Soda Pop Wars: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear apologizes for barb, but not to Sen. JD Vance

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, one of the leading contenders to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket, apologized this week for something he said in lambasting Ohio Sen. JD Vance as inauthentically Appalachian — but the apology wasn’t to Vance.

Beshear, at his regularly scheduled news conference at the Kentucky State Capitol on Thursday, pulled out a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew and apologized to the makers of the soft drink. Earlier in the week, the Republican vice-presidential nominee had said at a rally in Ohio that he’d had a Diet Mountain Dew that day and fully expected to be called a “racist” because of it.

Beshear, in a CNN interview, called the comment “weird” and added: “Who drinks Diet Mountain Dew?”

On Thursday he retreated — but only a little bit.

“Folks, I’ve been a person that when sometimes I’ve gone over the line, I’ve wanted to make sure that I set the record straight, so, I do owe an apology to Diet Mountain Dew,” Beshear said.

The Kentucky governor wasn’t ready to retreat from his attacks on the “Hillbilly Elegy” author for what he said was misrepresenting the region and calling people who live there lazy in the book. Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, and while he has family in Kentucky, Beshear has said bluntly: “He ain’t from here.”

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