CNN
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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders reignited the controversy over how allies of Donald Trump talk about stepmothers and childless women when she told supporters of the former president Tuesday night that Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything to keep her humble.
While introducing Trump at a Flint, Michigan, town hall, Sanders said her three children serve as a “permanent reminder of everything that is at stake in this country” ahead of the election.
“My kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble,” said Sanders, the first female governor of Arkansas and Trump’s former White House press secretary. “You would think after four years of straight failure, she would know a little humility. Unfortunately, she doesn’t.”
The comments come as the Trump campaign attempts to narrow the gap with Harris among female voters. Sanders is one of several former Trump staffers who have attempted to vouch for the former president among women, despite his long history of sexual misconduct allegations and the fact that he was found liable of sexual abuse and defamation last year. During her time in the White House, Sanders, who at times faced sexist comments about her appearance, defended Trump after he was criticized for attacks on female politicians.
Her remarks Tuesday, in which she argued that children serve as reminders of what matters in an election and alluded to the vice president’s lack of biological kids, are reminiscent of comments made by Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, a longtime critic of those, particularly elected officials, without children.
The Ohio senator has railed against a “childless elite” in Washington, who he has argued doesn’t have a “direct stake” in the future of the country, and has said that the US was being run by “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” Vance has also said the Democratic Party has become “anti-family and anti-child.”
Those comments, made before he joined Trump on the Republican presidential ticket, have been widely criticized by members of both parties. Pop star Taylor Swift alluded to the Vance lines in her endorsement of Harris, signing off as a “Childless Cat Lady.” Trump has since said, “I hate Taylor Swift.”
Sam Dubke, a spokesperson for Sanders, said the governor was referring to the Biden-Harris administration’s economic and border security policies.
“Vice President Harris, without winning any votes, and after driving up prices by 20% and allowing nearly ten million illegal border crossings, is claiming she alone can solve America’s problems,” Dubke said in a statement to CNN. “That’s the lack of humility Governor Sanders was referencing.”
The Harris and Trump campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.
But second gentleman Doug Emhoff, speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Brooklyn on Wednesday, defended “our big, beautiful, blended family” and tied Vance’s comments to what he said was Trump’s agenda.
“We know what they’re really trying to do. It’s Dobbs, it’s Project 2025, it’s spreading hate and trying to pit women against each other, trying to pit us all against each other,” he said. “But I’ve got news for him. Women in this country are sick and tired of weak men trying to take away their fundamental rights and then gaslight you about it.”
He continued: “The women in this country will never humble themselves before Donald Trump.”
While Harris does not have biological children, she has two stepchildren – Cole and Ella Emhoff – through her 10-year marriage to second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
“We might not look like other families in the White House, but we are ready to represent all families in America,” Cole Emhoff said in a video introducing his father at last month’s Democratic National Convention.
The second gentleman’s former wife, Kerstin Emhoff, has continually defended Harris and her role in their blended family.
“Cole and Ella keep us inspired to make the world a better place. I do it through storytelling. Kamala Harris has spent her entire career working for the people, ALL families,” she wrote on social media Tuesday in response to Sanders’ remarks. “That keeps you pretty humble.”
At the core of the Democratic backlash to the remarks by Vance, and now Sanders, however, has been that women’s value and contributions to their communities shouldn’t be based on whether they have had children.
And Democrats slam the related GOP rhetoric as a distraction.
“When you have no substance, you have to resort to superficiality,” said Donna Brazile, a Harris ally and veteran Democratic political strategist.
Brazile pointed to Vance missing recent Senate votes to temporarily expand the child tax credit and to protect and expand access to in vitro fertilization, which Senate Republicans blocked.
Members of Sanders own party have also balked at her remarks at the Flint event.
Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist and CNN senior political commentator, said that he understood the value of stepparents, having been raised for several years by his stepmother.
“My kind of Republican Party welcomes everyone,” Jennings said on CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip” on Tuesday. “We do encourage families, we encourage life, but we also encourage everybody to do what’s best for themselves in their own personal situation and respect other people’s choices.”
Brian Lanza, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign who was also raised by a stepmother, told Phillip he was “offended” by the comment and “disappointed” in Sanders for saying that.
“I’m sure I’m going to get criticism from the campaign, but I have to defend somebody who’s a stepmom. It’s a tough job,” Lanza said. “We should reward that and speak of that in a high tone.”
This story has been been updated with comments from second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
CNN’s Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.
