Clip Captures JD Vance's 2021 Take on Childless Leaders

Audio from 2021 event was shared on X on Tuesday
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 28, 2024 7:49 AM CDT
JD Vance's 2021 Take on Childless Leaders Resurfaces
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a rally at the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Valdosta, Ga.   (AP Photo/Gary McCullough)

It's another entry in the growing file of JD Vance's thoughts on childless Americans. Audio from a 2021 forum has resurfaced in which Vance expounds on the subject. He was participating in a Center for Christian Virtue leadership forum alongside other GOP candidates for the Senate from Ohio and was asked about the state's "Backpack Bill," which Rolling Stone reports would see tax-funded scholarships extended to private schools and homeschooled students. The lines that are garnering fresh attention:

  • "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. And that really disorients me, and it really disturbs me. Randi Weingarten, who's the head of the most powerful teachers' union in the country [the American Federation of Teachers], 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—who has described herself as "a mother by marriage," meaning a stepmother—took to X with her reply: "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." NBC News reports the audio of Vance's comments was shared Tuesday afternoon by the liberal news site Heartland Signal; the Harris campaign reposted it a short time later.

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A rep for Vance told NBC News on Tuesday that the vice presidential candidate "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." (More JD Vance stories.)

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