of this. And it says he was apparently. Vance was apparently kicked out from a meeting with supporters inside, despite the same chain allowing the Kamala Harris Tim Walz campaign to meet its supporters there. And then they say familiar sources and they try to do all sorts of, according to people that were there but nobody's ever quoted Trump supporters shot back, booing the employees as they were ushered to the exit.

Speaker 1: 11:54

The source said so okay, so now you've got servers making $2.83 an hour having to put up with this garbage. This was not what they signed up for when they came into work today and I would love, I would give anything to know how much of a tip, like what their tips were yesterday compared to a normal Saturday. I would give anything to know that, because I think we can all basically assume their tips were a lot lower. I would give anything to know that, because I think we can all basically assume their tips were a lot lower than they would normally be right. So let's not pretend like we were doing these people any favors.

Speaker 1: 12:26

And so let's go back and look at the Harris thing. It took place on August 18th. I actually went back and checked on Snopes because there were all sorts of articles back then that there were accusations that the Harris-Walls team were busing actors into Primanti's and it was all fake and it was all a setup. And if you go back and look, it's actually not even remotely that. First and foremost and if you want the contradiction right you want to know where Harris got it right and Vance got it wrong is that when Kamala's team were going to do an event there, they called ahead number one and also rented out the restaurant. They paid to have it there and what they did was they made it a supporter event. So they had volunteers I'm sure they were like local Democratic committee members and people that were out on the streets. It was a thank you, it was a cool opportunity, it was a photo op, did a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1: 13:23

They did it the right way, they went through the process, they had it lined up the right way, they paid to be there and the claims about the vans. They were busing people in and they were taking people in vans, and everybody saw it were busing people in and they were taking people in vans, and everybody saw it. What that really was was in response to the situation with Trump, with the attempted assassination in Butler. As a result of that, there were security concerns. They didn't want just anybody being able to drive right up to the front of the restaurant. So they basically told everybody look, you will drive to wherever this is, meet us at parking lot A or whatever, and then we will take you there to keep control over the situation, like responsible people do that. Don't want to see their candidate being put in danger by a bunch of wackos. Pretty smart, right? It's kind of like standard procedure. I'm sure the Secret Service have offered do it that way or do it the way Vance did it. I think it's pretty obvious which one they choose.

Speaker 1: 14:22

So they brought these supporters into the Permanes and there were articles on Fox at the time saying oh, they threw us out at 3.30 in the afternoon to bring in these actors. How horrible. No, there was a private event. That's how it goes. And also there were press accounts that backed this up, because there were, I think three or four reporters that they brought along to cover it, and one of them, ryan Dito, who does great political reporting here in PA. He was on the record acknowledging that.

Speaker 1: 14:55

So if they had brought in quote actors, I don't think you would invite reporters to be on the same damn bus or in the record acknowledging that. So if they had brought in quote actors, I don't think you would invite reporters to be on the same damn bus or in the same vans. It's just nothing. Everything about what the Harris campaign said made complete and total sense, and everything that is being said critically about it makes absolutely no sense. So think about that for a minute. Now you've got the right-wingers already on Twitter or everywhere else bashing permani brothers for that, and then jd vance has the absolute gall to show up to it's a different location, but the same chain without asking, first acting like everything was totally. This was just no big deal, and then sparking up the outrage machine.

Speaker 1: 15:37

Whatever he got treated, the way that he should have been treated, which is hey, you can't just come in here and do this, we've got to go through some procedures. So they'd already done Permanis dirty before this, and now they've really done them dirty. Permanis, to their credit, came out and said look, everybody's welcome here, and it's a little conflicting, but I did see some reports that said that he was able to go in and talk to some folks. And if that's the case, that's even more disingenuous from JD Vance's point of view because they didn't tell anybody that last part, every picture, every video, everything is him outside the restaurant. Because why let the truth get in the way of someone being martyred? Right, and that's what they live for, although I do think it's hilarious that JD JD Vance literally cannot order a meal without looking like a clown Every photo op and everything he's tried to do at a restaurant or a donut shop or whatever he just looks like. If you told AI to create a really bad retail politician, it would give you JD Vance. He's just so bad at this and that really goes to show you that anybody that's elected to the US Senate that is that bad at retail politics. That is a clear sign that they have been bankrolled by someone like Peter Thiel, someone with huge pockets. They've never actually had to go out and retail politics because that's like a skill you learn really early on. I don't care what you're running for, so they're horrible at it. And then, of course.

