Vance responds to ‘childless cat ladies’ backlash, claims Democrats are ‘anti-family’
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(WASHINGTON) — Vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance went on the “Megyn Kelly Show” podcast Friday to defend his past remarks where he questioned Democratic leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for not having biological children, referring to them as “childless cat ladies.”
Vance made the comments in 2021, but they have recently resurfaced after former first lady Hillary Clinton shared a clip of the comments on X earlier this week — a little more than a week after Trump picked Vance as his running mate. Harris — who was among those Vance attacked — has secured commitments from enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee if they all honor their commitment when voting, according to ABC News reporting.
“We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, 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,” Vance said in the 2021 Fox News interview.
The main argument Vance made during his Friday interview with Kelly is that the Democratic Party is “anti-family” and that his criticism was not directed at those who don’t have kids.
“The simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way,” Vance told Kelly.
“I explicitly said in my remarks, despite the fact that the media has lied about this, that this is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child,” he added.
Vance’s original comments form 2021 mentioned the “choices” those Democrats had made that led them to be “miserable” and “childless cat ladies.”
While Vance claims Democrats are “anti-family and anti-child,” President Joe Biden and Harris have advocated for the child tax credit. The expanded child tax credit put in place during COVID expired in 2021 after pressure from Republicans and independent Joe Manchin. Democrats continue to fight to bring it back — with Biden calling for it to be put back in place in his FY2025 budget.
Vance said in the interview that he hopes parents realize he’s fighting for them.
“I’m proud to stand up for parents, and I hope the parents out there recognize that I’m a guy who wants to fight for you. I want to fight for your interests. I want to fight for your stake in the country. And that is what this is fundamentally about,” Vance said.
But Vance’s past comments have received massive backlash.
Kerstin Emhoff, mother to Cole and Ella Emhoff and the ex-wife of second gentleman Doug Emhoff, called Vance’s “cat lady” comments “baseless attacks.”
“For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it,” Kerstin Emhoff said.
Ella Emhoff, the daughter of second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Harris’ stepdaughter, posted on her story on Instagram, “I love my three parents” while highlighting her mom’s statement. She asked “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I.”
Buttigieg also reacted to Vance’s comments on CNN Tuesday night, telling anchor Kaitlin Collins that Vance shouldn’t comment on other people’s children.
“The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey,” Buttigieg said. “He couldn’t have known that, but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.”
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh and MaryAlice Parks contributed to this report
(WASHINGTON) — As Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign gains momentum, many environmental advocacy groups say they’re “all in” to help her win the White House.
Groups like the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Sierra Club, and NRDC Action Fund have already endorsed her campaign.
Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president for government affairs for the LCV, told ABC News that her organization is eager to support the Harris campaign and said she thinks the goal now should be “building on the progress” of the current administration.
“I think it’s more about building on the progress — the progress of the Biden-Harris Administration on climate and on conservation has been truly historic, and there’s clearly more progress to make,” Sittenfeld said. “And we know that Vice President Harris is committed to doing just that.”
Other environmental organizations, like the Sunrise Movement, known for representing younger voters, are pushing Harris to take her climate policies further than President Joe Biden did during his term.
“You have an opportunity to win the youth vote by turning the page and differentiating from Biden policies that are deeply unpopular with us,” several youth groups wrote in a letter to Harris, specifically citing approvals for new oil and gas projects under the Biden-Harris Administration.
Climate groups have praised several key accomplishments, including Harris casting the tie-breaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, a tentpole policy the Biden-Harris Administration calls the largest package of climate policies and spending in U.S. history. She also investigated fossil fuel companies as California attorney general, most notably Exxon Mobil over allegations they may have misled the public about the risks of climate change linked to burning fossil fuels.
As Harris considers who to select as her vice president, the climate and environmental records of the leading candidates for the VP job will surely be part of the evaluation process.
“We very much hope and expect that she will pick a running mate who shares her commitment, who will center these issues — that they will bring a whole government approach, especially to tackling the climate crisis that in the way that the Biden-Harris Administration has done over the last three and a half years,” Sittenfeld said.
Here’s where the four leading candidates to be Harris’ VP pick stand on some of the most important climate and environmental issues:
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has pushed a suite of policies in response to the negative impacts of climate change experienced by his state after it was devastated by hurricanes and severe flooding early in his tenure.
