JD Vance Stuns CNN Host by Calling Stepmom Kamala Harris ‘Anti-Child’

Donald Trump ’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) continued his brazen framing of Democrats as “anti-child” on Sunday, referencing COVID-19 masking as an attempt to paint his opposition as out of touch as he struggles through a weeks-long, often self-inflicted battering over his past comments .

Vance told CNN host Dana Bash that Democrats had become “anti-family” in policy and that Kamala Harris ’ campaign was taking his “childless cat ladies” out of context. Before becoming a senator, he told ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2021 that the U.S. was being run by “childless cat ladies,” name-dropping Harris, Pete Buttigieg , and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

(Harris is the stepmother of two children, and Buttigieg adopted two children in 2021.)

“I criticized Kamala Harris for being part of a set of ideas that exist in American leadership that is anti-family,” Vance said. “I never, Dana, criticize people for not having kids. I criticize people for being anti-child. And I do think that Kamala Harris—”

“You think she’s anti-child?” Bash shot back.

“—has made some bizarre statements,” Vance continued.

He claimed Harris said it was reasonable for people not to have children due to climate change, a false reference to a remark Harris made last year empathizing with those struggling with “climate anxiety” as they considered having kids.

Vance then tried to compare it to COVID-era masking, saying Democrats didn’t understand young children enough when imposing mask mandates on children. (Mask mandates started under the Trump administration.)

“I think that if we had more people who took the right perspective and had a little bit more understanding of how little kids actually operate, we would not have made so many of those mistakes,” Vance said.

“People didn't know as much because it was literally a novel virus,” Bash said.

The exchange left Vance frazzled, prompting an attack on Bash pursuing the line of questioning at all.

“You’ve now asked me three questions about comments that I made three years ago,” Vance said. “I wonder what Kamala Harris thinks about the fact that she supported policies that opened the American southern border. I wonder what Kamala Harris thinks about the fact that she lied to the American people about Joe Biden’s mental facility for the office.”

“But I’m interviewing you, not Kamala Harris,” Bash reminded him.

Buttigieg, appearing after the taped interview, criticized Vance for skirting his past remarks and said the senator only knew one form of response: disparagement.

“I’m a dog guy with two kids, but I’m one of millions of Americans he managed to insult there,” Buttigieg said. “But then the other part just is troubling, right, which is saying that anybody who disagrees with him is ‘anti-child.’ And it’s part of just who he is, right? He seems incapable of talking about a vision for this country in terms of lifting people up or building people up or helping people out. It's always disparagement.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.