Reigniting the “childless cat lady” discourse surrounding Donald Trump’s campaign, a key ally of his went after Kamala Harris on Tuesday for not having biological children.
During a town hall she moderated for Trump in Flint, Michigan, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders talked about her daughter innocently criticizing Sanders’ appearance, saying “my kids keep me humble.”
“Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble,” Sanders said.
The remark seemed to be a reference to Harris’ lack of biological children. Harris is a stepmother to two children from her husband Doug Emhoff. And his family, including his ex-wife, has spoken glowingly about Harris’ role in helping parent his now-adult children.
Even one of Trump’s senior campaign advisers, Bryan Lanza, took Sanders’ comment that way, joining other panelists on CNN after the town hall in condemning the remark.
“I found that comment to be actually offensive. I don’t know what more to say about that,” Lanza said. “I’m disappointed in Sarah saying that. I’m sure I’m going to get criticism from the campaign, but I have to sort of defend somebody who’s a stepmom. It’s a tough job. People step into that role.”
Sanders’ comment was the latest example of a prominent ally of Trump — who long has struggled with women voters — seemingly disparaging women who don’t have children. His own running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, faced criticism and earned extensive negative news coverage for comments he made in a 2021 Fox News interview bemoaning that the country was, in part, run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Other past comments by Vance about adults without children have also drawn scrutiny, including Vance in 2021 calling for parents to be able to have additional votes for each child they have.
Trump has sought to defend Vance, while also making statements supportive of people who don’t have children, telling reporters at the National Association of Black Journalists in July that some “people without the family are far better — they’re superior in many cases.” Trump, who is locked in a close race with Harris for a small subset of undecided and independent voters in key battleground states, has also attempted to brand the GOP as protecting people’s rights to have families on their own terms — including advocating for access to in vitro fertilization. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked a bill by Democrats to expand IVF access.
Democrats, meanwhile, seized on Vance’s comments soon after he became the vice presidential nominee, making the “childless cat lady” trope something of a rallying cry for women supporting Harris, not unlike the “nasty woman” label Hillary Clinton supporters used in 2016. Taylor Swift signed her Harris endorsement post on Instagram as “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady,” and included a photo of her and her cat.
Spokespeople for Trump and Sanders did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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