Vice President Kamala Harris spoke out against criticisms from some in the GOP about her not having biological children in an interview with Alex Cooper on “Call Her Daddy,” one of the most popular podcasts on Spotify, which boasts a large female following.
In the interview released on Sunday, Harris called Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s attacks on what he referred to as “childless cat ladies” in the Democratic party who are leading the country, including the vice president, as “mean-spirited.”
“I just think it’s mean and mean-spirited,” Harris said about Vance’s remark.
The Ohio senator’s comment, which was originally made in 2021, received significant attention when it resurfaced this summer after he was picked as former President Donald Trump’s running mate.
Harris is a stepmother to Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s two children, Cole and Ella, who were teenagers when the vice president came into their lives. She does not have biological children.
Cooper asked the vice president about a comment from GOP Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who furthered Vance’s attacks last month when she asserted that Harris “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble” because she doesn’t have children.
“I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who are not aspiring to be humble,” Harris said before speaking about her relationship with Cole and Ella.
Harris referred to the pair as “my children,” noting, as her husband often does, that they call her “Momala.”
She went on to refer to their family as “modern” and a “blessing,” calling the Emhoff childrens’ mother, who has publicly defended the vice president amid such attacks, a “friend of mine.”
“This is not the 1950s anymore,” Harris said. “Families come in all shapes and forms, and they are family, nonetheless.”
Over the more than 40-minute interview, Harris also discussed her mother’s influence on her life and career, advice for survivors of sexual abuse and abortion.
Harris and Cooper noted the importance of having open conversations about abuse in order for people to feel as though they can speak up and not suffer silently.
“The more we talk about it, the more we will address it and deal with it, the more we will be equipped to deal with it,” Harris said.
The vice president also blasted Trump’s recent comment at a rally that he will be the “protector” of women, noting he appointed three of the justices who ruled in the majority overturning Roe v. Wade, leading to bans on abortion in states across the country.
“This is the same guy that is now saying that?” Harris rhetorically asked about Trump.
She also pushed back on a claim Trump repeats when seeking to paint Democrats’ position on abortion as too extreme that some states are killing babies after birth.
“That is not happening anywhere in the United States,” Harris said. “It is not happening, and it is a lie, just – it’s a bald-faced lie.”