In remarks to a Catholic group, JD Vance attacked Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for having “a sociopathic attitude” about families and children.
“One of the politicians that I criticised is AOC,” said Vance in 2021, while campaigning for the US Senate seat in Ohio he would win the following year.
“Maybe AOC hasn’t found the right person, whatever the case may be. AOC has said basically – if you look at her public remarks on this – that it’s immoral to have children because of climate change concerns. Right? This is, let’s just be direct, a sociopathic attitude towards family.”
Popularly known as AOC, Ocasio-Cortez, 34, is a representative from New York and a leading figure among House progressives.
Vance, 39, is the hard-right Senate populist who was picked last month as Donald Trump’s presidential running mate.
Vance has endured a troubled rollout, particularly over comments about family and women’s issues, notably including labeling as “childless cat ladies” opponents including Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Video of Vance’s attack on AOC was reported by Mother Jones.
It pointed out that AOC has not said it is immoral to have children.
In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez did say: “It is basically a scientific consensus that the lives of our children are going to be very difficult [because of climate change] and it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: is it OK to still have children?”
Vance, who now has three children, spoke in 2021 to the Napa Institute, a Catholic group that seeks to “advance the re-evangelisation of the United States”.
“My basic view,” Vance said, “is that if the Republican party, the conservative movement stands for anything … the number one thing we should be is pro-babies and pro-families.”
Claiming “a civilisational crisis” fueled by unhappy families and “healthy intact families … not having any kids”, he said: “So many of the most miserable and unhappy people in our media and in our public life are people without kids.
“And I think that they were trained to chase credentials, to chase degrees, to chase money, when the thing that is ultimately going to give you the most fulfillment in life is your family.”
Vance said he did not want to “criticise every single person who doesn’t have children”. His goal, he said, was to point out “that it’s one thing to have a society where some people don’t have kids. It’s another thing to build an entire political movement that is explicitly anti-child and anti-family. And that’s what the left in this country is. It is anti-child and anti-family.”
After attacking AOC, he said: “What does it say about our civilisation that so many of our leaders don’t have kids? What does it say about the incentives that are built into the Democrats’ entire movement that they reward the young people who don’t have families instead of the young people who do?
“I think it’s just pretty sick … and it suggests something pretty broken.”
Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond. But Mother Jones pointed to a social media post earlier this week, in response to a complaint from the Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy about attacks on Vance and Trump for being “weird” about women, families and children.
“Being obsessed with repressing women is goofy,” AOC said. “Trying to watch what LGBTQ+ people do all the time is abnormal. Punishing people who don’t have biological offspring is creepy … it’s SUPER weird. And people need to know.”
