In a shocking moment at the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter on Thursday, January 9, Karen Pence, the wife of former Vice President Mike Pence, sparked a huge uproar online when she refused to do the common courtesy of shaking hands with Melania Trump. Making the incident even more shocking, it occurred inside the Washington National Cathedral, meaning the insult delivered by supposedly Christian Karen Pence came inside a gathering place of the Christian faith.
The video shows the incident occurring as President-elect Donald Trump and his tastefully attired wife Melania arrived at the National Cathedral for Carter’s funeral. Interestingly, this was one of their first major public appearances together since Trump won the 2024 election in November, with Melania having kept a lower profile.
In any case, as they arrived, Melania approached Karen Pence and tried shaking her hand. Instead of doing the common courtesy of extending her hand back and shaking it, Karen Pence spun around and refused to shake Melania’s hand, a major snub and insult of the incoming First Lady, particularly as it occurred in public inside a church.
Melania, however, didn’t rise to the bait and return the rude, classless insult of Karen Pence. Instead, handling the situation with a great degree of self-control and grace, Melania merely offered a cold but polite smile to Karen and ignored the tasteless snub offered to her inside the National Cathedral.
Making the incident all the more unnecessary and tasteless was that former VP Pence shook hands with both Melania and Donald Trump. So, even as her husband stood and at least pretended to be pleasant with the Trumps, with each side going through the rituals of courtesy, shaking their hands and flashing a smile, Karen remained seated and turned from Melania when the handshake offer came.
As could be expected, the incident sparked a major furor online. Leading the charge was the Johnny MAGA X (formerly Twitter) account, known for its pro-Trump stance and focus on current events from that angle. He said, captioning a clip of that incident, “Classless move on behalf of Karen Pence. There was no need for this whatsoever.”
Commenters were equally angry, focusing particularly on the lack of Christian grace and charity by saying things like “Is Karen Pence supposed to be a strong Christian like Mike claims to be all of the time? Shameful!!” and “It’s always the ones who brag the loudest about being a Christian who act like this.” Watch the incident here:
Another commenter on the post noted that, whatever the political situation, Melania has done nothing whatsoever deserving of such awful and impolite treatment. That commenter on Johnny MAGA’s post said, “Just a reminder of who they really are. There is nobody less deserving of mistreatment than Melania.”
Yet another commenter chimed in and noted that, whatever the insults directed her way, Melania had responded with the usual sort of class and grace she exemplifies, writing, “All I see is our new First Lady carrying herself with Class & Eloquence as always.” Another noted of Karen’s lack of manners, “WORDS from Pence & Gore were “Happy New Year” to Trump and our soon to be beautiful First Lady Melania, again. That’s all they said – and that was fine. The fact that Christian Karen Pence couldn’t even muster those tiny manners, speaks volumes.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
