Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is facing yet more backlash because of his remarks about women. A podcast from 2020 has resurfaced, revealing that Vance believes that the only “purpose” of postmenopausal women is to care for grandchildren. Speaking to podcaster Eric Weinstein, Vance stated that his wife’s mother helped take care of his children, adding that such contact with his grandparents made his young son “a better person.” He then agreed with the statement, “That’s the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female.”
Donald Trump’s team vehemently denied that these are Vance’s views. “The media is dishonestly putting words in JD’s mouth—of course he does not agree with what the host said,” a spokesperson said. Taylor Van Kirk insisted that Mr. Vance assumed the podcast host was going to say that “the whole purpose” of being with grandparents was to learn and grow. “It’s a disgrace that the media is lying about JD,” Van Kirk added.
Equally controversially, during the same discussion, Weinstein described the presence of a grandmother as a “weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman,” to which Mr. Vance replied, “Yeah.”
The Republican immediately came under fire, including from The View host Alyssa Farah Griffin, who tweeted, “Can men please stop analyzing women’s value to society based around their fertility/ menstruation/ if they have kids?”
The new controversy comes just weeks after Vance’s remarks to Tucker Carlson in 2021 emerged, in which he said the Democratic Party was beholden to “childless cat ladies.” The Ohio Senator has since found himself on the defensive, and he has offered reassurances that he does not believe people without children are of less value than parents.
Nevertheless, Mr. Vance did not reverse comments he made during a speech advocating that parents have more voting rights. He later said this was a “thought experiment” rather than a policy proposal. “If it was a policy proposal, I would have made the policy proposal in my two years in the United States Senate,” he added.
Meanwhile, former Trump aides have reported that the former President is furious about Vance’s controversies and believes he chose the wrong running mate.
