JD Vance Comment in Podcast Chat on 'Postmenopausal' Women Draws Backlash

JD Vance is again under fire for a comment involving women after a 2020 podcast clip featuring the Ohio senator has resurfaced.

Since being named former President Donald Trump's 2024 running mate, Vance has faced controversy after a clip resurfaced of him on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight in July 2021. He was arguing that the U.S. was being led by people who did not have a "direct stake" in the future of the country, and in his argument, referred to Vice President Kamala Harris—who has two stepchildren—and several other Democrats as "childless cat ladies."

Vance is facing renewed criticism about his views on women after a comment on the role of "postmenopausal" women during an appearance on a 2020 episode of The Portal podcast with Eric Weinstein.

During the podcast, Weinstein said, "That's the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female, in theory," during a conversation the two were having about grandparents helping raise grandchildren.

"Yes," Vance said.

Vance spokeswoman Taylor Van Kirk told Newsweek that the senator was reacting to the first part of Weinstein's statement, believing that Weinstein was going to say something different.

"Of course he does not agree with what the host said," she said. "JD reacted to the first part of the host's sentence, assuming he was going to say: 'that's the whole purpose of spending time with grandparents.' It's a disgrace that the media is lying about JD instead of holding Kamala Harris accountable for her policies that caused sky high prices for groceries and everyday necessities, a disaster at the southern border, and a historic drug overdose epidemic."

Later in the clip, Weinstein said that grandparents helping raise their grandchildren is a "weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman." Vance's wife, Usha, is the daughter of Indian immigrants.

Vance then went on to praise Usha's mother, who took a yearlong sabbatical from her California teaching position to help the Vances raise their baby.

"Painfully economically inefficient," Vance said. "Why didn't she just keep her job, give us part of the wages to pay somebody else to do it, right? Because that is the thing that the hyper-liberalized economics wants you to do. The economic logic of always prioritizing paid wage labor over other forms of contributing to a society is, to me, it's actually a consequence of a sort of fundamental liberalism that is ultimately going to unwind and collapse upon itself."

"JD was complementing the selflessness of his mother-in-law for being willing to help care for her grandchildren," Van Kirk said. "Millions of grandparents across our country do the same every day."

The resurfaced comment from Vance has drawn criticism from a number of people online.

"the true [genius] of JD Vance is that he takes sentiments that *could* be totally normal, like "intergenerational caregiving is good," and somehow makes them incredibly creepy," the co-chair of the progressive group Indivisible, Leah Greenberg, posted on X, formerly Twitter, while sharing the resurfaced clip.

"Holy [S***]. J.D. Vance went to war with the cat ladies. Now he's gone to war with postmenopausal women. This is wild," political strategist Rick Wilson posted.

"Vance says the only thing postmenopausal women are good for is helping raise grandkids," pro-Harris account Mueller, She Wrote posted. "Well, this postmenopausal woman is good for kicking your [a**] in November."

"Every time he opens his mouth, it's another weird, disturbing, and controlling statement about women and their bodies that sounds like a line out of The Handmaid's Tale," Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker posted. "We can't let him and Donald Trump anywhere near the White House."

In the past, Trump has defended Vance's comments by saying his running mate "loves family."

"It's very important to him," Trump said in a Fox News interview in late July. "He grew up in a very interesting family situation, and he feels family is good. And I don't think there's anything wrong in saying that."

Update 8/15/24, 1:54 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Vance's spokeswoman.