During his two terms as governor, Cooper signed executive orders establishing greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals for the state — aiming for a 50% reduction by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. He also ordered a reduction in energy consumption in state-owned buildings and increased the number of registered zero-emissions vehicles in the state.
Cooper has also made environmental justice initiatives a priority during his tenure, establishing the Governor’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council last fall.
Cooper testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Natural Resource Committee in 2019 to urge Congress to take action on climate change, noting the devastation his state experienced in the wake of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence and Tropical Storm Michael in 2018, in addition to periods of severe flooding over the years.
“Just like many places in our country and across the globe, we are beginning to feel the harsh effects of climate change on our communities and on our economy,” Cooper testified. “Scientists have found that climate change makes weather more erratic. It makes storms larger and more powerful. And it intensifies heavy rainfalls and drought.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has largely avoided speaking explicitly about climate change in public remarks and favors what his administration calls a “balanced” approach to energy — using a mix of fossil fuels and renewables. Some reports have speculated that Beshear’s energy strategy and his mixed record on environmental issues may be a response to Kentucky’s position as one of the largest coal-producing and coal-burning states in the nation and being a Democratic governor in a largely Republican state.
Beshear says Kentucky becoming “the electric vehicle battery capital of the United States” is one of his “signature accomplishments” as governor, noting $8 billion in investments across two battery manufacturing plants that he says have created 7,000 jobs. He also signed legislation that made $30 million in state funding available for a new natural gas pipeline in the western portion of the state in 2022, calling the project a boon for economic development in the region.
“When world-class companies look to locate here, they need world-class infrastructure to support their needs. I’m happy to be alongside these other leaders to announce that that’s exactly what we’re going to do in building this line,” Beshear said at the time in a press release.
As governor, Beshear declined to apply for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program — making his state one of just a handful, and the only with a Democratic governor, to do so — with his administration saying at the time that some of Kentucky’s larger cities were better positioned to apply.
Earlier this year, he vetoed a bill that would make it more difficult to shut down retired coal plants in the state, writing that it was “inconsistent with Kentucky’s all-of-the above energy policy” and that it would delay new energy projects and “jeopardize economic development.” His veto was overridden by the state’s Republican-led General Assembly.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro
Gov. Josh Shapiro has emphasized the economic benefits of expanding alternative sources of energy in a state where natural gas production plays a huge role in its economy. Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the country, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Similar to President Biden, Shapiro emphasizes the potential to create jobs in many of his climate and energy policies. He secured $400 million in federal funding from the EPA to reduce pollution from industrial sources and create clean energy jobs.
Shapiro has faced criticism from some environmental groups for working with natural gas companies to develop climate and pollution monitoring programs in the state. Shapiro has promoted developing hydrogen energy hubs in the state and capping abandoned oil and gas wells which can be a source of methane gas and other pollution. He also developed his own plan to set a price on carbon that he said would reduce the state’s emissions and customers energy bills and updated the state’s energy standards to attract more investment in renewable energy.
That standard requires the state to get 50% of its electricity from diverse energy sources including solar, wind, small nuclear reactors, fusion, and hydropower by 2035, according to the website for his proposed budget. A report by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center found that Pennsylvania was 50th when it came to new renewable energy since 2013.
Gov. Shapiro was endorsed by Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania when he ran for office in 2022, with the group citing his investigations of oil and gas companies and his work to enforce environmental laws as the state’s attorney general.
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly
Sen. Mark Kelly has served on multiple committees that deal with climate and environmental issues in the Senate, including the Committee on Energy & Natural Resources and the Environment and Public Works Committee. He has been outspoken about the need to address climate issues that are impacting his home state, such as extreme heat and drought.
He claimed credit for securing $4 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to help Colorado River basin states manage drought. He and Arizona Sen. Kristen Sinema also co-sponsored the Growing Climate Solutions Act to make it easier for farmers to participate in climate programs.
Kelly has cited his experience as an astronaut as part of his motivation for tackling climate change, saying that from space he saw how fragile the Earth’s atmosphere can be.
“All seven and a half billion of us, we live on an island in our solar system. Make no mistake we’ve got no place else to go and between my first flight and my fourth one it was a decade, and I saw some changes in our planet,” he said in a 2020 appearance on “The View,” specifically mentioning deforestation in places like the Amazon.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to get from fossil fuels to get from more renewable energy, I think we’ve got a decade or so to figure this out but we can’t continue to wait,” he added.
