The lesbian president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, has called Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) nonsensical and insulting over his recently resurfaced 2021 comments calling her childless and saying that she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children. Weingarten is a stepmother to her wifes two children. In his 2021 comments, Vance said that parents should decide what values and lessons their children learn, adding, So many of the leaders of the left and I hate to be so personal about this but theyre people without kids trying to brainwash the minds of our children.And that really disorients me, and it really disturbed me. Randi Weingarten, whos the head of the most powerful teachers union in the country she doesnt have a single child. If she wants to brainwash and destroy the minds of children, she should have some of her own and leave ours the hell alone. Related Bullies made straight pride posters with a gay students face as he endured years of bullying Hes suing the school district for not doing enough to stop the horrific bullying. Speaking to former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on MSNBCs Deadline White House, Weingarten responded to Vance. If it wasnt so insulting, and if we didnt have such a divided country, where people take seriously what he or [former President] Donald Trump say, it would be ridiculous. Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024 Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Whether its Catholicism, or Judaism, or any of the religions or not that many of us believe in, teaching children is one of the most important things we can do, regardless of whether we are parents or not, she said, before mentioning her two stepchildren.I consider them my kids now. And its wonderful to have a big family with lots of nieces and nephews, she continued, adding, Somebody doesnt have to be a parent to be a great teacher.In fact, so many teachers in America, so many nuns in parochial schools are fantastic teachers who teach compassion and caring and critical thinking and context, she noted. Its nonsensical, but what it does in this age of disinformation and misinformation, it just makes the job of teaching and learningthe connection between parents and teachers and kidsit makes it harder. And thats why its gross. Vances comments echo similar comments he made in the past about howpeople without children shouldnt be allowedin positions of power in the government and even thatpeople who dont have children shouldnt get an equal number of votesas people who do have children. He has previously attacked out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Vice President Kamala Harris as childless cat ladies, even though Harris is a step-mom and Buttigieg was going through the adoption process at the time.Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) attacked Weingartensimilarly in 2023, claiming that Weingarten was not a biological mother and really not a teacher either, even though Weingarten taught for years before becoming head of the teachers union. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) made similar comments on Fox News in 2021, calling Weingarten a joke and adding, Randi Weingarten does not even have children of her own. What in the hell does she know about raising and teaching kids?However, this isnt the first time Weingarten has responded to right-wing critics. In May 2021, Weingarten appeared on Fox News and criticized the media networks support of election conspiracy theories and disinformation pushed by Trump. At the time, Fox News host Martha MacCallum accused Weingarten of pushing anti-racistcritical race theoryin schools because she supports the teaching of The 1619 Project, a history curriculum that focuses on the United Statess use of slavery. MacCallum said it was wrong as a historian, to want to teach that in classrooms.If youre really talking about misinformation now, Martha, and I hope you are, I really would hope that Fox would really look at what happened in this election and how we can because every social studies teacher is wrestling with this discern fact from fiction, Weingarten said. We have to do that as social studies teachers.MacCallum cut her off and said that its quite clear that Joe Biden is president and added, [Im] not sure why you are so concerned about that. MacCallums anger and defensiveness at Weingartens comment may have stemmed from the fact thatFox News was getting suedat the time for pushing the conspiracy theories of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Weingarten responded, I would hope that Fox would be just as focused on, Lets get rid of the misinformation about what happened in this election. This election was freelyMacCallum tried to cut her off, rolling her eyes and saying, Oh come on, Randi, this is not the topic that were here to talk about. Thats a dodge! Okay?In the same interview, Weingartencalled out Fox for spreading disinformation on the COVID-19 epidemic.I would hope that Fox would [say] what everybody else in public health is doing, which is, We have to get our kids vaccinated once the vaccination is ok. I would hope Fox says to all of these people that dont want the vaccines, that think theres a problem, Why dont you and I do things together to get our kids back to school? This is what we need to do, Weingarten said, adding, We have to stop the misinformation, we have to stop the disinformation, we have to stop the chaos.