A visit from Vice President JD Vance was met with mixed reactions in Vermont's Mad River Valley over the weekend.
Vance, his wife Usha and their three children, arrived in Vermont on Friday for a weekend of skiing at the popular Sugarbush resort in Warren, NBC affiliate WPTZ-TV reports. Both supporters and protesters have scheduled rallies for the weekend.
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Josh Turka, owner of Mad River Taste Place in Waitsfield, said regardless of political affiliation this high-profile visit was a chance for Vermonters to say their piece.
"I think that this is such a perfect time for people in rural Vermont to really speak their mind and get their voices heard. So we're super supportive of anyone who wants to be out protesting ang just kind of speaking their mind," Turka told WPTZ-TV.
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Hundreds of protesters lined the streets of Waitsfield Saturday.
Maria Reyes, a Barre resident originally from the Dominican Republic, said she was concerned about human rights.
"Every human being has a right," she said. "I just feel like we’re taking, like, a million steps back. America is supposed to represent opportunity — to leave a country and feel like you can grow or expand or leave violence."
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"Our democracy is at risk, and we have people who don’t care about people," Terry Bambrick, who is from, Richmond said.
Meanwhile supporters in Vermont said they wanted to show Vance appreciation for the work the administration is doing.
"We're trying to send a positive message that the president and the vice president are on the right track to bring our country back to the good old days where we were and can be there for all people. You know our country is about we the people," said Gregory Thayer, organizer of the Vance Support Rally.
“I thought it was unbelievable that JD Vance would come to a blue state. It just shows what kind of awesome, down-to-earth guy he is,” Rebecca Pitre from Waterville said.
The visit comes right after an extraordinary on-camera clash between Vance, President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.
Zelenskyy was visiting to try to hammer out a minerals deal, which the Trump administration has presented as an important step forward for Ukraine on the road to peace with Russia more than three years after the war began. Instead, the meeting devolved into a shouting match and ended with Zelenskyy being asked to leave the White House.
