GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance singled out lesbian American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten in a newly-resurfaced clip from 2021 when he accused her of trying to “brainwash” children and suggested she shouldn’t be able to have a say over youth issues because she did not give birth.
“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,” the Ohio senator said in the widely-shared clip, which was revealed on Aug. 27 and amplified by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for president. “And that really disorients me, and it really disturbs me.”
Then, after naming Weingarten directly, Vance said, “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.”
Unearthed audio: JD Vance says teachers who do not have biological children “disorient and really disturb” him: “She should have some of her own [children]” pic.twitter.com/Rqx2PLfjT5
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 27, 2024
The clip purportedly was from an event during Vance’s Senate campaign, when he spoke at a Center for Christian Virtue Leadership forum.
The resurfaced comments represented yet another example of the Ohio senator’s fixation on women, mothers, and modern families after he faced widespread backlash for other comments he made that same year when he said the country was led 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.”
Weingarten, a deeply influential labor leader who has served as president of the 1.8 million-member union since 2008, is married to Sharon Kleinbaum, who serves as senior rabbi emerita at the New York-based Congregation Beit Simchat Torah. Weingarten swiftly fired back at Vance — both on social media and through AFT.
“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,” Weingarten wrote in a post on X. Teachers, educators, children, and their parents do not want to see Vance advancing political attacks in classrooms, Weingarten insisted.
“It sure seems like Vance lacks an empathy gene — thank goodness he’s not a teacher,” Weingarten said. “He doesn’t get that you don’t have to be a parent to care about kids, our neighbors, our communities and our country.”
She added: “Teachers want what children need. I am blessed to be a mom by marriage, but it’s irrelevant to whether any of us care about children. 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.”
When asked about the comments, Trump-Vance campaign spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk told NBC News on Aug. 27 that Vance “will continue to loudly call this crap out to defend our kids.”
“There is no bigger threat to American children than the leftwing indoctrination being peddled in our schools by radicals like Randi Weingarten, with the support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Van Kirk said.
Vance was asked about the comments during a brief interaction with reporters outside of his campaign plane.
“I didn’t criticize Randi Weingarten for not having kids,” he said, according to CNN. “I criticized her for wanting to brainwash mine.”
The AFT voted in July to endorse Harris for president.
