White House slammed for hiring ‘influencer’ to promote vaccines: ‘Embarrassment to America’
Thomas McDonald
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The White House is receiving major pushback after a feminine male influencer on TikTok was brought in to help promote the COVID-19 vaccination with a video that many are calling an “embarrassment.”
Benito Skinner, known online as Benny Drama, was hired to make a video depicting a “day in the life” of a White House intern in order to promote the COVID-19 vaccination. Benny, sporting two-inch long white painted nails, is depicted frolicking around the White House causing mayhem everywhere he goes.
In one portion of the video, Benny tells White House Press Secretary Jenn Psaki, “Hey, Jenny, booked a nail appointment for you, love!” A clearly annoyed Psaki responds, “Yeah, I didn’t tell you to do that.” Benny replies, “It’s called initiative.”
Benny’s character, “Cooper” hangs up the phone on people, drops stacks of paper, and ignores Psaki’s request to write down important information by pointing to his head and saying “Don’t worry queen, It’s all right here.”
Many on social media blasted the video as “cringy,” and something that America’s enemies are reveling in. Others claimed it made them even more hesitant to get the vaccine, the opposite of the White House’s goal.
“And to think, This country’s young people once stormed the beaches of Normandy…..” replied one Twitter user.
“Please tell me this isn’t real? China and Russia must be laughing so hard right now,” another user replied.
“There are a lot of people struggling in America, with problems mounting on top of problems. And then there’s this. It’s almost as if the elites hate ordinary Americans and their values,” said another.
The video did not go over well even with some Biden fans.
“Yikes. I thought this video was actual satire making fun of the “libs” until I saw actual White House staff in it. Bad Promotion because this will cause no one who isn’t already vaxed to take the administration seriously. Ps. I am pro-vax so don’t assume my viewpoints etc,” replied another.
Even some in the LGBTQ+ community took offense to the video.
“As an Elder of the LBGT community who fought the Reagan Administration every step of the way through the HIV crisis of the 80s….. …I am appalled and physically nauseous by this video. The non-binary ‘movement’ is destroying everything my generation accomplished,” said one Twitter user.
“WTF did I just watch? Is that an advertisement for Make America Great Again hats? Because that’s what that video makes me want to buy,” said someone else.
The video received praise from some social media users, calling it “pretty funny” and “amazing.”
“I’m in my 50s. I don’t know who this guy is, but that was pretty funny. My 19 year old would probably find it even funnier,” said one supporter of the video.
“Benito Skinner is so amazing!” said another.
“’Amazing’? A 3-second mention of vaccines in a 1 min video where half of those 3 seconds is Psaki saying they’ve done really well against the virus so far and the other half sounds like this person is parodying the “shots in arms” thing? They’re lucky if it gets them 10 vaccines,” replied someone else.
“Is this supposed to be the most annoying video of all time because if so mission accomplished,” replied another Twitter user.
“Thank you. This finally helped me to decide. Definitely no vaccine for me. I don’t want whatever has infected this poor man (?),” said another.
“The more I see this on my TL, the more I wanna just get Covid Super Delta Deluxe 5000 variant and die in agony,” said someone else.
Skinner, 27, is a gay writer and actor from California. He goes by Benny Drama on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He boasts over 840,000 followers.