Doug Emhoff’s daughter and ex-wife criticized Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance after comments he once made referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as childless reemerged.
During a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, Vance — now former President Donald Trump’s running mate — said Harris was one of the “childless cat ladies” who “want to make the rest of the country miserable too. Vance added, “If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
Harris is stepmother to Emhoff’s two children, Ella and Cole, who refer to the vice president as “Momala.”
In a statement to NBC News, Kerstin Emhoff called Vance’s attacks “baseless,” adding, “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, 25, took to her Instagram stories, posting a screenshot in support of her mother’s statement and adding, “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?”
She also tagged her mother’s Instagram handle, writing, “Say it louder for the people in the back.”
At the bottom of the image, Ella Emhoff wrote, “I love my three parents.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who now has two children, also criticized Vance’s comments, saying during an interview with CNN earlier this week, “The really sad thing is, he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey. He couldn’t have known that but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.”
“It’s about … people’s families whose wellbeing will depend on whether we go into a future led by somebody like Kamala Harris who is focused on expanding the prosperity and the freedom, the wellbeing of our families,” Buttigieg added.
NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Minyvonne Burke, Monica Alba and Peter Alexander contributed.