He was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters in 2020 and 2022 and has a 93% lifetime approval score from the organization.
(WASHINGTON) — Former first lady Melania Trump described the July 13 assassination attempt on her husband, former President Donald Trump, as “a horrible, distressing experience” in a new video.
She also questioned official accounts of the security failure at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally, suggesting there’s “more to this story.”
Melania Trump has been posting videos defending her husband ahead of tonight’s presidential debate as a part of her promotional campaign for her forthcoming memoir, titled “Melania.”
“The attempt to end my husband’s life was a horrible, distressing experience,” Melania Trump said in the short video, posted Tuesday morning on X. “Now, the silence around it feels heavy. I can’t help but wonder why didn’t law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech?”
“There is definitely more to this story, and we need to uncover the truth,” she continued.
The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the shooter. Crooks, who also shot and killed a spectator at the rally and injured two others, was killed at the scene.
In an Aug. 28 media call, Kevin P. Rojek, Special Agent in Charge for the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, said that their investigation to that point had provided “valuable insight into [Crooks’] mindset, but not a definitive motive” for the shooting.
“To date, we have not uncovered any credible evidence indicating the subject conspired with anyone else,” Rojek also said, adding that the FBI will “continue to pursue all investigative leads to determine any possible links to co-conspirators.”
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who came under scrutiny for the agency’s failure to prevent the assassination attempt, resigned her position on July 23.
In an audio clip posted to X on Monday, the former first lady described how the 2020 election “changed” some people’s lives forever, and said that there are “efforts to silence” her husband.
“The 2020 election results changed our lives forever. It impacted our quality of life, cost of food, gasoline, safety, and even the geopolitical landscape,” Melania Trump said. “America is more divided today than ever before. It has become increasingly apparent that there are significant challenges to free speech, as demonstrated by the efforts to silence my husband.”
Both the video and the audio clip end with promotional messaging for her memoir and where to order the book.
In yet another video posted last week on X, Melania Trump described the experience of writing the memoir as a “deeply personal and reflective journey.”
“As a private person who has often been the subject of public scrutiny and misrepresentation, I feel a responsibility to clarify the facts. I believe it is important to share my perspective, the truth,” Trump said.
Melania Trump’s memoir, which she began promoting in July, is scheduled to be released on Oct. 8. Her website describes it in part as “the powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has defined personal excellence, overcome adversity, and carved her own path.”
“The former First Lady invites readers into her world, offering an intimate portrait of a woman who has lived an extraordinary life,” and includes “stories and images never before shared with the public,” the according to the website.
“Melania” is available in three editions ranging in cost from $40 to $250 for a signed, expanded “collector’s edition.”
(WASHINGTON) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to drop out of the presidential race by the end of this week, sources familiar with the decision tell ABC News.
Sources tell ABC News that Kennedy plans to endorse Donald Trump — but when asked directly by ABC News if he will be endorsing the former president, Kennedy said, “I will not confirm or deny that.”
“We are not talking about any of that,” he said.
Sources cautioned the decision is not yet finalized and could still change, with one source adding that Kennedy’s hope is, in part, to finalize things quickly in order to try to blunt momentum from the Democratic National Convention.
One possible scenario being discussed is for Kennedy to appear on stage with Trump at an event in Phoenix on Friday, though the sources cautioned that Kennedy’s thinking could always change and sources close to Trump say no plan for Friday is finalized.
Kennedy’s campaign manager, Amaryllis Fox, emailed senior staff on Wednesday morning thanking them for their hard work — but indicated a decision on the way forward had not been made, a source familiar with the email told ABC News.
“There are a couple potential paths forward, not only two, and I can bear witness to the care, examination that Bobby has invested in the consideration of each,” Fox wrote, according to the source.
A spokesperson for Kennedy posted on X that Kennedy will “address the nation” live on Friday to discuss his “path forward,” but offered no specifics.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kennedy told ABC News regarding the Democratic convention and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, “I think it was a coronation, it’s not democracy. Nobody voted. Who chose Kamala It wasn’t voters.”
He also complained about the way his campaign has been treated.
“She went in four weeks from being the worst liability for the Democratic Party to the second coming of Christ without giving one interview, without showing up for a debate, without a single policy that anyone thinks isn’t ridiculous,” he said. “It’s not democracy.”
