Allies of former President Donald Trump are pushing back on attacks by “Hollywood elites” and “Fake News” against GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance (R-OH) for his “childless cat lady” comment from three years ago.
A clip of Vance from a July 2021 interview on the former hit Fox News show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, is going viral, where he stated, “We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies” is being twisted out of context.
WATCH — Bernie Moreno Discusses the Importance of Trump Picking JD Vance as His VP at RNC 2024:
M. Perdie, J. Knudsen / Breitbart News
He added these people are “miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make of the rest of the country miserable too,” as part of a larger argument asking why “we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it.”
Anti-Trump commentator Ron Filipowksi shared a portion of the clip on his X account but, as Semafor’s Dave Wiegel noted, failed to include key caveats Vance mentioned while making a similar argument about the Intercollegiate Studies Institute that same year. Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Trump campaign, shared a video of Vance from that event Thursday:
As a new mom, my heart aches for women who are unable to bear children. @JDVance words are being taken out of context and unfairly attacked.
Here are his full comments from 2021:
“A lot of people are unable to have kids for very complicated and important reasons…there are… https://t.co/Q0yfpQWNfc pic.twitter.com/JOWbiIQ7Qf
— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) July 25, 2024
He said:
Look, a lot of people are unable to have kids for very complicated and important reasons. I know there are good friends of mine who have struggled to find the girl, to find the right guy, there are people of course for biological reasons, medical reasons that can’t have children. The target of these remarks is not them — it’s important to point that out. There have always been people like that, who even though they would like to have kids, are unable to have them. Let’s set them to the side.
After Filipowski’s clips had gained steam, it drew a reaction from actress Jennifer Aniston, who distorted the Fox News comment to suggest Vance was criticizing women who face fertility struggles.
“Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day,” Aniston wrote in an Instagram story on Wednesday. “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.”
Leavitt emphasized Thursday that “as a new mom, my heart aches for women who are unable to bear children,” adding Vance’s “words are being taken out of context and unfairly attacked,” she added.
WATCH — “Enough With the BS”: J.D. Vance Blasts Globalists, GOP Establishment Threatening WW3 over Ukraine:
Matt Perdie / Breitbart News
Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk told Breitbart News in a statement that “once again, the leftwing media have twisted Senator Vance’s words and spun up a false narrative about his position on the issues.”
“The Democrats are in complete disarray with the most unpopular Vice President in history as their party’s nominee,” she added. “The only childlessness we should be talking about are the childless parents who lost their kids to the murderous thugs and deadly fentanyl coming across Kamala’s southern border.”
Donald Trump Jr. and Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk also blasted media outlets’ presentation of the three-year-old comments on Thursday.
“The Fake News caught red-handed lying about @JDVance,” Trump Jr. wrote.
🚨🚨🚨
The Fake News caught red-handed lying about @JDVance!!!! https://t.co/XBSSo9VLGH
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 25, 2024
“Imagine that!! The media and Hollywood elites are intentionally lying about what JD Vance said in 2021 when he specifically showed compassion for women who are unable to have children,” Kirk wrote.
