CNN
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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders reignited the controversy over how allies of Donald Trump discuss stepmothers and childless girls when she advised supporters of the previous president Tuesday night time that Kamala Harris doesn’t have something to maintain her humble.
Whereas introducing Trump at a Flint, Michigan, city corridor, Sanders mentioned her three kids function a “everlasting reminder of all the things that’s at stake on this nation” forward of the election.
“My youngsters hold me humble. Sadly, Kamala Harris doesn’t have something retaining her humble,” mentioned Sanders, the primary feminine governor of Arkansas and Trump’s former White Home press secretary. “You’d assume after 4 years of straight failure, she would know just a little humility. Sadly, she doesn’t.”
The feedback come because the Trump marketing campaign makes an attempt to slim the hole with Harris amongst feminine voters. Sanders is one in all a number of former Trump staffers who’ve tried to vouch for the previous president amongst girls, regardless of his lengthy historical past of sexual misconduct allegations and the truth that he was found liable of sexual abuse and defamation last year. Throughout her time within the White Home, Sanders, who at instances confronted sexist feedback about her look, defended Trump after he was criticized for attacks on female politicians.
Her remarks Tuesday, by which she argued that kids function reminders of what issues in an election and alluded to the vp’s lack of organic youngsters, are harking back to feedback made by Trump’s working mate, JD Vance, a longtime critic of these, notably elected officers, with out kids.
The Ohio senator has railed towards a “childless elite” in Washington, who he has argued doesn’t have a “direct stake” in the way forward for the nation, and has mentioned that the US was being run by “childless cat girls who’re depressing at their very own lives and the alternatives that they’ve made.” Vance has additionally mentioned the Democratic Get together has change into “anti-family and anti-child.”
These feedback, made earlier than he joined Trump on the Republican presidential ticket, have been broadly criticized by members of both parties. Pop star Taylor Swift alluded to the Vance strains in her endorsement of Harris, signing off as a “Childless Cat Woman.” Trump has since mentioned, “I hate Taylor Swift.”
Sam Dubke, a spokesperson for Sanders, mentioned the governor was referring to the Biden-Harris administration’s financial and border safety insurance policies.
“Vice President Harris, with out successful any votes, and after driving up costs by 20% and permitting almost ten million unlawful border crossings, is claiming she alone can clear up America’s issues,” Dubke mentioned in a press release to CNN. “That’s the shortage of humility Governor Sanders was referencing.”
The Harris and Trump campaigns didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Whereas Harris doesn’t have organic kids, she has two stepchildren – Cole and Ella Emhoff – by means of her 10-year marriage to second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
“We’d not appear to be different households within the White Home, however we’re able to symbolize all households in America,” Cole Emhoff mentioned in a video introducing his father ultimately month’s Democratic Nationwide Conference.
The second gentleman’s former spouse, Kerstin Emhoff, has regularly defended Harris and her position of their blended household.
“Cole and Ella hold us impressed to make the world a greater place. I do it by means of storytelling. Kamala Harris has spent her complete profession working for the individuals, ALL households,” she wrote on social media Tuesday in response to Sanders’ remarks. “That retains you fairly humble.”
On the core of the Democratic backlash to the remarks by Vance, and now Sanders, nevertheless, has been that girls’s worth and contributions to their communities shouldn’t be primarily based on whether or not they have had kids.
And Democrats slam the associated GOP rhetoric as a distraction.
“When you haven’t any substance, you must resort to superficiality,” mentioned Donna Brazile, a Harris ally and veteran Democratic political strategist.
Brazile pointed to Vance lacking latest Senate votes to briefly expand the child tax credit and to guard and increase access to in vitro fertilization, which Senate Republicans blocked.
Members of Sanders personal social gathering have additionally balked at her remarks on the Flint occasion.
Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist and CNN senior political commentator, mentioned that he understood the worth of stepparents, having been raised for a number of years by his stepmother.
“My type of Republican Get together welcomes everybody,” Jennings mentioned on CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip” on Tuesday. “We do encourage households, we encourage life, however we additionally encourage all people to do what’s greatest for themselves in their very own private scenario and respect different individuals’s selections.”
Brian Lanza, a senior adviser to the Trump marketing campaign who was additionally raised by a stepmother, advised Phillip he was “offended” by the remark and “disenchanted” in Sanders for saying that.
“I’m certain I’m going to get criticism from the marketing campaign, however I’ve to defend someone who’s a stepmom. It’s a tricky job,” Lanza mentioned. “We should always reward that and converse of that in a excessive tone.”