Doug Emhoff ’s ex-wife has fiercely defended Kamala Harris over JD Vance ’s sexist comments, after a video of him branding her and other women “childless cat ladies” resurfaced in recent days.
Kerstin Emhoff was married to the second gentleman for 16 years and they had two children — Ella and Cole — together.
The vice president turned presidential candidate embraced the role of stepmother when she wed Emhoff in 2014 and is famously close to the children, co-parenting them alongside Kerstin. Harris has even previously revealed that Ella and Cole gave her the affectionate moniker “Momala” because neither of them liked the name “stepmom.”
Now, Kerstin — who attended Harris’ inauguration as vice president in January 2021 — has leaped to Harris’ defense branding Vance’s attack as “baseless” and calling the vice president a “loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present” co-parent.
“These are baseless attacks,” she said in a statement to CNN.
“For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present.”
Kerstin added: “I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.”
Republican vice presidential candidate Vance is facing backlash for his misogynistic comments which resurfaced this week after Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and Harris rose to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
In the clip from a 2021 interview, Vance told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the US is run 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.”
“Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he 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 video has since gone viral and sparked outrage from many public figures, with Jennifer Aniston blasting Donald Trump ’s running mate on Instagram on Wednesday.
“I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,” the Friends star said in an Instagram story along with the clip.
“All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option,” she wrote. “Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”
Actor Liz Vassey, known for her roles on All My Children and on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, also responded to Vance’s comments, sarcastically writing: “I had absolutely no idea I was miserable. Thank God there was a man around to tell me.”
Vance’s comments mark only the tip of the misogynistic and racist comments Harris has faced in the days since announcing her run for the Oval Office.
Several Republicans have branded her a “ DEI hire “ — something that even top GOP lawmaker Kevin McCarthy has urged them to stop doing.
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