Washington
CNN
—
The ex-wife of second gentleman Doug Emhoff on Wednesday defended Vice President Kamala Harris in opposition to sexist criticisms about her lack of organic kids, calling them “baseless” and expressing her gratitude for the presumptive Democratic nominee.
“These are baseless assaults. For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella had been youngsters, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I,” Kerstin Emhoff stated in a press release first offered to CNN. “She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protecting, and all the time current. I like our blended household and am grateful to have her in it.”
Emhoff’s assertion follows resurfaced video of Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance criticizing a number of public figures, together with Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as “a bunch of childless cat women who’re depressing at their very own lives.”
“It’s only a fundamental truth — you take a look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the complete way forward for the Democrats is managed by folks with out kids,” Vance informed Tucker Carlson in a July 2021 interview.
Kerstin Emhoff, a movie producer, shares two kids with Doug Emhoff. The vp has stated her stepchildren discuss with her as “Momala.”
Spokespeople for Vance didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon his 2021 assertion. Vance is a father of three.
Harris has already confronted rounds of assaults on her race and gender. Proper wing media have been maligning Harris at an elevated clip since President Joe Biden introduced he was dropping from the race Sunday and endorsed Harris, slamming the vice president as a “DEI” candidate whereas criticizing every part from her romantic historical past to the best way she laughs.
Buttigieg, who was criticized together with Harris in Vance’s 2021 interview, informed CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the remarks got here at a time when he and his husband, Chasten, “had been by way of a reasonably heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey.”
“He couldn’t have recognized that,” Buttigieg stated, “however possibly that’s why you shouldn’t be speaking about different folks’s kids.” (The Buttigiegs welcomed twins in late 2021.)
Harris and Doug Emhoff married in 2014.
“The factor about blended households,” Harris informed CNN in 2020, “if everybody approaches it in the best way that there’s loads of like to share, then it really works.”
In a 2019 essay in Elle, Harris mentioned changing into shut mates with Kerstin Emhoff and sharing a blended household. “Kerstin and I hit it off ourselves and are expensive mates,” Harris stated. “… We typically joke that our trendy household is sort of slightly too useful.”