Harris Denied Vance Kids Tour Of Vice Presidential Residence

Vice President JD Vance says his children were denied a traditional tour of the vice president’s residence before inauguration after Kamala Harris refused his family’s request breaking a long-standing courtesy between outgoing and incoming VPs.

Speaking on the inaugural episode of the Katie Miller Podcast, Vance revealed that his wife Usha had asked if she could take their three children, then ages 7, 5, and 2, to see the home they’d be living in for the next four years. The request, he said, was “rebuffed” by Harris.

“I think that, normally, it’s customary for the outgoing vice president to show the incoming vice president’s family the house,” Vance explained. “Recognizing the weirdness of the politics, we just asked if Usha could take the kids over and show them around, and they were rebuffed.”

Instead of a personal tour, the Vance children had to settle for looking at pictures of the residence in a book a friend had given them. “That’s as close as they ever got to it before the inauguration,” Vance said.

Harris didn’t just turn down the children she also skipped the tradition of personally welcoming the incoming vice president to the residence. Past officeholders have typically invited their successors for an early visit, a gesture meant to ensure a smooth transition.

The snub stands in stark contrast to Harris’ frequent public branding as “Momala,” a nickname she embraced from her stepchildren, Cole and Ella Emhoff. Harris has often cited the moniker in interviews and even wrote about it in a 2019 Elle essay, using it as an example of her close family ties.

For critics, the incident highlights the gap between Harris’ carefully crafted public image and her actual behavior. While she has presented herself as a warm, family-oriented figure, refusing a simple, apolitical courtesy to small children paints a much colder picture.

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