September 29, 2024 • 27 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So it looks like the Republicans have decided that
they like their fake outragewith fries and coleslaw on top.
Good afternoon and welcome tothe Keystone Reckoning podcast.
I'm Jesse White.
It is Sunday, september 29th2024.
The story circulating on socialmedia that's the big outrage
generator today has to do withVice Presidential candidate JD
(00:22):
Vance making an appearance inPittsburgh yesterday.
He was out there for a coupleof other events and they decided
to do a stop at a PrimantiBrothers restaurant in North
Versailles.
I'm from the Pittsburgh areabecause I know it's pronounced
North Versailles and not NorthVersailles.
The whole thing went sidewaysvery quickly.
The initial reports were thatVance and his campaign were not
(00:47):
welcome in Primanti Brothers,that they were thrown out by
employees.
Then that quickly morphed intoa statement from Primanti saying
wait, no one ever told us theywere going to be here and that
was what it was all about.
Then the outrage machine kickedinto high gear and all hell
broke loose.
So let's go back anddeconstruct this for a minute,
because there are a lot ofactually interesting angles that
(01:08):
aren't being talked about andit is really kind of a microcosm
of what this campaign is likeand really how Republicans in
general approach, using peopleand things as props to kind of
keep the outrage machine runningat full tilt.
So to give myself a little bitof street cred on this one, the
(01:28):
Venn diagram of things involvedhere actually checks off several
boxes for me.
I am a former elected officialfrom that area, from
Southwestern PA.
I've been a candidate and I'm aself-proclaimed yinzer.
I lived in Pittsburgh for thefirst 40 of my 46 years and have
made myself a proud yinzer inevery respect of the word.
(01:51):
And even though I'm here incentral PA now, I still call
Pittsburgh home.
So these are things I'mfamiliar with.
This is home to me.
So when I saw this story, itjust kind of really pinged me on
a lot of different fronts.
So let's go back for a minuteand if there's anybody that's at
(02:12):
fault, right.
If we want to go back and say,okay, this whole thing fell
apart from the beginning, whosefault is it?
That's easy.
It is undeniably JD Vance'scampaign's fault, for one
fundamental reason, which isthey did not notify Permanente
Brothers in advance that theywere going to be going there.
And that is a massive, massivepiece of this that cannot be
overlooked, as much as the MAGAcrowd would like to overlook it.
(02:33):
It reminded me of one of thefirst things that I ever learned
as a candidate, which is, ifyou were going the way I applied
.
It was if you're going into asenior 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
(02:53):
you have to be mindful andrespectful of the places you're
going to campaign, because youare undeniably kind of taking
advantage of their organization,taking advantage of their
facility, taking advantage ofthe fact that they have a group
of people in one place you wantto be in front of, and being
(03:13):
able to do that is a delicateask, or it should be a delicate
ask.
You have to do it the right wayif you want it to actually work
for you, and that's somethingthat 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 groundrules are, and that's like when
(03:34):
you roll in just a couple ofpeople, you're showing up
somewhere, not when you are aUnited States Senator and vice
presidential candidate coming inwith a motorcade, with Secret
Service with a huge entourage ina way that will be so
incredibly disruptive.
So think about this for a minute.
You've got Primanti brothersout in a suburb of Pittsburgh.
(03:56):
They have no clue that this isabout to happen.
All of a sudden, apparently alot of the Trump supporters.
They were tipped off.
I think, ironically, the Trumpsupporters knew that Vance was
going to Primanti Brothersbefore Primanti Brothers knew
that Vance was going to PrimantiBrothers.
So a bunch of these Trumpsupporters show up there and
they showed them.
In some of the videos they'rewearing sealer jerseys, I'm sure
(04:19):
, trump apparel and everything.
But OK, they show up at theplace they go in because they're
(04:48):
waiting for JD Vance to show up.
Fine, the people working therehave no idea that he.
That is obviously something thatyou would want the senior
management of the restaurant tobe there for, for a variety of
reasons.
Anybody that would beconsidered ownership would want
to be there.
Anybody that would beconsidered ownership would want
to be there.
It's kind of a big deal whenthe guy running for vice
president shows up at yourrestaurant.
(05:08):
None of that happened, so whatyou've got is just employees,
waiters, waitresses, peoplebussing tables, hosts, the
people in the kitchen.
They're not equipped forsomething like this.
How could they possibly be?
So it's fundamentally unfair tothem for this to happen.
(05:28):
So what apparently happened wasthe Vance people showed up.
They tried to go in and put ona show and the Peranis people
were like no, you can't come inhere and use this as a campaign
photo op, most likely becausewhoever it was that said that
probably didn't know what elseto say, probably was not
empowered to say anything else.
(05:49):
Right, they're worried aboutlosing 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.
Jd Vance then stages a wholething in the parking lot.
There are people inside takingvideos.
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.
(06:09):
And then he throws in his no,no tax on tips thing, which is a
horrible public policy, butthat's something for another day
and he tries to save a littleface from later in the day.
So in the meantime then ofcourse, it becomes
hyper-politicized and you haveprogressives and Kamala
(06:30):
supporters saying good forPermanes, and we're going to buy
gift cards from there and we'regoing to do all these things,
and good for them, and I'll bethe first to admit I said to my
wife hey, check this out.
They basically told Vance to goscrew off Isn't that cool?
And we got a chuckle out of it.
But then, of course, on theother side, you add all this
outrage.
