In the weeks leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, online users shared a rumor claiming Ohio Sen. JD Vance — former President Donald Trump's vice-presidential running mate — once agreed with a podcast host who claimed having grandmothers help raise children is "the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female" and a "weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman."
Vance's supposed affirmation of both of those comments, which struck some people as dehumanizing and condescending, raised hackles in social media discussions.
For example, the rapid response account for U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign posted ( archived ) the rumor on Aug. 14.
The rumor stemmed from an Aug. 14 post ( archived ) on X from @HeartlandSignal, the news arm of Chicago's AM radio station WCPT 820 .
The post included a video lasting nearly 2 1/2 minutes featuring brief clips from the very end of Vance's appearance on a more-than-two-hour episode of the podcast "The Portal," hosted by mathematician and economist Eric Weinstein and released on Apple Podcasts on April 29, 2020.
Vance's often provocative public remarks rarely fail to grab media attention, not to mention partisan outrage (see his comment about being governed by "childless cat ladies"), but here is a case where Vance stands accused of merely agreeing with somebody. Laying aside for the moment whether Vance actually affirmed Weinstein's statements, we note that some posts and publications didn't even quote Weinstein accurately (one outlet, the International Business Times , falsely claimed Vance himself made the "postmenopausal female" remark).
"That's the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female, in theory," Weinstein said in the context of grandmothers helping with childcare. Notably, both @HeartlandSignal and @KamalaHQ — as well as The New Republic , Vanity Fair and an opinion story from MSNBC — omitted the words "in theory."
It's actually difficult to tell exactly what Vance did or didn't agree with in Weinstein's quoted statements. For example, we heard Vance said "yes" before Weinstein completed his sentence about postmenopausal females. A statement from Vance campaign spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk published by HeartlandSignal.com took note of this as well: " JD reacted to the first part of the host's sentence, assuming he was going to say: 'that's the whole purpose of spending time with grandparents.'"
As for Weinstein's comment to the effect that a grandmother who helps with child care is a "weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman," it's an odd choice of words, but he didn't produce the thought out of thin air. It related not only to Vance's lived experience (his wife is Indian), but to that of many other people as well. An online search revealed credible results describing joint, extended families as common in Indian culture. A longer statement from Van Kirk and more information about joint families in Indian culture both appear later in this story.
We contacted Heartland Signal on Aug. 14 to ask several questions but did not receive a response within five days. We also reached out or further comment to the Trump-Vance campaign and Weinstein. We noted Weinstein corresponded with other users on X who mentioned a concept known as the "grandmother hypothesis" — a scientific theory holding that there are evolutionary benefits to women living long past the end of their childbearing years. However, for this article, we've focused mainly on whether or not Vance expressed agreement with Weinstein about the two comments highlighted in @HeartlandSignal's X post.
Context: Vance on Mothers and Parenting
In our listening of the podcast, we noted that, beginning at the 1:47:36 mark in the episode , Vance provided his thoughts about "the data" showing some women express unhappiness regarding the time allotted for them to spend with their families versus time mandated by her workplace. We located several studies with varying sample sizes from 2004 , 2012 and 2016 , all touching on the same subject of mothers' dissatisfaction with the amount of time they're able to spend at home versus in the workplace.
Vance also asked, " Why is it not a reasonable thing to say, we should as a policy, as a pro-family policy, make it easier for parents of small children who want to spend more time at home to do it?" He added of his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance , a Yale law graduate and trial lawyer born from Indian immigrants , "My wife is a working mother. We have somebody who helps us take care of our kid. She loves her job. I think it would be bad for the productive economy for her to be sort of taken out of it. At the same time, I think it's bad for both of us to spend not enough time with our kid, and I think it's terrible for the kid as well."
Additionally, Vance discussed the difficulties some families face with fertility and touched on the special value of stay-at-home mothers. All of these remarks were made several minutes before the comments highlighted in the @HeartlandSignal video.
What Did Vance Agree With, Exactly?
In the podcast episode , the remarks Vance supposedly agreed with, including "That's the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female," began at around the 2:12:11 mark of the podcast. We transcribed the exchange as follows:
VANCE: And you can sort of see the effect it has on him to be around them. Like, they spoil him, sort of all the classic stuff that grandparents do to grandchildren. But it makes him a much better human being to have exposure to his grandparents.
WEINSTEIN: Well, I don't know...
VANCE: And the evidence on this, by the way, is like super clear.
WEINSTEIN: That's the whole purpose of the postmenopausal ...
VANCE: Yes.
WEINSTEIN: ... female, in theory. But let me ask you a question, not knowing the answer.
VANCE: Please.
WEINSTEIN: When your child was born, did your in-laws, and particularly your mother-in-law, show up in some huge way?
VANCE: She lived with us for a year.
WEINSTEIN: Right.
VANCE: So, you know ...
WEINSTEIN: So I didn't know the answer to that.
VANCE: Right, no.
WEINSTEIN: So that's this weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman.
VANCE: So, it's, yeah, it's in some ways the most transgressive thing I've ever done against sort of the hyper-neoliberal approach to work and family ...
A close look at this exchange raises questions about whether, or to what extent, Vance actually agreed with Weinstein's interjections. For example, though he did reply "Yes" after Weinstein said, "That's the whole purpose of the postmenopausal —" he said it before Weinstein could finish the sentence:
WEINSTEIN: That's the whole purpose of the postmenopausal ...
VANCE: Yes.
WEINSTEIN: ... female, in theory. But let me ask you a question, not knowing the answer.
It's unclear from the podcast alone, therefore, whether, or to what extent, Vance actually agreed with that statement.
It's similarly unclear how he felt about Weinstein's suggestion that the live-in child care support provided by Vance's mother-in-law was a "weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman." Vance's response was a non-sequitur: "So, it's, yeah, it's in some ways the most transgressive thing I've ever done against sort of the hyper-neoliberal approach to work and family ..."
Statement from Vance Spokesperson
In an update added after its initial publishing, HeartlandSignal.com reported that Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk commented on the video and story. Specifically, Van Kirk told HeartlandSignal.com that Vance had answered "Yes" to an incomplete sentence:
A spokesperson for Vance denied that the senator had agreed with Weinstein and blamed the media for " dishonestly putting words in JD's mouth."
" JD reacted to the first part of the host's sentence, assuming he was going to say: 'that's the whole purpose of spending time with grandparents,'" said Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance. " It's a disgrace that the media is lying about JD instead of holding Kamala Harris accountable for her policies that caused sky high prices for groceries and everyday necessities, a disaster at the southern border and a historic drug overdose epidemic."
Van Kirk continued: " JD was complementing the selflessness of his mother-in-law for being willing to help care for her grandchildren. Millions of grandparents across our country do the same every day."
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