Though the news cycle had quieted over comments JD Vance made years ago about the “childless cat lady,” the vice presidential candidate insists he has no regrets about the joke that sparked a flurry of criticism from the left.
Vance says, instead, that Democrats have tried to attack his character for a “snide remark” he made while trying to make a much more important argument about policies that make it harder to want to start a family.
“Yes, I made a sarcastic comment years ago that I think was deliberately misinterpreted by many Democrats,” Vance said under final questioning about his comments.
Asked by NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker if he regretted his comments, Vance said: “I’m certainly sorry that a lot of people took it the wrong way and I’m certainly sorry that the DNC and Kamala Harris lied about it.”
The entire controversy stems from a 2021 interview Vance had with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson when he was a candidate for the US Senate.
Sen. JD Vance doesn’t regret his “snide comment” about “childless cat ladies” and said it was a joke made to serve America’s anti-family problem
Vance said at the time that the United States was run by “a bunch of childless, cat-loving women who are miserable with their own lives and the choices they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
“It’s a basic fact: If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance continued. “And what’s the point in us having handed our country over to people who don’t actually have a direct interest in it?”
Vice President Harris has no children of her own, but she is a stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children, Ella and Cole. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg now has twins that he adopted with his husband Chasten.
The Ohio Republican says that while his comment was meant as a joke, the larger point was that conditions in the U.S. make it difficult for people to support their families and therefore discourage couples from having children.
“I have a lot of regrets, Kristen, but making a joke three years ago is not in the top 10 of the list,” she said in the interview with Welker that aired in full Sunday morning.
Vance watched his wife Usha work to balance having children and being a successful trial lawyer and says he wants to make it easier for women to have options. Pictured: JD and Usha Vance with their three children
“From time to time I’m going to say things that people won’t agree with,” he acknowledged. “I’m a real person. I’m going to make jokes, I’m going to say things with sarcasm.”
“If I’m elected vice president, I’m sure I’ll say things that will make people say, ‘Well, I wish I’d said it differently. ‘ I think the most important thing is to be the person I really am and say that those sarcastic comments were made in service of a real, substantial argument,” he continued.
“This country has become too anti-family,” Vance lamented. “It’s too expensive to buy a house, it’s too expensive to buy food. Donald Trump and I want to change that.”
The Republican vice presidential candidate urged Americans to put the comments behind them and “focus on the policy.”