Twitter Users Mock Mike and Karen Pence for Looking Sad... During Concentration Camp Visit
As Vice President Mike Pence makes headlines following his attendance of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games opening ceremonies in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a few of his critics have been re-circulating a year-old photo on Twitter in an attempt to paint him as a killjoy.
The effort fell flat, however, when social media users added some crucial context to the picture of Pence and his wife, Karen.
As the Daily Wire reported, the image was taken from the Pences’ February 2017 visit to the Dachau concentration camp where prisoners in Nazi Germany were maimed, tortured and killed during the Holocaust.
One tweet on the topic provided screenshots of two verified Twitter users mocking the couple for their somber expression juxtaposed with the an article revealing the backstory.
“They seem fun,” wrote Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
He later deleted the tweet and offered an apology for what he described as a mistake.
“I stand corrected!” Lewis wrote. “This is an old photo from a visit to a concentration camp. The grin (sic) faces are appropriate!”
New York University professor Ian Bremmer likewise deleted a tweet sharing the same image of the Pences.
“I’ve tried,” he wrote in a caption. “I can’t actually look this unhappy.”
Some users were willing to forgive the apparent oversight, though others felt such influential accounts should post with more care.
As CNN reported at the time, Pence did not issue a formal statement in connection with the visit to the former concentration camp, opting instead for a “low-key” tour with his wife and their daughter, Charlotte.
Dachau opened in 1933 and was the site of at least 28,000 prisoner deaths between 1940 and 1945. Many more passed through the camp on their way to Nazi-occupied Poland, where they died in the camp at Auschwitz.
The vice president has faced criticism this week, including in another tweet from Brennan, for his dismissive stance toward North Korean delegates at the Olympic games.
Reports this week, however, indicate Pence’s presence seems to have made diplomatic talks between the U.S. and North Korea more likely.
Returning from South Korea, he reportedly confirmed that America would be open to negotiating with North Korea, but advised that “no pressure comes off until they are actually doing something that the alliance believes represents a meaningful step toward denuclearization.”
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