So in the interim, primanti'sissues a statement and it's
(06:52):
short.
I'm going to read it.
They put it on social media.
It says Primanti prides itselfon being a staple of the
Pittsburgh community and a proudAmerican business that is
hosted sitting presidents,politicians and political
candidates from across thespectrum for over 90 years.
Our doors are open to allpatrons who wish to dine with us
Without any advance notice.
Today's campaign stop causedsome momentary confusion for our
(07:12):
staff.
However, senator Vance and histeam were welcomed into our
restaurant shortly after andengaged with our guests inside
and on the property.
Senator Vance's supportivecomments that our manager got a
little nervous, given the SecretService, police and crowd,
accurately reflect the nature ofwhat occurred and we are glad
that it was resolved quickly.
That was a very polite way ofsaying boy did JD Vance try to F
(07:34):
us over because he tried tocome in without any advance
notice, like any remotelycognizant or aware or
considerate politician orpolitical operation would do.
But we agreed, once we gotfigured out what was happening,
to let him in, because we leteverybody in, cool.
(07:56):
And then they also say at theend, again in nice language the
manager on the scene didn't knowwhat to do because you dropped
this massive situation on ourfront doorstep literally.
So there was some confusionwhile we figured it out, even
though and they don't say thisdirectly, of course, but while
all of the Trumpers were theretaking videos and trying to make
(08:17):
it into something it wasn't.
So the fault here lies with JDVance and his team.
That was inexcusable to notcall ahead.
And there were a couple ofarticles in the press where
local Republicans that werethere were saying, oh, they
definitely knew that Vance wascoming.
Well, at this point, if I'vegot to pick credibility and I've
got to weigh the credibility ofthe Trump-Vance MAGA crowd
(08:40):
versus Permanente Brothers, Iknow 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 thenews stories.
The fallout that came out of itbrought up to light another kind
of a comparison thing.
This wasn't a little bit of agotcha, because I almost find it
(09:04):
hard to believe that the SecretService would even allow Vance
to just roll in to somewherelike that, like totally without
notice.
It felt really weird, like ifit had been planned all along.
How did the supporters know,but no one thought to like
secure the building?
Did the supporters know, but noone thought to secure the
(09:26):
building?
Because you have to rememberalso, this is not far at all
from Butler where theassassination on Trump's life
took place, the attempt onTrump's life.
I mean, it's not very far atall.
So it feels weird.
There's something there that Ican't quite figure out.
But the thing that people keepcoming back to is they said well
, kamala Harris and Tim Walzwere there last month, and
(09:49):
what's that all about?
And then I thought about I wentback and looked a little closer
and I realized that MAGA andthe Trumpers, they really did
Permanente's dirty about a monthago and I haven't seen the
connection made yet in a lot ofplaces.
But I remember at the time andI went back and looked.
So the, by the way, fox News hasa story up of Vance not allowed
(10:12):
to campaign in PittsburghCulinary Landmark despite Harris
event at same restaurant chain.
There we go right, there's thehook.
There's the Fox News hook.
It's going to quote, legitimizeall of this.
And it says he was apparently.
Vance was apparently kicked outfrom a meeting with supporters
inside, despite the same chainallowing the Kamala Harris Tim
Walz campaign to meet itssupporters there.
And then they say familiarsources and they try to do all
(10:36):
sorts of, according to peoplethat were there but nobody's
ever quoted Trump supportersshot back, booing the employees
as they were ushered to the exit.
The source said so okay, so nowyou've got servers making $2.83
an hour having to put up withthis garbage.
This was not what they signedup for when they came into work
today and I would love, I wouldgive anything to know how much
(10:59):
of a tip, like what their tipswere yesterday compared to a
normal Saturday.
I would give anything to knowthat, because I think we can all
basically assume their tipswere a lot lower.
I would give anything to knowthat, because I think we can all
basically assume their tipswere a lot lower than they would
normally be right.
So let's not pretend like wewere doing these people any
favors.
And so let's go back and look atthe Harris thing.
It took place on August 18th.
(11:20):
I actually went back andchecked on Snopes because there
were all sorts of articles backthen that there were accusations
that the Harris-Walls team werebusing actors into Primanti's
and it was all fake and it wasall a setup.
And if you go back and look,it's actually not even remotely
that.
First and foremost and if youwant the contradiction right you
want to know where Harris gotit right and Vance got it wrong
(11:45):
is that when Kamala's team weregoing to do an event there, they
called ahead number one andalso rented out the restaurant.
They paid to have it there andwhat they did was they made it a
supporter event.
So they had volunteers I'm surethey were like local Democratic
(12:06):
committee members and peoplethat were out on the streets.
It was a thank you, it was acool opportunity, it was a photo
op, did a little bit ofeverything.
They did it the right way, theywent 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 andthey were taking people in vans,
(12:26):
and everybody saw it werebusing people in and they were
taking people in vans, andeverybody saw it.
What that really was was inresponse to the situation with
Trump, with the attemptedassassination in Butler.
As a result of that, there weresecurity concerns.
They didn't want just anybodybeing able to drive right up to
the front of the restaurant.
So they basically toldeverybody look, you will drive
(12:47):
to wherever this is, meet us atparking lot A or whatever, and
then we will take you there tokeep control over the situation,
like responsible people do that.
Don't want to see theircandidate being put in danger by
a bunch of wackos.
Pretty smart, right?
It's kind of like standardprocedure.
