Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro hit out at Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance over a “weird” insult that accused him of imitating former President Barack Obama.
Shapiro, a popular governor in a swing state, is a leading candidate to become the running mate of Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. She is expected to announce her pick at some point before Tuesday, when the Democratic ticket will hold a rally in Philadelphia.
Vance, the Ohio senator whom former President Donald Trump announced as his running mate amid last month’s Republican National Convention, accused Shapiro of doing a “bad impression” of Obama when asked about the potential Democratic rival during an interview on the Full Send podcast.
“There’s a lot of talk it’s gonna be this guy Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania,” Vance said. “I’ve seen a couple clips of him talking. He talks like Barack Obama. It’s like if I tried to do a really bad impression of Barack Obama, that’s what it would sound like.”
Shapiro responded to the remarks during a press conference on Friday, saying that Vance made “kind of a weird insult” because Obama is a historically “gifted orator.”
“I don’t know, Barack Obama was probably our most gifted orator of my time,” Shapiro said. “It’s kind of a weird insult, I guess. Look, I’ll say this about JD Vance: It is real hard being honest with the American people when you’re not being honest with yourself.
“JD Vance is a total phony baloney,” he added. “He is the most inorganic candidate I think I have ever seen on the national stage….This guy is really not off to a good start.”
Vance is not alone in noticing an Obama resemblance in Shapiro’s speaking style. The Daily Show comedian Ronny Chieng suggested during a recent broadcast that the governor was “doing an Obama.”
“Just listen to this guy speak, because is he doing an Obama?” Chieng said before playing a clip of Shapiro. “That’s not just me, right? We all hear that. I was almost expecting him to be like, ‘And that’s why you should vote for me, Josh Hussein Shapiro.'”
Speculation about Shapiro’s running mate status has been ramping up in recent days due to the Harris campaign announcing Philadelphia as the full ticket’s first campaign stop, as well as the governor abruptly canceling a planned weekend fundraising trip to the wealthy New York community of the Hamptons.
“The Governor’s trip was planned several weeks ago and included several fundraisers for his own campaign committee,” Shapiro’s press secretary Manuel Bonder said in a statement emailed to Newsweek. “His schedule has changed and he is no longer traveling to the Hamptons this weekend.”
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, another leading VP contender, also canceled Friday’s travel plans. However, Shapiro has emerged as a clear Harris running mate favorite among bookmakers, with betting website Polymarket giving him a 73 percent chance of landing the job as of early Friday evening.
While Shapiro characterizing pro-Palestinian protests as antisemitic has prompted some concerns about his appeal to progressives, Republicans have expressed concerns about their fate in Pennsylvania if the governor is added to the ticket.
Shapiro won the battleground state’s gubernatorial election by nearly 15 points over Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Doug Mastriano in 2022.
