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The American Federation of Teachers President shot back at Senator JD Vance for his unearthed comments about educators — in which he mentioned her by name.
Vance called out AFT President Randi Weingarten in an unearthed 2021 interview and said that teachers who don’t have biological children “really disorients” and “really disturbs” him.
“[S]he doesn’t have a single child,” Vance said of Weingarten. “If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”
Weingarten is now hitting back at the Ohio senator and GOP candidate for vice president.
“If it wasn’t so insulting, and if we didn’t have such a divided country, where people take seriously what he or Donald Trump say, it would be ridiculous,” Weingarten told MSNBC on Wednesday.
“Whether it’s Catholicism, or Judaism, or any of the religions or not that many of us believe in, teaching children is one of the most important things we can do, regardless of whether we are parents or not,” the New York City educator and labor leader added.
Weingarten also told MSNBC that her wife has two children she considers her own.
“It’s nonsensical, but what it does in this age of disinformation and misinformation, it just makes the job of teaching and learning — the connection between parents and teachers and kids — it makes it harder,” Weingarten said. “And that’s why it’s gross.”
Vance’s unearthed comments about educators come amid a long string of sexist comments about women and their children.
In a resurfaced interview from 2021, Vance said the US was run b“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.”
“Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance continued. “How does it make any sense we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
The Ohio senator has also argued that those without children should pay higher taxes and that parents should have more votes in elections.
Vance has since tried to walk back his cat lady comments, arguing that “Democrats have willfully misinterpreted” the remarks.
