Since J.D. Vance was tapped as Donald Trump’s running mate, journalists and activists have unearthed a series of clips in which he denigrates people without children, famously referring to them in one instance as “childless cat ladies” and in another as “sociopaths.”
The latest clip to resurface: Vance deriding Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest teachers union in the United States, who is Jewish.
“So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children. That really disorients me and it really disturbs me,” he said in a 2021 speech to a Christian event, according to audio that has recently circulated online.
Mentioning Weingarten by name, he continued, “She doesn’t have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone.”
Weingarten is married to Sharon Kleinbaum, the recently retired senior rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, New York City’s premier LGBTQ+ synagogue, and describes herself as a “mother by marriage” to Kleinbaum’s two children.
In a statement on Wednesday, Weingarten said that Vance “lacks an empathy gene” and referred back to her leadership of a teachers union.
“I am blessed to be a mom by marriage, but it’s irrelevant to whether any of us care about children,” she said in the statement. “This week, as teachers are digging into their pockets to pay for school supplies and welcoming kids and parents into their classrooms, we should all be celebrating the hope and promise of a new school year, not trashing it with gross, ridiculous comments like Vance’s.”
Vance’s comments are the latest instance of Weingarten, who has been president of AFT since 2008, serving as a lightning-rod for conservative criticism. She took heat from right-wing activists who charged that she did not do enough to reopen schools quickly during the pandemic, and over her progressive stances on gender and racial equity in schools. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the hardline right-wing Georgia Republican, criticized Weingarten at a 2023 congressional hearing as “not a mother,” despite Weingarten saying she was a mother to her wife’s children.
Vance’s spokesperson, Taylor Van Kirk, doubled down on his comments about Weingarten in remarks to NBC News Tuesday night, saying Vance “will continue to loudly call this crap out to defend our kids.”
“There is no bigger threat to American children than the left-wing indoctrination being peddled in our schools by radicals like Randi Weingarten, with the support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Van Kirk added.
Vance has disparaged a series of prominent Democratic politicians, including Vice President Kamala Harris, for being “childless.” Harris, like Weingarten, is a parent to the children of her Jewish spouse, Doug Emhoff.
In a response to Vance on the social network X, Weingarten wrote that his comments were “Gross!” She also invoked Vance’s religion, citing Catholic nuns, many of whom teach and who do not have children.
She wrote, “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.”
“Teachers who are in back-to-school mode right now help other people’s children every single day,” she added. “Those who virtuously serve our communities should be lauded, not vilified.”
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