Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) has become the latest high-profile woman to spring to the defense of Kamala Harris over J.D. Vance’s remarks about “childless cat ladies.”
Giffords, 54, who is married to Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), almost lost her life in an attempted assassination in January 2011 after being hit in the head by a bullet. Six other people were killed in the attack.
“Vice President @KamalaHarris is a proud mom of two remarkable stepchildren—and so am I,” Giffords wrote on X. “@CaptMarkKelly and I were trying to have a baby through IVF before I was shot and that dream was stolen from us. To suggest we are somehow lesser is disgraceful.”
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Donald Trump’s new vice presidential pick said in a Fox News interview in 2021 that the U.S. was being run by “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.”
Among those firing back at the remarks, which went viral after being reposted this week, was Friends star Jennifer Aniston, who said in an Instagram Story that she hoped Vance’s daughter would never need to undergo IVF.
Kelly, 60, who represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate, has two grown-up children from his first marriage and a baby granddaughter.
Giffords and Kelly have previously opened up about their heartbreak at not having children after the 2011 attack near Tucson, Arizona.
“Of everything that changed that day—both of us halting our careers, the beginning of a long, difficult road to recovery—we also lost something we wanted very much: the opportunity to have a child together,” they wrote in a joint essay for People magazine earlier this year attacking moves to limit IVF access in Arizona.
They added: “We don’t dwell on what could have been. Gabby’s philosophy is ‘Move ahead,’ and that’s what we did to rebuild our lives and find our purpose after what happened to our family. We have a vibrant family we love, including a granddaughter who brings us so much joy.”
Kelly is among the frontrunners to be Harris’ running mate—which would pit him against Vance in any televised VP debate. If Harris were to beat Trump, Giffords could end up as America’s second lady.
