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Kamala Harris responded to the latest iteration of JD Vance’s now-notorious comment calling the vice president a “childless cat lady.”
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said last month that “my kids keep me humble” and that “unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”
The vice president responded to the Republican governor’s statement on the latest episode of Call Her Daddy, a mega-popular sex-positive podcast that Spotify calls the “most-listened-to podcast by women.”
“I feel sorry for [her],” Harris told podcast host Alex Cooper.
“I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble, two, a whole lot of women out here who have a lot of love in their life, family in their life, and children in their life,” she added. ”And I think it’s really important for women to lift each other up.”
Vance’s resurfaced remark from 2021 was widely derided by a collection of people — including Jennifer Aniston, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife, and Taylor Swift — who swiftly defended the vice president.
Others pointed out that the claim is nonsensical to begin with; Harris is a mother to two stepchildren.
In August, Harris’ step-daughter Ella Emhoff posted in response to Vance’s remark: “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I? I love my three parents.”
The Democratic presidential nominee emphasized on the podcast that there is more than one composition of a family.
“We have our family by blood, and then we have our family by love, and I have both, and I consider it to be a real blessing,” she told Cooper. “And I have two beautiful children, Cole and Ella, who call me Momala. We have a very modern family. My husband’s ex-wife is a friend of mine.”
She added: “Family comes in many forms and I think that increasingly, all of us understand that this is not the 1950s anymore. Families come in all shapes or forms and they are family nonetheless.”
Cooper also asked Harris to respond to the Republican vice presidential nominee’s original comment that the “entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
“And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” Vance said at the time.
Harris told Cooper she thought the remark was “mean and mean-spirited.”
”I think that most Americans want leaders who understand that the measure of their strength is not based on who you beat down, the real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up,” she added.
Harris also discussed why she became a prosecutor, citing her desire to protect women, especially after her friend Wanda had been sexually assaulted, a story that she also recounted in her remarks to the Democratic National Convention in August.
Cooper also revived a viral moment from 2018 when the then-California Senator pressed Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings about his stances on abortion.
She asked Harris to answer the same question she asked Kavanaugh: “Can we try to think of any law that gives the government the power to make a decision about a man’s body?”
“I know what you’re going to ask,” Harris said, laughing. “No! No. No. No.”