I'm sure the Secret Servicehave offered do it that way or
(13:09):
do it the way Vance did it.
I think it's pretty obviouswhich one they choose.
So they brought these supportersinto the Permanes and there
were articles on Fox at the timesaying oh, they threw us out at
3.30 in the afternoon to bringin these actors.
How horrible.
No, there was a private event.
That's how it goes.
And also there were pressaccounts that backed this up,
(13:34):
because there were, I thinkthree or four reporters that
they brought along to cover it,and one of them, ryan Dito, who
does great political reportinghere in PA.
He was on the recordacknowledging that.
So if they had brought in quoteactors, I don't think you would
invite reporters to be on thesame damn bus or in the record
acknowledging that.
So if they had brought in quoteactors, I don't think you would
invite reporters to be on thesame damn bus or in the same
vans.
It's just nothing.
Everything about what theHarris campaign said made
(13:56):
complete and total sense, andeverything that is being said
critically about it makesabsolutely no sense.
So think about that for aminute.
Now you've got theright-wingers already on Twitter
or everywhere else bashingpermani brothers for that, and
then jd vance has the absolutegall to show up to it's a
(14:16):
different location, but the samechain without asking, first
acting like everything wastotally.
This was just no big deal, andthen sparking up the outrage
machine.
Whatever he got treated, the waythat he should have been
treated, which is hey, you can'tjust come in here and do this,
we've got to go through someprocedures.
So they'd already done Permanisdirty before this, and now
(14:37):
they've really done them dirty.
Permanis, to their credit, cameout and said look, everybody's
welcome here, and it's a littleconflicting, but I did see some
reports that said that he wasable to go in and talk to some
folks.
And if that's the case, that'seven more disingenuous from JD
Vance's point of view becausethey didn't tell anybody that
last part, every picture, everyvideo, everything is him outside
(14:59):
the restaurant.
Because why let the truth getin the way of someone being
martyred?
Right, and that's what theylive for, although I do think
it's hilarious that JD JD Vanceliterally cannot order a meal
without looking like a clownEvery photo op and everything
he's tried to do at a restaurantor a donut shop or whatever he
just looks like.
If you told AI to create areally bad retail politician, it
(15:25):
would give you JD Vance.
He's just so bad at this andthat really goes to show you
that anybody that's elected tothe US Senate that is that bad
at retail politics.
That is a clear sign that theyhave been bankrolled by someone
like Peter Thiel, someone withhuge pockets.
They've never actually had togo out and retail politics
because that's like a skill youlearn really early on.
(15:46):
I don't care what you'rerunning for, so they're horrible
at it.
And then, of course.
So now we get to the obviousnext step, which is the outrage
on Twitter.
You've got trolls like RogerStone.
You've got all of these peoplethat are just bashing Perrantes,
right, they're like oh, here wego, horrible.
Oh, they're just such liberalwhatevers and boycott them, do
(16:09):
whatever.
And this was coming from likebigger people.
So, roger Stone, excuse me,while I type this one, make sure
I get it exactly right.
Roger Stone has a lot ofcredibility.
He said sorry, I'm scrollingthrough all of his things about
anti-vax and all these differentthings.
It's here.
It's here, boy.
This guy tweets a lot.
(16:31):
I saw it earlier, I just don'twant to get it wrong.
Here it is.
I'm going to quote PravaniBrothers, who, frankly, served
some of the worst pizza inAmerica 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.
(16:51):
And then they're talking aboutthey're going to start next week
.
And then that tweet got seen 1.8million times, 4,100 responses,
and you can only imagine what.
They are right.
And these people are justbashing Permanente Brothers.
Oh look, they're doxing the CEO.
Let's see here Just everyhorrible thing you can imagine.
(17:14):
Then it comes out this morningthat it was again.
I'll make sure I have it right.
There's a Twitter account forthe Pittsburgh scanner and they
said that four hours ago so thiswas at about 10 am on Sunday
that these primandies in thestrip district in Pittsburgh
which isn't even the sameprimandies this happened at.
(17:36):
A caller is an employee.
It says they had been receivingthreatening phone calls all
morning.
A male also came into the store, tossed a backpack on the
ground and left, turned out thebag had garbage in it.
But who knows, right, what arewe doing here?
There's people I'm looking at,people that were posting.
It says customers claim thatworkers of Brandy Brothers
threatened to call police on JDVance if he came in the
(17:57):
restaurant and ordered food.
Like it just doesn't end withthese people.
It just doesn't end with thesepeople.
It just doesn't end.
So what they did was they took abusiness.
They kind of hijacked it, notliterally, but politically.
They brought in all thesepeople taking videos.
It was either a setup or justreally sloppy.
And what happened now?
(18:18):
Now these people are being drugthrough the mud unfairly by
these, these right wing nuts andthere's no other thing to call
them.
They're nuts and they'redangerous.
Right, they are dangerouspeople.
They they feed or they feed onthe outrage machine.
This is where it's directedright now and, like a bunch of
(18:40):
dogs chasing after a squirrel,they're focused on permante
brothers, who did absolutelynothing wrong.
Let's be clear about that.
They did not do anything wrong.
If nothing else, I think theyactually turned around and were
gave a lot of cover to vance fornot doing it the right way.
They really kind of I thinkthey handled it as well as could
(19:02):
be expected.
They could have said our policyis that if you want to bring in
a large group in, you callahead it the right way.
They really kind of.
I think they handled it as wellas could be expected.
