Tech journalist Kara Swisher has myriad issues about former President Donald Trump’s vice chairman decide JD Vance, however chief amongst them was that he “hates women,” Swisher stated throughout Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech convention earlier this month.
“I’m not joking about it,” she stated. “Go pay attention to 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 girl, she stated. Final summer season Vance launched an Ohio invoice that might classify gender-affirming look after minors as a Class C felony. One in every of Vance’s Yale Regulation College classmates, who’s transgender, advised the New York Instances they and Vance had been as soon as buddies till a 2021 falling out after Vance publicly supported the same piece of Arkansas laws on gender-affirming look after 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 have four kids; he only has two, I think,” Swisher stated. “So I believe in the future twice as much as he does.”
Swisher’s personal lambasting of Vance’s candidacy joined a refrain of different denouncers who criticized the senator’s angle towards ladies 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 ladies” who, as a result of they don’t have kids, haven’t any stake within the nation’s political future, Vance argued.
“We are effectively run in this country…by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too,” Vance stated. He later stated was referring to the Democratic Celebration, not individuals with out kids.
Vance’s stances have drawn scrutiny from each side of the aisle, main some Republican leaders, akin to Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, to query Trump’s collection of Vance, significantly 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 greater tax charges for adults with out kids and touted a Hungarian coverage that offers loans to married {couples}, then forgives them if the couple bears kids.
However Vance’s coverage surrounding household and youngsters is barely 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 non-public textual content message in 2016, Swisher claimed that in the end, Vance’s function can be to function the “butler in the U.S. government” 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 much interested in power and control of the government,” Swisher stated. “And they have disdain for the government.”
