U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has received worldwide attention after he showed up at Joe Biden's and Kamala Harris' inauguration Wednesday wearing mittens made out of recycled materials and a warm winter jacket, an outfit that not every politician would find suitable for such an occasion.
Many people quickly highlighted the 79-year-old independent Vermont senator's look at the inauguration and created endless memes, which he said was more about keeping warm than fashion.
"You know in Vermont, we dress warm, we know something about the cold, and we’re not so concerned about good fashion, we want to keep warm. And that’s what I did today," Sanders told CBS Wednesday.
His wife Jane O'Meara Sanders also praised the look, tweeting, "Vermont jacket, Vermont gloves, Vermont common sense!"
People were particularly enthralled with Sander's mittens, which were made by a Vermont elementary school teacher who has a side business making mittens out of recycled wool.
"I love it that he loves them and that he wears them," Jen Ellis, an elementary school teacher, told NECN-TV. "And I’m totally honored that he wore them today," she said, according to remarks carried by The Associated Press (AP). Ellis has never met Sanders.
Social media users quickly pounced on Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Brendan Smialowski's shot of a bundled-up Sanders sitting cross-legged, superimposing it on a wide variety of images. One placed Sanders on a bench next to Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump," another put him in detention with the teenagers from "The Breakfast Club," and he also made it into numerous "Star Wars" scenes.
Some photoshopped him onto the covers of albums by music stars such as Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar and Oasis.
Sanders has donned the mittens before while running for president in 2020 and in interviews with Vermont journalists, NECN-TV reported.
Other memes had the former presidential candidate on the subway, on the moon and sitting on the couch with the cast of "Friends." Sanders has also been seen draped with a Pendleton blanket sitting alongside the parade route during a Native American tribal fair, next to the fire during a ceremony and riding in the back of a pickup truck across remote land. Even before inauguration day, he was dubbed "cheii," the Navajo word for "grandfather."
Ryan Leclerc, a hard goods buyer for Onion River Sports in Montpelier, Vermont, said Sanders is more about substance than style. Leclerc noted the senator's inauguration attire emulated what is "great" about him. "Those are the mittens you might see when you’re sipping cider around a fire. Sanders doesn’t care and it’s not important to him," Leclerc said.