They could have said our policyis that if you want to bring in
a large group in, you callahead and make a reservation.
Boom, that's it.
Right, you could have done that.
You could have said theiradvances group became aggressive
towards our employees, which isnot tolerated under any
circumstances.
Right, but no, we have to givethese people deference because
somehow they're wackos with.
But no, we have to give thesepeople deference because somehow
(19:24):
they're wackos with cameras, sowe have to act like everything
they say and do is totally valid, right?
Primanti's went out of theirway to try to make this easier
for Vance and in return, theyare getting screwed.
And think about it All thesepeople that are working at
Primanti Brothers and there's abunch of them all over the place
Again, they're a chain, so, andwe have one here in Central PA
(19:44):
that we go to all the time Allof these poor people and I don't
mean poor financially, I meanthe poor of what they have to go
through.
This is not what they signed upfor, right?
They just want to go to work,they want to work hard, they
want to serve people food andmake some tips and go home Now.
(20:05):
Some tips and go home Now.
Every time they're in thereworking and you have some jag
off Trump supporter is going tobe giving them a hard time.
What's happening?
It's happening right now.
I guarantee it.
A part of me wishes I shouldhave gone down to the Primanti
brothers, where we're at outhere, right outside of
Harrisburg, and just sat thereand watch what happened.
It would have been a superfascinating thing, and maybe I
still will.
It's early on a football Sunday.
What's happening?
So now their employees arebeing treated badly.
(20:26):
Maybe they lose business, maybethey gain business, and because
the progressives are going tobe 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 rollsin, rolls over everybody, gets
what they want out of it,whether it's true or not, lights
(20:47):
the place on fire politicallyand then walks away and leaves
everybody else to deal with themess and the fallout.
It's just bullshit the waythey're doing this, and I don't
understand how people who areTrump supporters I'm not talking
(21:07):
about the wingnuts, right, thefar right wackadoos, I'm talking
about people that are kind oflike quote undecided or
indifferent how you can look atthe 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 freakedout.
They can't take anyresponsibility for anything they
(21:28):
ever do.
Springfield they are toldstraight 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 Erieright now.
I can't wait to see if hementions Primanti Brothers and
starts trashing them.
I don't know.
The only reason I think theymight not is I don't think Trump
(21:48):
really cares about what JDVance does all that much, but
it's going to happen.
So you've got this privatebusiness who got set up.
Basically there was nothingthey could do.
That was going to be okay here,all because the Vance people
didn't do their due diligence tocall ahead and make a
reservation or do whatever.
(22:09):
Think about it.
If you try to go to arestaurant with a large group
and didn't have a reservationand they asked you to leave
because they couldn't handleyour group, whose fault is that?
Who does that?
And I think we've become sonumb to the rudeness and the
indifference for anybody elseand just the balls on these
(22:30):
people or I guess lack of ballsthat we've almost we've just
normalized it.
But their behavior is obnoxiousand to me, take policy totally
out of it for a minute.
Take policy totally out of itfor a minute.
If nothing else, do you want tolive in a nation where that
kind of behavior is acceptableand lacks any sort of
(22:51):
accountability?
That is mob rule.
That is.
We want what we want and we'regoing to be loud until we get
what we want and we don't give adamn about what it does to
anybody else who wants to livein 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 yourneighbor, it's a shame, when it
happens to you, it's a tragedy.
(23:11):
And the way this is going, thissurge of just hate, it's just
hate, mis, misdirected,unnecessary, manufactured hate.
It's reaching this breakingpoint.
That's got everybody on edge.
And I don't know about you, butI'm just tired of it.
I'm just tired of it.
People ask me why are you soopposed to Trump?
(23:32):
And yeah, I could take down allof the reasons policy-wise.
I could do it forever.
But I think, like a lot ofpeople, I'm just tired.
I'm tired of having to doomscroll in the middle of the
night.
I'm tired of having to worryabout what kind of country my
kids are going to inherit.
I'm just tired and I'm madbecause they know that and they
(23:53):
are trying to just win thisthing by attrition.
As much as anything else,attrition is a huge part of what
they do.
Grind everybody down.
It's everybody's fault, sothere's no difference between
both sides, right?
That's what they do Grindeverybody down.
It's everybody's fault.
So there's no differencebetween 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
(24:15):
security concerns, did it allthe right way.
Jd Vance did none of thosethings.
But in both situations, in bothinstances, who ended up
attacking Permanente brothers?
Both times?
The right-wing MAGA Trump crowd.
They attacked both times, nomatter what.
They have to be outraged.
(24:36):
They have to be the victims,and they don't give a damn about
who they run over to get thereor if there are any consequences
of their actions, and thatalone tells you all you need to
know about who we are dealingwith.
So, yeah, there you go, go eatat Primanti.
Support them.
If for no other reason, thefood's good.
Don't get fancy either.
(24:56):
Everything's good there, butjust get the number two,
pittsburgh.
Nice and simple, it's as goodas it gets.
So, anyway, this has been theKeystone Reckoning Podcast.
If you like what we're doing,if you like what we're talking
about and want to help supportus to grow and to help other
candidates and campaigns, pleasevisit keystonereckoningcom.
You can make a donation to thepack right there that will be
(25:17):
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That's truebluegearcom.
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Again, that's True Blue Gear.
So this is Jesse White.
See y'all later.
So it looks like the Republicans have decided that
they like their fake outragewith fries and coleslaw on top.
