The vice president was greeted by cheers at Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh on Saturday, as she went around shaking hands, taking selfies and hugging shoppers — including embracing one tearful local — in the store.
She peddled a message of unity as reporters quizzed her about taking the stage against Trump for their first face-to-face meeting of the 2024 election in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which will be beamed live to ABC viewers across the country at 9:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday evening.
“Being at this spice store, I finally got out of the debate prep,” Harris chuckled, holding up her new jar of spices.
When probed about a key message she wanted to get across to the former president during the debate, she replied: “Look, it’s time to turn the page on the divisiveness. It’s time to bring our country together, chart a new way forward.”
Former president was quizzed on her upcoming ABC debate by reporters inside Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh (AP)
Hosts of Fox News’s Fox & Friends were quick to seize on Harris’s visit to Penzeys, attacking both the vice president’s messaging and accusing the store of being vicious to GOP voters.
“Vice President Harris is hunkering down in Pittsburgh as she pushes for unity while visiting a spice shop known for mocking Republicans,” anchor Will Cain said on Sunday’s program.
“They chose the comfiest, coziest place she could conceivably go, where all of the owners and the staff are 100 percent libs who hate Trump,” co-host Pete Hegseth added.
Co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy , who apparently visited one of their shops while staring in MTV reality show The Real World , chimed in calling Penzeys the “the meanest spice shop in America.”
Campos-Duffy visited Penzeys and was not impressed (Getty Images)
The shop’s website has a whole “about Republicans” page noting the “slow decline” of the GOP.
It will still allow Republicans to enter the store, but it’s “done pretending the Republican Party’s embrace of cruelty, racism, Covid lies, climate change denial, and threats to democracy are anything other than the risks they legitimately are,” the website reads.
The webpage, written by the spice retailer’s CEO Bill Penzey Jr, continues: “The truth of our time is we’ve arrived at the point where there’s no way to respect the nonsense the Republican Party is promoting and have any hope of overcoming the problems we as a nation and we as a planet face.”
Penzeys had recently wrapped up an advertisement campaign for their “Justice” spice blend directed at Trump, headlined as “Re-indicted and it feels so good!” according to the New York Post .
The company hit headlines in 2019 for spending more than $700,000 on Facebook adverts encouraging Trump’s impeachment. In 2022, Penzey Jr attempted to rebrand Martin Luther King Jr Day as “Republicans are Racists Weekend.”
Harris, however, didn’t leave the store empty-handed and was delighted by her spicy haul.
“I look forward to using my new seasonings from Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh at our next Sunday family dinner,” Harris posted on X after her visit.
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