JD Vance
attacks childless teachers in newly resurfaced remarks
Republican
vice-presidential candidate criticizes ‘leaders on the left’ and Randi
Weingarten in 2021 clip
Anna Betts
Wed 28 Aug
2024 10.13 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/28/jd-vance-attack-childless-teachers
JD Vance,
the Republican vice-presidential candidate and US senator from Ohio, attacked
teachers who do not have children in newly resurfaced remarks from 2021.
In the
resurfaced clip, Vance, who was speaking at a forum held by the Center for
Christian Virtue, attacks “leaders on the left” and Randi Weingarten, the
president of the American Federation of Teachers, for not having children.
“So many of
the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re
people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children, that really
disorients me and disturbs me,” Vance can be heard saying in the clip.
“Randi
Weingarten, who’s the head of the most powerful teachers’ union in the country,
she doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the
minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell
alone.”
In a post on
X, Weingarten responded to Vance’s resurfaced comments, calling them “gross”,
and adding that the remarks are “sad and insulting to millions of modern
families, and school teachers including Catholic nuns, none of whom should be
targeted for their family decisions”.
Weingarten,
whose union endorsed Kamala Harris for president in July, continued: “Teachers
who are in back-to-school mode right now help other people’s children every
single day. Those who virtuously serve our communities should be lauded, not
vilified.”
The remarks
resurfaced on social media this week and have already been making the rounds
online. Kamala Harris’s campaign also shared the clip of the remarks online on
Tuesday.
A
spokesperson for Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment,
but in a statement sent to NBC News on Tuesday, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson
for Vance, said the Ohio senator “will continue to loudly call this crap out to
defend our kids”.
“There is no
bigger threat to American children than the leftwing indoctrination being
peddled in our schools by radicals like Randi Weingarten, with the support of
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Van Kirk added.
The newly
resurfaced comments come just weeks after Vance came under fire after a clip of
him in 2021 calling leading Democrats “a bunch of childless cat ladies”
resurfaced after he was chosen by the former president Donald Trump to be his
running mate in the 2024 election. The comments caused outrage and were quickly
denounced by many Democrats, as well as celebrities and some Republicans.
Vance has
claimed that the “childless cat ladies” comment was merely a “sarcastic
remark”.
In
additional resurfaced clips, Vance has said that people without children should
pay higher taxes, and that people with children should be given more voting
power than those without children.
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