Good afternoon and welcome tothe Keystone Reckoning podcast.
I'm Jesse White.
It is Sunday, september 29th2024.
The story circulating on socialmedia that's the big outrage
generator today has to do withVice Presidential candidate JD
(00:22):
Vance making an appearance inPittsburgh yesterday.
He was out there for a coupleof other events and they decided
to do a stop at a PrimantiBrothers restaurant in North
Versailles.
I'm from the Pittsburgh areabecause I know it's pronounced
North Versailles and not NorthVersailles.
The whole thing went sidewaysvery quickly.
The initial reports were thatVance and his campaign were not
(00:47):
welcome in Primanti Brothers,that they were thrown out by
employees.
Then that quickly morphed intoa statement from Primanti saying
wait, no one ever told us theywere going to be here and that
was what it was all about.
Then the outrage machine kickedinto high gear and all hell
broke loose.
So let's go back anddeconstruct this for a minute,
because there are a lot ofactually interesting angles that
(01:08):
aren't being talked about andit is really kind of a microcosm
of what this campaign is likeand really how Republicans in
general approach, using peopleand things as props to kind of
keep the outrage machine runningat full tilt.
So to give myself a little bitof street cred on this one, the
(01:28):
Venn diagram of things involvedhere actually checks off several
boxes for me.
I am a former elected officialfrom that area, from
Southwestern PA.
I've been a candidate and I'm aself-proclaimed yinzer.
I lived in Pittsburgh for thefirst 40 of my 46 years and have
made myself a proud yinzer inevery respect of the word.
(01:51):
And even though I'm here incentral PA now, I still call
Pittsburgh home.
So these are things I'mfamiliar with.
This is home to me.
So when I saw this story, itjust kind of really pinged me on
a lot of different fronts.
So let's go back for a minuteand if there's anybody that's at
(02:12):
fault, right.
If we want to go back and say,okay, this whole thing fell
apart from the beginning, whosefault is it?
That's easy.
It is undeniably JD Vance'scampaign's fault, for one
fundamental reason, which isthey did not notify Permanente
Brothers in advance that theywere going to be going there.
And that is a massive, massivepiece of this that cannot be
overlooked, as much as the MAGAcrowd would like to overlook it.
(02:33):
It reminded me of one of thefirst things that I ever learned
as a candidate, which is, ifyou were going the way I applied
.
It was if you're going into asenior 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
(02:53):
you have to be mindful andrespectful of the places you're
going to campaign, because youare undeniably kind of taking
advantage of their organization,taking advantage of their
facility, taking advantage ofthe fact that they have a group
of people in one place you wantto be in front of, and being
(03:13):
able to do that is a delicateask, or it should be a delicate
ask.
You have to do it the right wayif you want it to actually work
for you, and that's somethingthat 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 groundrules are, and that's like when
(03:34):
you roll in just a couple ofpeople, you're showing up
somewhere, not when you are aUnited States Senator and vice
presidential candidate coming inwith a motorcade, with Secret
Service with a huge entourage ina way that will be so
incredibly disruptive.
So think about this for a minute.
You've got Primanti brothersout in a suburb of Pittsburgh.
(03:56):
They have no clue that this isabout to happen.
All of a sudden, apparently alot of the Trump supporters.
They were tipped off.
I think, ironically, the Trumpsupporters knew that Vance was
going to Primanti Brothersbefore Primanti Brothers knew
that Vance was going to PrimantiBrothers.
So a bunch of these Trumpsupporters show up there and
they showed them.
In some of the videos they'rewearing sealer jerseys, I'm sure
(04:19):
, trump apparel and everything.
But OK, they show up at theplace they go in because they're
(04:48):
waiting for JD Vance to show up.
Fine, the people working therehave no idea that he.
That is obviously something thatyou would want the senior
management of the restaurant tobe there for, for a variety of
reasons.
Anybody that would beconsidered ownership would want
to be there.
Anybody that would beconsidered ownership would want
to be there.
It's kind of a big deal whenthe guy running for vice
president shows up at yourrestaurant.
(05:08):
None of that happened, so whatyou've got is just employees,
waiters, waitresses, peoplebussing tables, hosts, the
people in the kitchen.
They're not equipped forsomething like this.
How could they possibly be?
So it's fundamentally unfair tothem for this to happen.
(05:28):
So what apparently happened wasthe Vance people showed up.
They tried to go in and put ona show and the Peranis people
were like no, you can't come inhere and use this as a campaign
photo op, most likely becausewhoever it was that said that
probably didn't know what elseto say, probably was not
empowered to say anything else.
(05:49):
Right, they're worried aboutlosing 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.
Jd Vance then stages a wholething in the parking lot.
There are people inside takingvideos.
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.
(06:09):
And then he throws in his no,no tax on tips thing, which is a
horrible public policy, butthat's something for another day
and he tries to save a littleface from later in the day.
So in the meantime then ofcourse, it becomes
hyper-politicized and you haveprogressives and Kamala
(06:30):
supporters saying good forPermanes, and we're going to buy
gift cards from there and we'regoing to do all these things,
and good for them, and I'll bethe first to admit I said to my
wife hey, check this out.
They basically told Vance to goscrew off Isn't that cool?
And we got a chuckle out of it.
But then, of course, on theother side, you add all this
outrage.
So in the interim, primanti'sissues a statement and it's
(06:52):
short.
I'm going to read it.
They put it on social media.
