Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear apologizes for barb, but not to Sen. JD Vance

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- 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.”

At the news conference, Beshear held up the drink and said he was wrong to single it out, though he still thought more Kentuckians were likely to turn to Ale 8 as their soft drink of choice.

He also said his criticism had nothing to do with being considered by Harris for vice president.

“What I said about JD Vance isn’t because of anything that is rumored about me or any role he’s stepped into,” Beshear said. “It’s because he has exploited and attempted to attack my fellow Kentuckians. And it’s my job as governor to stand up when that happens.

“To spend some summers or parts of summers or weekends or come into special events and then to claim that you know the people of eastern Kentucky, the culture of eastern Kentucky, to make money off of that claim and then to call our people names, is just not acceptable. If anybody else had done it, I’d be speaking up, too."