Sarah Huckabee Sanders Attacked Kamala Harris for Not Having Biological Kids at Trump Rally
At a Tuesday rally for Donald Trump in Michigan, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) introduced her former boss with a short speech that read like a 2021-era JD Vance rant, mocking Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for not having biological children. Harris has two stepchildren with her husband Douglas Emhoff.
Sanders' remarks were presumably meant to be heart-warming, as she recounted helping her young daughter get ready for a school dance: "‘It’s okay, mommy, one day you can be pretty too,’” Sanders said her daughter told her. “So, my kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”
It would be an appallingly sexist comment from any politician, but there's an added layer of this line coming from Sanders, specifically: In 2023, one of her first acts as governor of Arkansas was signing a bill that rolled back a range of life-saving child labor protections, including one requirement that employers obtain work certificates for minors under the age of 16. So, I'm not particularly inclined to believe Sanders really has children's best interests at heart more than Harris does.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders starts the Trump town hall by taking a shot at Kamala Harris for not having biological children.
"So, my kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn't have anything keeping her humble." pic.twitter.com/URV9FZBqhv
— American Bridge 21st Century (@American_Bridge) September 17, 2024
From the moment Harris emerged at the top of the Democratic ticket, the right has been aggressively scrutinizing her identity as a woman who doesn't have biological children. In fact, as early as 2021, JD Vance said of Harris, "We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats… by a bunch of childless cat ladies, who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children—and how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
In July, Laura Loomer, a proud white nationalist and (very) close ally to Trump, used particularly disgusting terms to attack Harris' so-called childlessness: "It’s time for Republicans to start talking about [Harris’] sexual history and the reason why she likely doesn’t have any children of her own. I’m willing to bet she’s had so many abortions that she damaged her uterus. A woman who has no biological children of her own should not be allowed to make decisions in the White House for your children,” she wrote in a sprawling, article-length tweet. Loomer further implored Republicans to “run with this messaging," arguing, “Harris has zero investment in the future but she wants to determine our future.”
As Republicans like Sanders, Vance, and Loomer see it, Harris has no stake in the future—or "humility"—because she didn't birth children. It's an almost comically ironic line of thinking given that the majority of Congress is parents and grandparents who’ve yet to lift a finger on climate change. For that matter, most of Congress has kids while actively legislating against their kids' rights and interests. But Republicans who are determined to shame Harris for not having biological children aren't interested logic. They're interested in pushing their pro-natalist, forced birth agenda—which requires shaming and mocking women who don't fulfill what the right sees as our biological destiny and birth children. And, clearly, nor do right-wingers care about insulting individuals and families with fertility struggles.
If attacking Harris for failing to incubate children is all Republicans have on her just 50 days out from the election, suffice to say, they won't be beating the "weird" allegations any time soon.