It says Primanti prides itselfon being a staple of the
Pittsburgh community and a proudAmerican business that is
hosted sitting presidents,politicians and political
candidates from across thespectrum for over 90 years.
Our doors are open to allpatrons who wish to dine with us
Without any advance notice.
Today's campaign stop causedsome momentary confusion for our
(07:12):
staff.
However, senator Vance and histeam were welcomed into our
restaurant shortly after andengaged with our guests inside
and on the property.
Senator Vance's supportivecomments that our manager got a
little nervous, given the SecretService, police and crowd,
accurately reflect the nature ofwhat occurred and we are glad
that it was resolved quickly.
That was a very polite way ofsaying boy did JD Vance try to F
(07:34):
us over because he tried tocome in without any advance
notice, like any remotelycognizant or aware or
considerate politician orpolitical operation would do.
But we agreed, once we gotfigured out what was happening,
to let him in, because we leteverybody in, cool.
(07:56):
And then they also say at theend, again in nice language the
manager on the scene didn't knowwhat to do because you dropped
this massive situation on ourfront doorstep literally.
So there was some confusionwhile we figured it out, even
though and they don't say thisdirectly, of course, but while
all of the Trumpers were theretaking videos and trying to make
(08:17):
it into something it wasn't.
So the fault here lies with JDVance and his team.
That was inexcusable to notcall ahead.
And there were a couple ofarticles in the press where
local Republicans that werethere were saying, oh, they
definitely knew that Vance wascoming.
Well, at this point, if I'vegot to pick credibility and I've
got to weigh the credibility ofthe Trump-Vance MAGA crowd
(08:40):
versus Permanente Brothers, Iknow 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 thenews stories.
The fallout that came out of itbrought up to light another kind
of a comparison thing.
This wasn't a little bit of agotcha, because I almost find it
(09:04):
hard to believe that the SecretService would even allow Vance
to just roll in to somewherelike that, like totally without
notice.
It felt really weird, like ifit had been planned all along.
How did the supporters know,but no one thought to like
secure the building?
Did the supporters know, but noone thought to secure the
(09:26):
building?
Because you have to rememberalso, this is not far at all
from Butler where theassassination on Trump's life
took place, the attempt onTrump's life.
I mean, it's not very far atall.
So it feels weird.
There's something there that Ican't quite figure out.
But the thing that people keepcoming back to is they said well
, kamala Harris and Tim Walzwere there last month, and
(09:49):
what's that all about?
And then I thought about I wentback and looked a little closer
and I realized that MAGA andthe Trumpers, they really did
Permanente's dirty about a monthago and I haven't seen the
connection made yet in a lot ofplaces.
But I remember at the time andI went back and looked.
So the, by the way, fox News hasa story up of Vance not allowed
(10:12):
to campaign in PittsburghCulinary Landmark despite Harris
event at same restaurant chain.
There we go right, there's thehook.
There's the Fox News hook.
It's going to quote, legitimizeall of this.
And it says he was apparently.
Vance was apparently kicked outfrom a meeting with supporters
inside, despite the same chainallowing the Kamala Harris Tim
Walz campaign to meet itssupporters there.
And then they say familiarsources and they try to do all
(10:36):
sorts of, according to peoplethat were there but nobody's
ever quoted Trump supportersshot back, booing the employees
as they were ushered to the exit.
The source said so okay, so nowyou've got servers making $2.83
an hour having to put up withthis garbage.
This was not what they signedup for when they came into work
today and I would love, I wouldgive anything to know how much
(10:59):
of a tip, like what their tipswere yesterday compared to a
normal Saturday.
I would give anything to knowthat, because I think we can all
basically assume their tipswere a lot lower.
I would give anything to knowthat, because I think we can all
basically assume their tipswere a lot lower than they would
normally be right.
So let's not pretend like wewere doing these people any
favors.
And so let's go back and look atthe Harris thing.
It took place on August 18th.
(11:20):
I actually went back andchecked on Snopes because there
were all sorts of articles backthen that there were accusations
that the Harris-Walls team werebusing actors into Primanti's
and it was all fake and it wasall a setup.
And if you go back and look,it's actually not even remotely
that.
First and foremost and if youwant the contradiction right you
want to know where Harris gotit right and Vance got it wrong
(11:45):
is that when Kamala's team weregoing to do an event there, they
called ahead number one andalso rented out the restaurant.
They paid to have it there andwhat they did was they made it a
supporter event.
So they had volunteers I'm surethey were like local Democratic
(12:06):
committee members and peoplethat were out on the streets.
It was a thank you, it was acool opportunity, it was a photo
op, did a little bit ofeverything.
They did it the right way, theywent 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 andthey were taking people in vans,
(12:26):
and everybody saw it werebusing people in and they were
taking people in vans, andeverybody saw it.
What that really was was inresponse to the situation with
Trump, with the attemptedassassination in Butler.
As a result of that, there weresecurity concerns.
They didn't want just anybodybeing able to drive right up to
the front of the restaurant.
So they basically toldeverybody look, you will drive
(12:47):
to wherever this is, meet us atparking lot A or whatever, and
then we will take you there tokeep control over the situation,
like responsible people do that.
Don't want to see theircandidate being put in danger by
a bunch of wackos.
Pretty smart, right?
It's kind of like standardprocedure.
I'm sure the Secret Servicehave offered do it that way or
(13:09):
do it the way Vance did it.
I think it's pretty obviouswhich one they choose.
