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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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Vice President Kamala Harris' stepdaughter, Ella Emhoff, took aim at Ohio Senator JD Vance's 2021 comments about Harris, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, being "childless."
Vance, who was recently picked as former President Donald Trump's running mate, has come under fire for comments he made on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight as a Senate candidate in July 2021.
"We're effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, 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," Vance says in the resurfaced video.
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He continued: "And it's just a basic fact, you look at Kamala Harris, [Transportation Secretary] Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]. The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children, and how does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?"
While Harris does not have any biological children, she has two stepchildren who she said call her "Momala." The second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, had two children with ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff—Cole and Ella Emhoff—before he married Harris in 2014.
Ella Emhoff wrote in an Instagram Story on Thursday morning, "How can you be 'childless' when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I."
She included part of a statement that Kerstin Emhoff gave to CNN that read, in full: "These are baseless attacks. 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. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it."
Ella Emhoff told Kerstin Emhoff to "say it louder for the people in the back," adding, "I love my three parents."
Taylor Van Kirk, a Vance spokesperson, told Newsweek on Friday, "Once again, the left-wing media have twisted Senator Vance's words and spun up a false narrative about his position on the issues. The Democrats are in complete disarray with the most unpopular vice president in history as their party's nominee.
"The only childlessness we should be talking about are the childless parents who lost their kids to the murderous thugs and deadly fentanyl coming across Kamala's southern border," Van Kirk said.
In 2021, Biden tasked Harris with leading the administration's diplomacy regarding three Central American countries—El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras—to address the "root causes" of migration. She was never put in charge of border security.
Meanwhile, Lori Meibers, Vance's aunt who played a role in raising him, said in a statement given to Newsweek by the Ohio senator's press office Friday morning, "Women have been forefront throughout JD's life. As you know, he was raised without a father figure. My mother, Bonnie Vance – or Mamaw, as well know her – his sister, Lindsay and myself all coalesced around him to raise him ourselves. My own daughters have chosen significant others that resemble the man JD is, and that brings me incredible joy to know that he has had such a lasting impact on them. It's disgusting that the Democrats and media are attacking him in this way."
Newsweek reached out to Harris' campaign via email and Ella Emhoff via Instagram direct message for comment.
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Vance recently explained the thought process behind his 2021 comments to Semafor's David Weigel.
The senator said that a friend of his mentioned to him that Washington, D.C., was one of the top cities where adults had the fewest children. According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the birth rate in Washington, D.C., dropped from 15.4 births per 1,000 people to 12 between 2007 and 2022.
"I was like—oh, that's really odd, right?" Vance told Weigel. "The city that's governing for the rest of the country is also the place that, in some ways, is the least like the rest of the country, where most people do want to have children, and most people do start families."
Vance specifically called out the school mask mandates that many lawmakers on Capitol Hill supported during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When you have children, and you've interacted with children regularly, I think you realize how many of the left policies are really harmful to kids," he said. "That was the most egregious example."
Harris' Relationship With Her Stepchildren
Meanwhile, in a 2019 essay in Elle magazine, Harris spoke of the affection she has for her two stepchildren and the close relationship she has with Kerstin Emhoff.
"Cole and Ella could not have been more welcoming. They are brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults. I was already hooked on Doug, but I believe it was Cole and Ella who reeled me in," Harris wrote.
She continued: "To know Cole and Ella is to know that their mother Kerstin is an incredible mother. Kerstin and I hit it off ourselves and are dear friends. She and I became a duo of cheerleaders in the bleachers at Ella's swim meets and basketball games, often to Ella's embarrassment. We sometimes joke that our modern family is almost a little too functional."
In August 2021, Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, adopted fraternal twin babies, Joseph "Gus" August and Penelope Rose.
"It's been wonderful. It's everything people tell you to expect and more," Buttigieg said on MSNBC's Morning Joe in October 2021. "I think the biggest thing that's surprised me is just how much joy there is, even sometimes in the hard parts."
Update 7/25/24, 5:53 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Update 7/26/24, 10:52 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comments from Taylor Van Kirk, a JD Vance spokesperson.
Update 7/27/24, 1:29 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Meibers.
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