The discussion around “childless cat ladies” has been a big one during the 2024 presidential election cycle, and the discussion usually includes the democratic nominee, Kamala Harris â even though she’s not actually childless. She’s happily a stepmom to husband Doug Emhoff’s kids, but apparently, because they aren’t her biological children, they don’t count. At least, that’s what it seemed like Sarah Huckabee Sanders was trying to say during a town hall appearance this week.
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Sanders referenced Harris while speaking to a crowd on Tuesday.
While moderating a town hall for former president Donald Trump in Flint, Michigan, Sanders talked about her kids cracking jokes at her expense â and then cracked one at Harris’, who was not present.
“My kids keep me humble,” the Arkansas governor told the crowd. “Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesnât have anything keeping her humble.”
Harris doesn't have any biological children, but she is a stepmom.
Throughout the entirety of her presidential race so far â and long before that â Harris’ stepkids, Ella and Cole, have been supporting her, along with their mom, Kerstin, who is Doug’s ex-wife.
In an essay Harris wrote for Elle in 2019, she called Ella and Cole her “endless source of love and pure joy.”
“They are brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults. I was already hooked on Doug, but I believe it was Cole and Ella who reeled me in,” she wrote of the beginning of her relationship with her now-husband.
People aren't impressed with Sanders' remarks.
On X (formerly Twitter), people are sounding off about Sanders’ comment â particularly when it comes to who, exactly, she considers a mother.
“Step children are just as important as biological children,” one person wrote, while another tweeted, “so, should adoptive parents be concerned about their humility?”
“Do all republican women have children? Don’t some republican women and men have fertility issues? Or is that only an issue democrats have?” another person wrote. “I mean, I don’t understand why republican women are ok talking like this about women. And then still vote for these people.”
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They aren't the only ones.
On Wednesday’s episode of Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough said the comment stemmed from “cruelty.”
“They do this to be hateful because they know the truth,” he said. “They have heard Dougâs childrenâs mom say time and time again that they are all part of a blended family. Not everybody, I guess, is perfect, like Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Donald Trump … and maybe J.D. Vance are perfect in this respect. A lot of us stumble through life. A lot of us have blended families. A lot of us figure out how to make blended families work.”
This isn't the first time that Harris' role as stepmom has been called into question.
When JD Vance made his original “childless cat ladies” comment back in 2021, he used Harris as an example of someone who works in politics and, according to him, doesn’t have children.
âItâs just a basic fact â you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC â the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,â he said during an interview with Tucker Carlson at the time. âAnd how does it make any sense that weâve turned our country over to people who donât really have a direct stake in it?â
Not only is Harris a stepmom of two, but Buttigieg also has children, sharing 3-year-old twins Gus and Penelope with husband Chasten. The couple adopted the children as newborns in August 2021.
