Vice President JD Vance sharply rebuked Barack Obama after the former president derided the current White House dcor as resembling a Cheesecake Factory operated by Saddam Hussein.
Speaking at a Texas town hall hosted by Fox News Jesse Watters, Vance responded with characteristic bluntness, saying of Obamas jab, I didnt fully get it. I kind of like the Cheesecake Factory. According to the New York Post, he went on to frame the remark as emblematic of the lefts cultural snobbery, arguing, I think its like a good example of how Obama, without even trying to be, just cant help himself from being super elitist.
Vance reminded the audience of Obamas long history of condescension toward middle America, recalling the infamous 2008 comments about working-class voters. Remember, this is the guy who said that people who wanted good jobs were clinging to their guns and their religion, as if God and the Second Amendment were something to be ashamed of, he added.
For conservatives, that line has become shorthand for a Democratic Party that views faith, firearms, and traditional values as backward relics rather than pillars of American life. In trying to mock President Trumps taste and priorities, Vance argued, Obama instead exposed how out of touch Democrats have become with ordinary voters.
Obama had drove home how divorced the Democrats are from actual Americans, Vance said, after the former president accused Trump in an Ohio stump speech of focusing more on home renovations than on governing. I mean, I dont know if youve noticed, but he seems very focused on home renovations, Obama quipped.
He should be on HGTV. Obama escalated the insult with his now-notorious line: Hes got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.
Yet when the backlash set in, Watters noted, Obama appeared to retreat from his own rhetoric at a rally in Atlanta, suddenly insisting that as the father of two daughters the Cheesecake Factory was my jam for about a decade. Vance argued that this quick pivot was politically calculated rather than sincere.
See, thats exactly the point, though he realized, Oh, a lot of the people we want to vote for us actually like the Cheesecake Factory, Vance explained. The vice president then defended the chain restaurant as a symbol of broad, middle-class appeal, calling it the weirdest restaurant to hate on.
The menu is like 75 pages long, so theres something for everybody, he joked, underscoring how Democrats often sneer at the very places frequented by the voters they claim to champion. I just dont understand. Like, there are restaurants I can imagine beating up on not the Cheesecake Factory, Vance said.
Leave us alone, Barack! Watters closed the exchange with a lighthearted promise that Fox News next town hall would be held inside a Cheesecake Factory, a fitting backdrop for a political divide that increasingly pits coastal elitism against everyday American tastes.
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