Candice Bergen takes a dig at JD Vance in her Emmys speech

• Candice Bergen threw shade at JD Vance at the Emmys on Sunday night.
• Bergen was presenting the best lead actress in a comedy series award.
• She linked then-VP Dan Quayle's criticism of "Murphy Brown" to Vance's "childless cat lady" remark.

Candice Bergen made a pointed dig at Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance at the 2024 Emmy Awards .

Bergen presented the award for lead actress in a comedy series. In her brief speech before announcing the winner, she reflected on her own time starring in the comedy series "Murphy Brown," on which she played the titular character.

"Murphy Brown" aired from 1988 to 1998, with a one-season revival in 2018. One of its more notable storylines featured Murphy as a single mother, a decision that drew criticism from vice president Dan Quayle at the time.

"I was surrounded by brilliant and funny actors, had the best scripts to work with, and in one classic moment, my character was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when Murphy became pregnant and decided to raise the baby as a single mother," Bergen said.

As The New York Times reported , Quayle called out the show in May 1992 and said that Brown's character "mocks the importance of fathers." The season five premiere of "Murphy Brown" mocked him back, the Times reported , with Murphy directly responding to his remarks in the show.

"Oh, how far we've come," Bergen said at the Emmys. "Today, a Republican candidate for Vice President would never attack a woman for having kids. So as they say, my work here is done."

Former president Trump's running mate, JD Vance, has made remarks about those without children that have drawn criticism. In September, Vance suggested that parents could lower childcare costs by asking relatives , including the child's grandparents , to help out and "relieve some of the pressure." He later clarified his remarks in an X post , saying that federal and state policies should support alternate family models.

Vance has also been haunted by this 2021 remark on Fox News : "We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by 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."

Vance defended those comments on "The Megyn Kelly Show" in July, saying that he didn't intend to criticize childless adults, but rather "the Democratic party for becoming anti-family and anti-child."

Bergen got in one final dig toward that infamous remark as well.

"Meow," she said.