Vice President JD Vance's planned Vermont ski vacation drew hundreds of angry protestors following a contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"Ski Russia because JD Vance has no friends in Vermont, but he's got lots of friends in Russia, so he should go there for vacation," Tekla Van Hoven of Waterbury told WCAX-3.
The station showed videos of protestors lining the streets of the town of Waitsfield, located about a mile from where Vance and his family were planning to enjoy the slopes of Sugarbush Resort.
"I'm a federal employee; I watched eleven of our federal public servants get illegally fired. It's all due to the complacency of this jerk," said a man identified by the station only as Matt.
At a Friday meeting between President Donald Trump, Vance and Zelensky, Vance talked about ending the war in Ukraine and Ukraine taking a peace deal. Zelensky then indicated that he did not believe Russia had previously negotiated in good faith: "But after that, he [Putin] broke this ceasefire. He killed our people, and he didn't exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisons, but he didn't do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you asking me about? What did it mean?"
Trump and Vance then both chastised Zelensky, asserting that he was "disrespectful," wasn't "thankful," and that Ukraine had "no cards" to play.
Although the protests had been planned even before the Friday Oval Office meeting, the meeting helped energize the activity, the Associated Press reported.
The AP reported that some protestors did descend on the resort itself.
"There were a handful of protestors at the resort throughout the day, but all were peaceful, and none were disruptive," resort spokesman John Bleh said in an email Sunday to the AP.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott also issued a statement on Thursday welcoming Vance and his family to the state.
"I hope Vermonters remember the vice president is here on a family trip with his young children and, while we may not always agree, we should be respectful," the statement said, according to the AP.
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