Speaker 1: 16:59

So now we get to the obvious next step, which is the outrage on Twitter. You've got trolls like Roger Stone. You've got all of these people that are just bashing Perrantes, right, they're like oh, here we go, horrible. Oh, they're just such liberal whatevers and boycott them, do whatever. And this was coming from like bigger people. So, roger Stone, excuse me, while I type this one, make sure I get it exactly right. Roger Stone has a lot of credibility. He said sorry, I'm scrolling through all of his things about anti-vax and all these different things. It's here. It's here, boy.

Speaker 1: 17:39

This guy tweets a lot. I saw it earlier, I just don't want to get it wrong. Here it is. I'm going to quote Pravani Brothers, who, frankly, served some of the worst pizza in America barged JD Vance from their restaurant in Pittsburgh, so now we will protest at their locations in Fort Lauderdale. F the Permanti brothers Well, it's actually says Permant brothers Hashtag boycott. And then they're talking about they're going to start next week.

Speaker 1: 18:04

And then that tweet got seen 1.8 million times, 4,100 responses, and you can only imagine what. They are right. And these people are just bashing Permanente Brothers. Oh look, they're doxing the CEO. Let's see here Just every horrible thing you can imagine.

Speaker 1: 18:24

Then it comes out this morning that it was again. I'll make sure I have it right. There's a Twitter account for the Pittsburgh scanner and they said that four hours ago so this was at about 10 am on Sunday that these primandies in the strip district in Pittsburgh which isn't even the same primandies this happened at. A caller is an employee. It says they had been receiving threatening phone calls all morning. A male also came into the store, tossed a backpack on the ground and left, turned out the bag had garbage in it. But who knows, right, what are we doing here? There's people I'm looking at, people that were posting. It says customers claim that workers of Brandy Brothers threatened to call police on JD Vance if he came in the restaurant and ordered food. Like it just doesn't end with these people. It just doesn't end with these people. It just doesn't end.

Speaker 1: 19:16

So what they did was they took a business. They kind of hijacked it, not literally, but politically. They brought in all these people taking videos. It was either a setup or just really sloppy. And what happened now? Now these people are being drug through the mud unfairly by these, these right wing nuts and there's no other thing to call them. They're nuts and they're dangerous. Right, they are dangerous people. They they feed or they feed on the outrage machine.

