Vice President Kamala Harris, for the first time, dismissed criticism from some Republicans that she doesn’t have biological children in a podcast interview on Sunday, saying many of the comments were “mean” and that she doesn’t have children. He said he misunderstood women who can’t have children, or women who simply can’t have children. I didn’t want to.
Harris appeared on Call Her Daddy, a podcast popular with Gen Z and millennial women, to talk about reproductive rights and economic issues. She referred to recent comments by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders who suggested that having biological children helped her with humility, a virtue Harris said she lacked. hinted.
“I don’t think she understands that there are a lot of women here who don’t want to be modest,” Harris told host Alex Cooper. “The second thing is, there are a lot of women who have a lot of love in their lives, families in their lives, and children in their lives. And I think it’s really important for women to lift each other up. ”
When the conversation turned to Republican attacks on “childless cat women,” Harris referenced past statements by Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate. He called the criticism, which was widely spread by , “nasty and spiteful.” Ms. Harris referred to her stepchildren Cole Emhoff and Ella Emhoff as her children.
“I love those kids to death,” Harris said. “And families come in many forms. I think we’re all realizing more and more that it’s not the 1950s anymore.”
The “Call Daddy” interview was part of several appearances Harris has made this week on news outlets and niche podcasts and radio shows. Some platforms are considered more favorable to her, or at least far less probing than a traditional news interview.
Harris will be interviewed on the news program “60 Minutes” on Monday night. But Harris’ advisers say interviews with celebrities like Cooper are part of a strategy to target a group of voters who don’t watch television and may not get their information from mainstream news platforms. claims.
In Cooper’s case, she represents a generation of women who were of reproductive age when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion. But as she told the vice president during a 40-minute sit-in, her audience also feels disillusioned and distrustful of politics.
“Why should I trust you?” Cooper asked Harris at one point.
“If you look at my background, you can see what I value,” Harris said, referring to her roles as a prosecutor and politician. “I am interested in ensuring that people have the rights and freedoms they deserve.”
Their conversations primarily focused on reproductive rights, sexual abuse, student loans, and debt. (In a note to listeners before the episode began, Ms. Cooper joked that she wasn’t the right person to discuss fracking with the vice president.) She said she was given 40 minutes and “no topic was off-limits.” A campaign spokesperson said Harris had not been asked any questions in advance.
Ms. Cooper and Ms. Harris spoke at length about how 20 states’ post-abortion bans and regulations are impacting women.
Harris noted that he was the first person to visit a reproductive health clinic in his role, and that many critics of these facilities do not understand the full extent of the care provided to patients. said. (She visited a family planning system in Minnesota last spring.) Since Roe’s decision was overturned, dozens of reproductive health care clinics across the country have closed or reduced their services, and many Patients are being forced to cross state lines or try to find treatment online.
“Do you know what those clinics do?” Ms. Harris said. “They do Pap tests, they do breast cancer tests, they do HIV tests, and these bans have forced them to close in many places.”
When discussing the economy, Harris highlighted policies she has championed on the campaign trail, including a $6,000 tax credit for families with children under 1 and down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. She also said college debt is a “huge problem” that “prevents people from even thinking about starting a family and buying a home,” and said she would continue to fight for student loan relief if elected. said.
In a note to listeners before the show, Cooper said she had debated whether to have Harris on the podcast. In the past, she has distanced herself from politics and hinted that she turned down a request from the White House to have the president and vice president appear on the show. Ms. Cooper also said she had invited Mr. Trump on her show to talk about reproductive rights, but declined to say whether she had heard back.
Ms. Cooper first made a name for herself in the podcast world by discussing sex and relationships, but has slowly branched out into talking about politics, especially in the post-law era. She recently signed a $125 million deal with SiriusXM. On Sunday, “Call Her Daddy” ranked 15th among the most popular podcasts on Spotify.
