What did JD Vance say about teachers who don't have children of their own?

Senator JD Vance of Ohio is making news again due to his previous negative comments about people without children, specifically targeting teachers.

In a resurfaced audio snippet circulating online from 2021, Vance, the running mate of the Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump , is heard speaking to the Center for Christian Virtue, an Ohio policy group, explaining 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"

Married to Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Weingarten, who describes herself as "a mother by marriage," is the stepmother to two daughters , according to The Advocate.

Weingarten responded on X , formerly Twitter, on Tuesday: “Gross! JD Vance’s comments are sad and insulting to millions of modern families and school teachers, including Catholic nuns, none of whom should be targeted for their family decisions.”

In an interview with Fox News from July 2021, when Vance was running for the U.S. Senate, he said that the country was being 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.”

"It's just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children."

Harris has two stepchildren with her husband, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff . And Transportation Secretary Buttigieg and husband Chasten welcomed twins just weeks after Vance's interview.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: What did JD Vance say about teachers who don't have children of their own?