JD Vance received a less-than-warm welcome during a visit to the Kennedy Centre, as he was roundly booed by those in attendance.
Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance took their seats at the Washington DC venue for a performance from the National Symphony Orchestra on Thursday evening, which featured a program of all-Russian music.
The Independent reports that the concert had been delayed by 25 minutes because audience members had to undergo full Secret Service military checks after Vance’s motorcade pulled up.
Footage captured by the Guardian’s global affairs correspondent Andrew Roth shows the moment Vance entered the venue to take his seat in a box.
But when people started to notice who had just entered, the boos quickly grew from those in the floor seats.
A woman can be heard saying ““Oh, f***. S***” after the person next to them points out who has just walked in.
Vance is then greeted by a chorus of boos, with the vice-president waving back to the crowd.
According to the Guardian, some shouted at him: “You ruined this place!”
Last month, Donald Trump fired the chairman of the Kennedy Center along with 13 of its trustees in a purge of Democratic-appointed members, replacing them with MAGA-loyalists.
The MAGA-supporting interim director of the Kennedy Center, Richard Grenell, said the audience’s behaviour towards Vance was “intolerant.”
Related: British papers slam JD Vance following ‘random country’ comments