Speaker 1: 19:46

This is where it's directed right now and, like a bunch of dogs chasing after a squirrel, they're focused on permante brothers, who did absolutely nothing wrong. Let's be clear about that. They did not do anything wrong. If nothing else, I think they actually turned around and were gave a lot of cover to vance for not doing it the right way. They really kind of I think they handled it as well as could be expected. They could have said our policy is that if you want to bring in a large group in, you call ahead it the right way. They really kind of. I think they handled it as well as could be expected. They could have said our policy is that if you want to bring in a large group in, you call ahead and make a reservation. Boom, that's it. Right, you could have done that. You could have said their advances group became aggressive towards our employees, which is not tolerated under any circumstances. Right, but no, we have to give these people deference because somehow they're wackos with. But no, we have to give these people deference because somehow they're wackos with cameras, so we have to act like everything they say and do is totally valid, right? Primanti's went out of their way to try to make this easier for Vance and in return, they are getting screwed. And think about it All these people that are working at Primanti Brothers and there's a bunch of them all over the place Again, they're a chain, so, and we have one here in Central PA that we go to all the time All of these poor people and I don't mean poor financially, I mean the poor of what they have to go through. This is not what they signed up for, right? They just want to go to work, they want to work hard, they want to serve people food and make some tips and go home Now. Some tips and go home Now. Every time they're in there working and you have some jag off Trump supporter is going to be giving them a hard time. What's happening? It's happening right now. I guarantee it. A part of me wishes I should have gone down to the Primanti brothers, where we're at out here, right outside of Harrisburg, and just sat there and watch what happened. It would have been a super fascinating thing, and maybe I still will. It's early on a football Sunday. What's happening? So now their employees are being treated badly. Maybe they lose business, maybe they gain business, and because the progressives are going to be now spending more, whatever, that's not it. Again, it's about the people, and I couldn't help but notice the parallels to Springfield. Right, the Trump machine rolls in, rolls over everybody, gets what they want out of it, whether it's true or not, lights the place on fire politically and then walks away and leaves everybody else to deal with the mess and the fallout. It's just bullshit the way they're doing this, and I don't understand how people who are Trump supporters I'm not talking about the wingnuts, right, the far right wackadoos, I'm talking about people that are kind of like quote undecided or indifferent how you can look at the way they come in and it's always somebody else's fault. Something goes wrong. It's always somebody's fault. It's always an outrage. We have to always get freaked out. They can't take any responsibility for anything they ever do. Springfield they are told straight away we're. That is a falsehood. That is not true. They're still talking about it. How soon until Trump? It's funny. He's giving a speech in Erie right now. I can't wait to see if he mentions Primanti Brothers and starts trashing them. I don't know. The only reason I think they might not is I don't think Trump really cares about what JD Vance does all that much, but it's going to happen. So you've got this private business who got set up. Basically there was nothing they could do. That was going to be okay here, all because the Vance people didn't do their due diligence to call ahead and make a reservation or do whatever. Think about it. If you try to go to a restaurant with a large group and didn't have a reservation and they asked you to leave because they couldn't handle your group, whose fault is that? Who does that? And I think we've become so numb to the rudeness and the indifference for anybody else and just the balls on these people or I guess lack of balls that we've almost we've just normalized it. But their behavior is obnoxious and to me, take policy totally out of it for a minute. Take policy totally out of it for a minute. If nothing else, do you want to live in a nation where that kind of behavior is acceptable and lacks any sort of accountability? That is mob rule. That is. We want what we want and we're going to be loud until we get what we want and we don't give a damn about what it does to anybody else who wants to live in that country. I don't, I don't. And you might think, oh well, that's a shame, it's them, but that doesn't impact me. What would they say? When it happens to your neighbor, it's a shame, when it happens to you, it's a tragedy. And the way this is going, this surge of just hate, it's just hate, mis, misdirected, unnecessary, manufactured hate. It's reaching this breaking point. That's got everybody on edge. And I don't know about you, but I'm just tired of it. I'm just tired of it. People ask me why are you so opposed to Trump? And yeah, I could take down all of the reasons policy-wise. I could do it forever. But I think, like a lot of people, I'm just tired. I'm tired of having to doom scroll in the middle of the night. I'm tired of having to worry about what kind of country my kids are going to inherit. I'm just tired and I'm mad because they know that and they are trying to just win this thing by attrition. As much as anything else, attrition is a huge part of what they do. Grind everybody down. It's everybody's fault, so there's no difference between both sides, right? That's what they do Grind everybody down. It's everybody's fault. So there's no difference between both sides, right? That's what they're all about, although there's a huge difference between both sides, and the Primanti thing is a great example of that. Kamala Harris called ahead, rented the place out, addressed security concerns, did it all the right way. Jd Vance did none of those things. But in both situations, in both instances, who ended up attacking Permanente brothers? Both times? The right-wing MAGA Trump crowd. They attacked both times, no matter what. They have to be outraged. They have to be the victims, and they don't give a damn about who they run over to get there or if there are any consequences of their actions, and that alone tells you all you need to know about who we are dealing with. So, yeah, there you go, go eat at Primanti. Support them. If for no other reason, the food's good. Don't get fancy either. Everything's good there, but just get the number two, pittsburgh. Nice and simple, it's as good as it gets. So, anyway, this has been the Keystone Reckoning Podcast. If you like what we're doing, if you like what we're talking about and want to help support us to grow and to help other candidates and campaigns, please visit keystonereckoningcom. You can make a donation to the pack right there that will be used for a variety of wonderful purposes to help move the cause forward. And please also visit our sponsor, true Blue Gear. That's truebluegearcom. We have all sorts of great T-shirts and swag and hats and all that stuff that you're going to want heading into Election Day. Again, that's True Blue Gear. So this is Jesse White. See y'all later.