So they brought these supportersinto the Permanes and there
were articles on Fox at the timesaying oh, they threw us out at
3.30 in the afternoon to bringin these actors.
How horrible.
No, there was a private event.
That's how it goes.
And also there were pressaccounts that backed this up,
(13:34):
because there were, I thinkthree or four reporters that
they brought along to cover it,and one of them, ryan Dito, who
does great political reportinghere in PA.
He was on the recordacknowledging that.
So if they had brought in quoteactors, I don't think you would
invite reporters to be on thesame damn bus or in the record
acknowledging that.
So if they had brought in quoteactors, I don't think you would
invite reporters to be on thesame damn bus or in the same
vans.
It's just nothing.
Everything about what theHarris campaign said made
(13:56):
complete and total sense, andeverything that is being said
critically about it makesabsolutely no sense.
So think about that for aminute.
Now you've got theright-wingers already on Twitter
or everywhere else bashingpermani brothers for that, and
then jd vance has the absolutegall to show up to it's a
(14:16):
different location, but the samechain without asking, first
acting like everything wastotally.
This was just no big deal, andthen sparking up the outrage
machine.
Whatever he got treated, the waythat he should have been
treated, which is hey, you can'tjust come in here and do this,
we've got to go through someprocedures.
So they'd already done Permanisdirty before this, and now
(14:37):
they've really done them dirty.
Permanis, to their credit, cameout and said look, everybody's
welcome here, and it's a littleconflicting, but I did see some
reports that said that he wasable to go in and talk to some
folks.
And if that's the case, that'seven more disingenuous from JD
Vance's point of view becausethey didn't tell anybody that
last part, every picture, everyvideo, everything is him outside
(14:59):
the restaurant.
Because why let the truth getin the way of someone being
martyred?
Right, and that's what theylive for, although I do think
it's hilarious that JD JD Vanceliterally cannot order a meal
without looking like a clownEvery photo op and everything
he's tried to do at a restaurantor a donut shop or whatever he
just looks like.
If you told AI to create areally bad retail politician, it
(15:25):
would give you JD Vance.
He's just so bad at this andthat really goes to show you
that anybody that's elected tothe US Senate that is that bad
at retail politics.
That is a clear sign that theyhave been bankrolled by someone
like Peter Thiel, someone withhuge pockets.
They've never actually had togo out and retail politics
because that's like a skill youlearn really early on.
(15:46):
I don't care what you'rerunning for, so they're horrible
at it.
And then, of course.
So now we get to the obviousnext step, which is the outrage
on Twitter.
You've got trolls like RogerStone.
You've got all of these peoplethat are just bashing Perrantes,
right, they're like oh, here wego, horrible.
Oh, they're just such liberalwhatevers and boycott them, do
(16:09):
whatever.
And this was coming from likebigger people.
So, roger Stone, excuse me,while I type this one, make sure
I get it exactly right.
Roger Stone has a lot ofcredibility.
He said sorry, I'm scrollingthrough all of his things about
anti-vax and all these differentthings.
It's here.
It's here, boy.
This guy tweets a lot.
(16:31):
I saw it earlier, I just don'twant to get it wrong.
Here it is.
I'm going to quote PravaniBrothers, who, frankly, served
some of the worst pizza inAmerica 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.
(16:51):
And then they're talking aboutthey're going to start next week
.
And then that tweet got seen 1.8million times, 4,100 responses,
and you can only imagine what.
They are right.
And these people are justbashing Permanente Brothers.
Oh look, they're doxing the CEO.
Let's see here Just everyhorrible thing you can imagine.
(17:14):
Then it comes out this morningthat it was again.
I'll make sure I have it right.
There's a Twitter account forthe Pittsburgh scanner and they
said that four hours ago so thiswas at about 10 am on Sunday
that these primandies in thestrip district in Pittsburgh
which isn't even the sameprimandies this happened at.
(17:36):
A caller is an employee.
It says they had been receivingthreatening phone calls all
morning.
A male also came into the store, tossed a backpack on the
ground and left, turned out thebag had garbage in it.
But who knows, right, what arewe doing here?
There's people I'm looking at,people that were posting.
It says customers claim thatworkers of Brandy Brothers
threatened to call police on JDVance if he came in the
(17:57):
restaurant and ordered food.
Like it just doesn't end withthese people.
It just doesn't end with thesepeople.
It just doesn't end.
So what they did was they took abusiness.
They kind of hijacked it, notliterally, but politically.
They brought in all thesepeople taking videos.
It was either a setup or justreally sloppy.
And what happened now?
(18:18):
Now these people are being drugthrough the mud unfairly by
these, these right wing nuts andthere's no other thing to call
them.
They're nuts and they'redangerous.
Right, they are dangerouspeople.
They they feed or they feed onthe outrage machine.
This is where it's directedright now and, like a bunch of
(18:40):
dogs chasing after a squirrel,they're focused on permante
brothers, who did absolutelynothing wrong.
Let's be clear about that.
They did not do anything wrong.
If nothing else, I think theyactually turned around and were
gave a lot of cover to vance fornot doing it the right way.
They really kind of I thinkthey handled it as well as could
(19:02):
be expected.
They could have said our policyis that if you want to bring in
a large group in, you callahead it the right way.
They really kind of.
I think they handled it as wellas could be expected.
They could have said our policyis that if you want to bring in
a large group in, you callahead and make a reservation.
Boom, that's it.
Right, you could have done that.
