A squirrel was seen scampering across a stage in Washington DC just before Kamala was due to deliver her concession speech, prompting comical claims that it was the ghost of the internet-famous Peanut.
Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the 2024 presidential election on Wednesday afternoon following Donald Trump’s victory on the campus of Howard University.
But a bushy-tailed dude stole the stage right before Harris stepped into the spotlight.
In a video posted to
The post has attracted more than 1,500 comments, most of which are about Peanut, the orphaned social media star who was put to death and quickly became a talking point in the campaign just days before the presidential election.
A squirrel was seen running across the stage at Howard University just before Kamala took the stage to deliver her concession speech
“Peanut’s ghost takes a victory lap,” one viewer wrote.
‘The spirit of PNut lives on!’ wrote another.
Other viewers added AI-generated photos of Trump holding the ghost of the squirrel, which has amassed more than half a million followers on Instagram.
Peanut – also spelled P’Nut or PNUT – was euthanized along with his raccoon friend Fred last week by New York state wildlife officials.
Multiple anonymous complaints brought at least six state Department of Environmental Conservation officers to the Pine City home of 34-year-old Mark Longo, the animals’ owner.
DEC agents seized Peanut, whom Longo had cared for since his mother was hit by a car seven years earlier. Fred was also taken.
At some point during the ordeal, Peanut bit a person involved in the investigation, leading to both animals being put to death and tested for rabies.
But Longo and his wife, Daniela, did not remain silent about their anger over the tragic outcome.
In multiple social media posts, the pair protested spending American taxpayer money on killing the same animals they considered their beloved pets. New York Times reported.
“The DEC came to my house and raided my house without a search warrant to find a squirrel!” Longo said. “I was treated as if I was a drug dealer and they went to get drugs and guns.”
Despite state law banning the ownership of wild animals as pets, the Republican campaign has been quick to focus on the issue in the final hours of the presidential race.
JD Vance took the stage at a campaign rally in Sanford, North Carolina, last Sunday, telling supporters that Trump was “excited” about Peanut’s death.
“The same government that doesn’t care about hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant criminals coming into our country doesn’t want us to have pets,” Vance said. “It’s the craziest thing.”
And dozens of other Republican figures agreed that Peanut’s untimely death was an administration overreach.
Harris conceded the 2024 presidential election on the campus of Howard University, where she previously graduated, following Donald Trump’s victory on Wednesday afternoon
New York Congressman Nick Langworthy expressed his frustration on social media over the weekend, condemning Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul for her “misplaced priorities.” BBC reported.
“In New York State we have shelters for illegal immigrants while innocent pets are being killed,” he wrote.
Elon Musk, who was a well-known face during Trump’s campaign, also took to social media with a photo of Peanut.
“Government violation kidnapped and executed an orphaned squirrel…” he wrote to his followers on X.
Peanut was also raised as a topic of concern by Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike Collins at a meeting in Georgia, New Republic reported.
They linked his death to the infamous and baseless conspiracy theory Trump perpetuated during the presidential debate in September – that Haitian immigrants ate their neighbors’ pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Many compared the squirrel that ran across the stage at Howard University on Wednesday afternoon to the internet-famous squirrel ‘Peanut’ that was euthanized last week
Peanut owner Mark Longo expressed his anger on social media about the government using American taxpayer money to kill the same animals he considered his beloved pets.
“Trump is fighting a big-government socialist regime that controls and awakens everything about you,” Collins said.
“This thing has gotten so bad that they’re killing the pets, they’re killing the squirrels, they’re killing the raccoons.”
An official TikTok account for the Trump campaign posted a slideshow to their feed last Sunday that read, “RIP Peanut. Needlessly murdered by Democratic bureaucrats in New York. We will avenge you at the ballot box on Tuesday.’