Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife defends Harris against sexist criticisms of her as childless

The ex-wife of second gentleman Doug Emhoff on Wednesday defended Vice President Kamala Harris against sexist criticisms about her lack of biological children, calling them “baseless” and expressing her gratitude for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“These are baseless attacks. For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I,” Kerstin Emhoff said in a statement first provided to CNN. “She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.”

Emhoff’s statement follows resurfaced video of Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance criticizing several public figures, including Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives.”

“It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance told Tucker Carlson in a July 2021 interview.

Kerstin Emhoff, a film producer, shares two children with Doug Emhoff. The vice president has said her stepchildren refer to her as “Momala.”

Spokespeople for Vance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his 2021 statement. Vance is a father of three.

Harris has already faced rounds of attacks on her race and gender. Right wing media have been maligning Harris at an increased clip since President Joe Biden announced he was dropping from the race Sunday and endorsed Harris, slamming the vice president as a “DEI” candidate while criticizing everything from her romantic history to the way she laughs.

Buttigieg, who was criticized along with Harris in Vance’s 2021 interview, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the remarks came at a time when he and his husband, Chasten, “had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey.”

“He couldn’t have known that,” Buttigieg said, “but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.” (The Buttigiegs welcomed twins in late 2021.)

Harris and Doug Emhoff married in 2014.

“The thing about blended families,” Harris told CNN in 2020, “if everyone approaches it in the way that there’s plenty of love to share, then it works.”

In a 2019 essay in Elle, Harris discussed becoming close friends with Kerstin Emhoff and sharing a blended family. “Kerstin and I hit it off ourselves and are dear friends,” Harris said. “… We sometimes joke that our modern family is almost a little too functional.”

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