Tech journalist Kara Swisher has myriad issues about former President Donald Trump’s vp choose JD Vance, however chief amongst them was that he “hates girls,” Swisher stated throughout Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech convention earlier this month.
“I’m not joking about it,” she stated. “Go take note of what he’s saying.”
Swisher additionally isn’t a fan of his restrictive views on abortion, which he opposes within the instances or rape and incest, however advocated for exceptions in instances when the mom’s life is endangered. Vance’s place on LGBTQ+ rights additionally “wasn’t good” for Swisher as a homosexual lady, she stated. Final summer season Vance launched an Ohio invoice that will classify gender-affirming take care of minors as a Class C felony. One in every of Vance’s Yale Legislation Faculty classmates, who’s transgender, advised the New York Occasions they and Vance had been as soon as mates till a 2021 falling out after Vance publicly supported an identical piece of Arkansas laws on gender-affirming take care of minors.
Vance didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The tech journalist additionally recounted a time when Vance—whose foray into enterprise capital resulted in PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel introducing him to Trump—criticized her for not believing sooner or later.
“I’ve 4 youngsters; he solely has two, I believe,” Swisher stated. “So I consider sooner or later twice as a lot as he does.”
Swisher’s personal lambasting of Vance’s candidacy joined a refrain of different denouncers who criticized the senator’s angle towards girls after a 2021 Fox Information interview resurfaced. Vance referred to as Democratic leaders, together with Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “childless cat girls” who, as a result of they don’t have kids, haven’t any stake within the nation’s political future, Vance argued.
“We’re successfully run on this nation…by a bunch of childless cat girls who’re depressing at their very own lives and the alternatives that they’ve made, and they also wanna make the remainder of the nation depressing, too,” Vance stated. He later stated was referring to the Democratic Social gathering, not folks with out kids.
Vance’s stances have drawn scrutiny from each side of the aisle, main some Republican leaders, comparable to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, to query Trump’s number of Vance, notably as some polls present Harris opening a small lead over Trump.
Although Vance stated his cat-lady feedback had been sarcastic, and the backlash was a results of him being taken out of context, he doubled down on his core message of Democrats being “anti-family.” Vance has supported larger tax charges for adults with out kids and touted a Hungarian coverage that provides loans to married {couples}, then forgives them if the couple bears kids.
However Vance’s coverage surrounding household and kids is just the primary of “so many” issues Swisher had about him. Past criticizing Vance’s controversial relationship with Appalachia and his change of coronary heart about Trump after calling him the “American Hitler” in a personal textual content message in 2016, Swisher claimed that in the end, Vance’s function can be to function the “butler within the U.S. authorities” for tech billionaires. She named PayPal Mafia member David Sacks, Elon Musk, and VC agency Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz. She argued that giants like Thiel—who gave Vance $15 million towards his 2022 Ohio senatorial marketing campaign—have propped up the politician as a part of their very own seize for energy.
“They’re very a lot excited about energy and management of the federal government,” Swisher stated. “They usually have disdain for the federal government.”