Senator JD Vance defended his comments about Democratic women in his first comments addressing a wave of backlash he has faced in recent days.
Vance, who is former President Donald Trump‘s running mate, faced criticism for saying the United States is run by “childless cat ladies” during an interview with Fox News in 2021 while running for Senate in Ohio, pointing to Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as examples.
“We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, so they want to make of the country miserable too,” he said.
On Friday, Vance defended his comments in an interview with Megyn Kelly.
“I know the media wants to attack me and wants me to back down on this, Megyn, but the simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way,” he said.
“It’s not a criticism of people who don’t have children. I explicitly said in my remarks, despite the fact the media has lied about this, that this is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic party for becoming anti-family and anti-child,” he said.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for comment via email.
Throughout the interview, he accused Democrats of having “weird” policy positions surrounding families.
“What a weird society that we’ve set up where moms who want to work, the thought that a lot of them are having is we can’t have more babies because it’s going to be bad for my career,” he said.
Notably, this comes after Democrats have called Vance weird in recent days.
Washington Senator Patty Murray wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, responding to the childless cat lady comments, “I can’t believe I have to say this, but a woman’s stake in our society has nothing to do with having children or owning cats. What JD Vance said is not just insulting and wrong, it’s weird and off-putting.”
His remarks also drew criticism from actress Jennifer Aniston, who addressed them in an Instagram story.
“I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States,” she wrote. “Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her too.”
Vance also dismissed the comment as “sarcasm,” adding that he has “nothing against cats,” according to The Washington Post‘s Patrick Svitek.
Tim Miller, the host of The Bulwark Podcast, responded to the interview on X, writing, “When the clean up is worse than the spill.”
Democratic Representative Lori Trahan of Massachusetts wrote on X: “The substance of what Vance said was that women without children don’t have as much of a stake in the future of our country. That’s insane. It’s weird. And it’s disrespectful, especially to women who have battled infertility, cervical cancer and other medical conditions.”
Update 7/26/24, 1:30 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