You could have said theiradvances group became aggressive
towards our employees, which isnot tolerated under any
circumstances.
Right, but no, we have to givethese people deference because
somehow they're wackos with.
But no, we have to give thesepeople deference because somehow
(19:24):
they're wackos with cameras, sowe have to act like everything
they say and do is totally valid, right?
Primanti's went out of theirway to try to make this easier
for Vance and in return, theyare getting screwed.
And think about it All thesepeople that are working at
Primanti Brothers and there's abunch of them all over the place
Again, they're a chain, so, andwe have one here in Central PA
(19:44):
that we go to all the time Allof these poor people and I don't
mean poor financially, I meanthe poor of what they have to go
through.
This is not what they signed upfor, right?
They just want to go to work,they want to work hard, they
want to serve people food andmake some tips and go home Now.
(20:05):
Some tips and go home Now.
Every time they're in thereworking and you have some jag
off Trump supporter is going tobe giving them a hard time.
What's happening?
It's happening right now.
I guarantee it.
A part of me wishes I shouldhave gone down to the Primanti
brothers, where we're at outhere, right outside of
Harrisburg, and just sat thereand watch what happened.
It would have been a superfascinating thing, and maybe I
still will.
It's early on a football Sunday.
What's happening?
So now their employees arebeing treated badly.
(20:26):
Maybe they lose business, maybethey gain business, and because
the progressives are going tobe 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 rollsin, rolls over everybody, gets
what they want out of it,whether it's true or not, lights
(20:47):
the place on fire politicallyand then walks away and leaves
everybody else to deal with themess and the fallout.
It's just bullshit the waythey're doing this, and I don't
understand how people who areTrump supporters I'm not talking
(21:07):
about the wingnuts, right, thefar right wackadoos, I'm talking
about people that are kind oflike quote undecided or
indifferent how you can look atthe 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 freakedout.
They can't take anyresponsibility for anything they
(21:28):
ever do.
Springfield they are toldstraight 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 Erieright now.
I can't wait to see if hementions Primanti Brothers and
starts trashing them.
I don't know.
The only reason I think theymight not is I don't think Trump
(21:48):
really cares about what JDVance does all that much, but
it's going to happen.
So you've got this privatebusiness who got set up.
Basically there was nothingthey could do.
That was going to be okay here,all because the Vance people
didn't do their due diligence tocall ahead and make a
reservation or do whatever.
(22:09):
Think about it.
If you try to go to arestaurant with a large group
and didn't have a reservationand they asked you to leave
because they couldn't handleyour group, whose fault is that?
Who does that?
And I think we've become sonumb to the rudeness and the
indifference for anybody elseand just the balls on these
(22:30):
people or I guess lack of ballsthat we've almost we've just
normalized it.
But their behavior is obnoxiousand to me, take policy totally
out of it for a minute.
Take policy totally out of itfor a minute.
If nothing else, do you want tolive in a nation where that
kind of behavior is acceptableand lacks any sort of
(22:51):
accountability?
That is mob rule.
That is.
We want what we want and we'regoing to be loud until we get
what we want and we don't give adamn about what it does to
anybody else who wants to livein 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 yourneighbor, it's a shame, when it
happens to you, it's a tragedy.
(23:11):
And the way this is going, thissurge of just hate, it's just
hate, mis, misdirected,unnecessary, manufactured hate.
It's reaching this breakingpoint.
That's got everybody on edge.
And I don't know about you, butI'm just tired of it.
I'm just tired of it.
People ask me why are you soopposed to Trump?
(23:32):
And yeah, I could take down allof the reasons policy-wise.
I could do it forever.
But I think, like a lot ofpeople, I'm just tired.
I'm tired of having to doomscroll in the middle of the
night.
I'm tired of having to worryabout what kind of country my
kids are going to inherit.
I'm just tired and I'm madbecause they know that and they
(23:53):
are trying to just win thisthing by attrition.
As much as anything else,attrition is a huge part of what
they do.
Grind everybody down.
It's everybody's fault, sothere's no difference between
both sides, right?
That's what they do Grindeverybody down.
It's everybody's fault.
So there's no differencebetween 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
(24:15):
security concerns, did it allthe right way.
Jd Vance did none of thosethings.
But in both situations, in bothinstances, who ended up
attacking Permanente brothers?
Both times?
The right-wing MAGA Trump crowd.
They attacked both times, nomatter what.
They have to be outraged.
(24:36):
They have to be the victims,and they don't give a damn about
who they run over to get thereor if there are any consequences
of their actions, and thatalone tells you all you need to
know about who we are dealingwith.
So, yeah, there you go, go eatat Primanti.
Support them.
If for no other reason, thefood's good.
Don't get fancy either.
(24:56):
Everything's good there, butjust get the number two,
pittsburgh.
Nice and simple, it's as goodas it gets.
So, anyway, this has been theKeystone Reckoning Podcast.
If you like what we're doing,if you like what we're talking
about and want to help supportus to grow and to help other
candidates and campaigns, pleasevisit keystonereckoningcom.
You can make a donation to thepack right there that will be
(25:17):
used for a variety of wonderfulpurposes to help move the cause
forward.
And please also visit oursponsor, true Blue Gear.
That's truebluegearcom.
We have all sorts of greatT-shirts and swag and hats and
all that stuff that you're goingto want heading into Election
Day.
Again, that's True Blue Gear.
So this is Jesse White.
See y'all later.
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