Mike Pence’s Firm Pledge To America: ‘We’re Not Going To Let Joe Biden And Kamala Harris Cut America’s Meat!’

We live in strange times. Everyone knows this. This isn’t exactly breaking news here. Still, even in an era so rife with absurdity, there are times virtually every day where we see or hear something, and many of us have to stop and go, “Wait, is this real?” This is especially true for those of us who spend an inordinate amount of time on the internet — many of us have become hyper-aware of hoaxes and deep fakes to the point where everything is approached with a large degree of skepticism. (This isn’t a bad thing, mind you.)

That all said, the clip above of Mike Pence addressing a group of farmers and ranchers in Iowa certainly caused many to question its authenticity, due to the fact that it feels like very much like something straight out of Veep. It is, however, an actual thing that happened. The vice president of the United States did, in fact, stand before a gathering of Americans in the middle of a pandemic and awkwardly proclaim, “Well, I’ve got some red meat for you: We’re not going to let Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cut America’s meat!”

Some background: back in 2019, Sen. Kamala Harris — Joe Biden’s recently announced running mate — commented that Americans should eat less meat, both for the health benefits for themselves and for the benefits to the environment, assertions backed by considerable scientific research.

“I love cheeseburgers from time to time, I just do,” Harris said. “But there has to be [a consideration of] what we do in terms of creating incentives that we will eat in a healthy way, that we will encourage moderation, and that we will be educated about the effect of our eating habits on our environment. We have to do a much better job with that and the government has to do a much better job with that.”

We can only assume that “they want to take away your meat” may become a part of the Trump/Pence campaign’s core messaging. Meanwhile, it looks as though America’s bungled handling of COVID-19 outbreak might be the thing that actually does that for some people. The only thing that’s probably certain here is that people will be making jokes about Mike Pence and meat for a while.