Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Republican candidate for vice presidentattacked the teachers who did they have no children In comments from 2021, which resurfaced on Tuesday.
In his public comments, he specifically criticized Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers.
“You know, most of the leaders on the left, and I hate to get personal about this, but they’re childless people and they’re trying to brainwash our children,” Vance said at the Center for Christian Virtue Leadership in October 2021, a forum moderated by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt and the group’s president, Aaron Baer. .
Vence is joined by other Republican candidates in Ohio’s 2022 Senate race.
When the candidates were asked about fixing problems with schools and making them more responsive to parents, Vance took aim at Weingarten, who describes herself as a “married mom,” saying she “doesn’t have an only child.”
“If he wants to brainwash kids and destroy their minds, let him have some of his own and leave ours alone,” he said. 30 second clip liberal news site Heartland Signal resurfaced Tuesday. The campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris then boosted the clip.
NBC News reviewed All notes by Vance from the event.
Vance has previously drawn widespread criticism Other notes re-emerging from 2021 where he called Harris one of those “childless cat ladies” who “want to make the rest of the country miserable.”
Weingarten, whose union Harris confirmed spoke at the Democratic National Convention last month in support of his presidential bid. Taylor Van Kirk, Vance’s spokesman, told NBC News on Tuesday that Vance will “continue to loudly call out this folly in order to defend ours. children.”
“There is no greater threat to American children than left-wing indoctrination in our schools by radicals like Randi Weingarten, supported by Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz,” Van Kirk said.
A spokeswoman for the teachers union referred NBC News to Weingarten’s comments to X regarding Vance’s remarks.
“Rude! JD Vance’s comments sadden and offend millions of modern families and school teachers, including Catholic nuns. Weingarten wrote.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, told NBC News that former President Donald Trump and Vance are disrespecting teachers who “dedicate their lives to serving students.”
“Instead, they choose to attack and humiliate us while advancing an unprecedented Project 2025 agenda in America that will fundamentally jeopardize our children’s future and give Trump unprecedented power in our daily lives,” Pringle said.
Vance is not the first Republican to criticize Weingarten’s parental status.
“Randi Weingarten is a joke. Randi Weingarten doesn’t even have kids of her own. What does she know about raising and teaching kids?” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark Fox News interview in 2021.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., made similar statements about Weingarten last year.