Candice Bergen and Selena Gomez took up Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s widely ridiculed comment about “childless cat ladies” at the Emmys.
While hosting the show, Bergen talked about her series “Murphy Brown,” saying, “In a classic moment, my character was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when Murphy got pregnant and decided to raise the baby as a single mother. Oh, how far we’ve come. Today, a Republican vice presidential candidate would never attack a woman for having children. So, as they say, my work here is done. Meow.”
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At the awards ceremony with her “Only Murders in the Building” co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short, Gomez joked: “And let me tell you, what an honor it is to work with two guys who are so far from being childless cat ladies.”
In a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson, Vance said, “We are essentially run in this country – whether it’s the Democrats or our corporate oligarchs – by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy with their own lives and the choices they’ve made and therefore want to make the rest of the country unhappy, too.”
The comments have been widely criticized and mocked in pop culture – from late-night jokes to Taylor Swift’s statement of support for Kamala Harris.
Harris herself has no biological children, but has been the stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children for the past ten years. Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, quickly defended Harris after Vance’s testimony resurfaced, saying, “She is loving, caring, extremely protective and always there. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her as part of it.”
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