'Not helpful': Nikki Haley knocks JD Vance's comments on people who don't have children
Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday that Sen. JD Vance's comments about women who don't have children are "not helpful" as he and former President Donald Trump try to reclaim the White House for Republicans.
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"It is not helpful to talk about whether women have children or whether they don't," Haley said in an interview with CBS' Margaret Brennan. "It's not helpful to say any of those things that are personality driven or anything else. I have said that, and I will continue to say to Republicans, 'stop it.'"
Vance's comments have faced backlash as they've resurfaced in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign. For example, in 2021, Vance told Tucker Carlson on Fox News that women without biological children have "no direct stake" in the future of America, including Vice President Kamala Harris, calling them "childless cat ladies."
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The comment has since gone viral, become a rallying cry for the left. But it's not just Democrats: Vance's comments have also picked up criticism from his fellow Republicans as GOP voters and politicians call for sticking to policy instead of personal attacks.
"Americans are smart, they don't need all this other noise to distract them, they just want to know how you're going to help them," Haley said.
Paste BN has reached out to the Trump-Vance campaign for comment.
In another resurfaced audio snippet circulating online from 2021, Vance, can be heard speaking to the Center for Christian Virtue, an Ohio policy group. He explains that teachers without children “disorients” and “really disturbs” him.
“Randi Weingarten—who’s the head of the most powerful teacher’s union in the country—she doesn’t have a single child,” Vance said. “If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone,” said the father of three biological children. “...That really disorients me. And it really disturbs me.”
Weingarten is a stepmother. She called Vance's 2021 comments "sad and insulting to millions of modern families."