Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff sharply criticized comments by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who said that Vice President Kamala Harris had “nothing to keep her humble” because she has no biological children.
“We know that all parents, no matter how they become parents, make the same sacrifices and have the same joys in raising children as any other parent anywhere in the world,” Emhoff defended his wife on Wednesday evening at a campaign rally in Brooklyn, New York.
“As if keeping women humble, whether they have children or not, is something we should strive for. It’s not,” said the second gentleman. “Women in this country will never humble themselves before Donald Trump.”
Emhoff called Sanders’ comment “incredible” and expressed his appreciation for his wife, ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff, and their “big, beautiful, blessed family.”
Harris is the stepmother of Cole and Ella Emhoff, her husband’s children from his first marriage.
Kerstin Emhoff also rushed to Harris’ aid and reacted to a video of Sanders on X.
In this August 20, 2024 file photo, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff leaves the chamber after delivering remarks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago.
Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
“Kamala Harris has spent her entire career working for the people, for ALL families. That keeps you pretty humble,” she wrote on Tuesday.
Sanders was speaking to former President Donald Trump at a town hall meeting in Michigan on Tuesday when she made the remarks. “So my kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris has nothing that keeps her humble,” she said.
Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participates in a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, September 17, 2024.
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
During a visit to a Bitcoin bar in New York’s Greenwich Village on Wednesday, Trump was asked about Sanders’ comments and whether Harris should be attacked because she does not have biological children.
“Well, you know, I just don’t know what to make of it,” Trump said during the event.
Ohio Senator JD Vance had previously made his famous comment about the “childless cat ladies” regarding the childlessness of Harris and other women.
In the recently resurfaced 2021 clip, Vance accused Harris and the Democrats of being “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy with their own lives and the choices they’ve made and therefore want to make the rest of the country unhappy too.”
Vance’s remark sparked a fierce response, with some even mocking the comment by making it their own. Most famously, Taylor Swift signed her support for Harris as a “childless cat lady.”
ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Chris Donovan contributed to this report.
