When Donald Trump first selected JD Vance to be his running mate, I'll confess that I was pretty enthusiastic about the pick. The guy has a great personal story, he's young, and he's about as far from a Beltway insider as you can get. He also seemed to be a fairly compelling speaker. But I will also have to admit that I knew virtually nothing about him beyond Hillbilly Elegy. Like every other public figure, Vance has left a trail of public comments in his wake, however, and not all of them play terribly well in the modern era. First, there was the "childless cat ladies" comment. He later tried to play that off as a joke, but I'm not sure how well that defense was received. Now another clip from 2021 has resurfaced and it also includes a reference to people without children. In this instance, he was referring to teachers and educators without kids, specifically calling out Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. (The Guardian)

JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential candidate and US senator from Ohio, attacked teachers who do not have children in newly resurfaced remarks from 2021.

In the resurfaced clip, Vance, who was speaking at a forum held by the Center for Christian Virtue, attacks “leaders on the left” and Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, for not having children.

“So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal about this, but they’re people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children, that really disorients me and disturbs me,” Vance can be heard saying in the clip.

You can listen to the audio in the tweet below and judge for yourself whether or not this is being taken out of context.

NEW VANCE AUDIO: During a Center for Christian Virtue forum in 2021, JD Vance attacked American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten for "brainwashing" children while not having children of her own:

"So many of the leaders of the left, and I hate to be so personal… pic.twitter.com/g7fXb1ReZV

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) August 27, 2024

I was rather put off initially by the "childless cat ladies" comment, probably because I'm married to a childless cat lady. But I'm not going to pass judgment quite so quickly on Vance for this remark because he puts the description in context, which is important. If he had simply criticized anyone for wanting to be a teacher without having children of their own, we would probably be right back in "cat lady" territory. Not everyone is able to have children, unfortunately, but that shouldn't be a barrier to becoming an educator in and of itself.

But Vance went further than that. While citing Randy Weingarten as an example, he specifically called out teachers who "want to brainwash our kids." If you're out there trying to implement some sort of radical "education reform" agenda, pushing transgender ideology and radical socialist concepts on children, perhaps you really should try raising a couple of your own kids first and see how you feel about it then. 

Of course, Weingarten responded to the resurfaced clip on Twitter and her attempt at pushing back fell rather flat as well. She called Vance's comments "gross." She went on to say that Vance was “sad and insulting to millions of modern families, and school teachers including Catholic nuns, none of whom should be targeted for their family decisions”.

(Insert record-scratching sound effect here.) I'm sorry, but... what? As I already said, there are a certain number of people who can't have children and others who may have made that decision intentionally for reasons of their own. That group no doubt includes a certain percentage of school teachers, some of whom may be competent and capable while others are pushing a radical progressive agenda. Their personal childbearing status is not the deciding factor. But how on Earth did Catholic nuns get dragged into this conversation??? I've had the pleasure of meeting any number of nuns who teach at Catholic schools or Sunday schools. To my knowledge, you aren't going to meet many of them who have children and that was not a "family decision" on their part. They are married to the Lord. And if they are "brainwashing" our children, it's only an effort to help raise them to be moral, God-fearing individuals. There are far worse things that can befall a child than that.

I suspect this won't be the last questionable clip from JD Vance's past that will come to light between now and the election. The left is desperately trying to find a way to stop Donald Trump and that unfortunately makes his running mate a fair target as well. But if this is the worst they can come up with, I don't think the Trump/Vance ticket has all that much to worry about.