JD Vance, running mate of former President Donald Trump, is facing criticism regarding numerous comments he made in 2021 about childless Americans.

During a March 2021 interview on The Charlie Kirk Show podcast, Vance spoke to Charlie Kirk, the CEO of Turning Point USA, regarding his thoughts on making conservative ideas become mainstream policy. Kirk asked Vance how to alter the conversation about conservative policies.

“So JD … what are you going to do to change this conversation? Everything we have to do should be about moving ideas from unthinkable, to sensible, to popular, to policy,” said Kirk.

Vance told Kirk that the government should reward what they deem good and punish what they deem as bad before suggesting that the government should tax childless people at a higher rate. At the time, Vance had not yet launched his 2022 Senate campaign.

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“So, you talk about tax policy, let’s tax the things that are bad and not tax the things that are good,” Vance said. “If you are making $100,000, $400,000 a year and you’ve got three kids, you should pay a different, lower tax rate than if you are making the same amount of money and you don’t have any kids. It’s that simple.”

The YouTube video of the interview has been removed by the uploader and has not been accessible since Wednesday, according to the Wayback Machine. The podcast is also not available on Rumble or any other streaming services.

In 2021, Vance also questioned Harris’s ability to lead on Fox News, citing the fact that she has no biological children.

He argued that the country is run by Democrats, who are “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

He pointed out Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who has children. 

Vance’s spokesperson, Taylor Van Kirk, said the statements were “twisted” by Democrats.

“Once again, the leftwing media have twisted Senator Vance’s words and spun up a false narrative about his position on the issues,” Van Kirk said. “The only childlessness we should be talking about are the childless parents who lost their kids to the murderous thugs and deadly fentanyl coming across Kamala’s southern border.”

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