An unfortunate incident caused by the weather was captured in a video taken at a campaign rally for Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman on Saturday.
Fetterman is the current lieutenant governor for the Keystone State and is the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Senator Pat Toomey. He is facing off against the Republican nominee, TV host Dr. Mehmet Oz. As a key swing state that played a pivotal role in Joe Biden‘s 2020 victory, Pennsylvania’s midterm races have received considerable attention from both the Democratic and Republican establishments.
As a result, Fetterman’s campaign rally in Pittsburgh on Saturday morning hosted a special guest speaker, former President Barack Obama. Obama has been making the rounds recently to support candidates in a number of key states, including Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.
Things did not go off completely without a hitch at the event, as various videos captured at the event showed a few American flags on the rally stage being knocked over by the wind as Fetterman introduced the former president.
A clip of the incident was shared to Twitter by journalist Aaron Rupar. In it, the wind at the event appears to be significantly strong, knocking over at least five flags that were visible behind Fetterman. WillyWeather, a website that tracks wind speed among other weather phenomena, reported that Pittsburgh experienced a surge in wind on Saturday, with speeds surpassing 20 mph around the time of Fetterman’s campaign. The Beaufort Scale categorizes such winds as strong enough to cause small trees to sway.
As of Saturday evening, the clip shared by Rupar had been viewed nearly 215,000 times.
Mark Makela/Getty Images
Reactions to the clip online varied along partisan lines. Replies to Rupar’s tweet included users chalking the incident up to strong winds, suggesting that the clip shows why wind power ought to be harnessed as clean energy, and others lamenting the clip’s inevitable appearance in attack ads against Fetterman.
“Gale force winds wipe out flags, yet strong Democratic candidate doesn’t even flinch,” one user with the most popular response to Rupar’s tweet wrote. “Strength personified.”
Conservative journalist and author Andy Ngo also shared the clip, noting that the incident happened as Fetterman introduced Obama as a “sedition-free” president. The replies to his tweet were much more venomous towards Fetterman, with one calling the incident a representation of what will happen when Oz wins the election.
As Pennsylvania Democrat Senate candidate John Fetterman talked about how proud he was of “sedition free” President Biden, the flags on the stage were blown over. pic.twitter.com/d0idqQod4G
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 5, 2022
“John Fetterman’s rally is off to a great start…” the official RNC Research Twitter account said. The version of the clip it shared has been viewed nearly 2 million times.
Newsweek reached out to the Fetterman campaign team for comment.
