Candice Bergen takes jab at JD Vance during 2024 Emmys using 'Murphy Brown' reference

Candice Bergen took a not-so-subtle jab at JD Vance while presenting an award at the 2024 Emmy Awards on Sunday.

The "Murphy Brown" star, 78, was on stage to present the award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series when she referenced a plot from the 1990's sitcom, where her character revealed she was pregnant and intended to raise her child as a single mother. The story line was condemned by critics at the time, including then-Vice President Dan Quayle, who took issue with the unmarried protagonist having a child. He argued that it glamorized the disintegration of traditional family values.

"For 11 years, I had the tremendous privilege of playing the lead in a comedy series called Murphy Brown," Bergen said on stage.

Candice Bergen speaks onstage during the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater on September 15, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.  ((Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images))

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"I was surrounded by brilliant and funny actors, had the best scripts to work with, and in one classic moment, my character was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when Murphy became pregnant and decided to raise the baby as a single mother."

"Oh how far we’ve come," she continued. "Today, a Republican candidate for vice president would never attack a woman for having kids," she quipped.

"So as they say, my work here is done. Meow!" Bergen added.

Her comment was an apparent reference to a remark made by Vance in 2021 when he declared that the U.S. was effectively 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 wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too." He has since defended the remark as a "joke" that was "willfully misinterpreted" by Democrats, but the refrain has become a favorite line of attack by Trump critics after the former president announced him as his running mate in July.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 11: JD Vance attends Charity Day 2024 hosted by The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund at BGC Group on September 11, 2024 in New York City.   (Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund))

Bergen's comments seemingly drew a comparison between Vance and Quayle, who criticized CBS and Bergen for "mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice" during a 1992 speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

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The address, dubbed the "Murphy Brown Speech" at the time, was in response to the Rodney King riots that ravaged Los Angeles weeks prior, which he blamed, in part, to the breakdown of the "traditional" family structure.

"It doesn’t help matters when prime-time TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice," Quayle told the crowd.

Cast of MURPHY BROWN, the ground-breaking comedy about the eponymous broadcast news legend and her biting take on current events. ( (Photo by Robert Trachtenberg/CBS via Getty Images))

Bergen wasn't the only celebrity to throw shade on Vance. Selena Gomez also referenced the comment during a speech at the 76th Emmy Awards, joking what "an honor it is" to work with her two "Only Murders in the Building" co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short "who are this far away from being childless cat ladies."

Taylor Swift signed her endorsement of Kamala Harris as, "Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady" and attached a photo of herself cradling her cat.

The Trump-Vance campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Fox News' Tracy Wright contributed to this report.

Yael Halon is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..