Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance has responded to critics of his “childless cat lady” comments, saying those who criticized him lied about what he said.
The 39-year-old Ohio senator appeared on Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy,” where he reiterated his point.
“If you look at what the left has done, they’ve taken this wildly out of context and, in fact, aggressively lied about what I’ve said,” Vance said.
“What I think is true, Trey, and this goes to the heart of what I was saying three years ago in those comments, but it’s something I’ll continue to talk about, is that the left has become increasingly explicitly anti-child and anti-family,” he continued.
Sunday night’s appearance was the latest effort by Vance to explain away his comments in a recently resurfaced clip from 2021 that has drawn fierce criticism from Democrats and prominent women.
JD Vance appeared on Fox News where he doubled down on his “son.”
When Vance was running for Senate, he appeared on Fox News, where he told then-host Tucker Carlson: The United States was ruled by “a group of” Cat ladies without children.
He claimed that they were ‘They feel miserable about their own lives and the choices they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.’
He specifically mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pete Buttigieg.
‘The whole future of the Democrats ‘It’s controlled by people without children,’ Vance said. ‘What’s the point of us handing over our country to people who have no real interest in it?’
On Sunday, Gowdy pointed out to Vance that there have been plenty of leaders without biological children, from George Washington to former Republican Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
“I think you’ll agree with me that you don’t have to have direct descendants to fully invest in the future of this country,” Gowdy said.
“Absolutely not, Trey. I think being a parent has a profound effect on a person’s outlook and we should honor and respect that,” Vance said.
“But there are a lot of people who don’t have children for a lot of reasons. And they are certainly wonderful people who can participate fully in the life of this country.”
From there, Vance continued and redoubled his attacks on Democrats.
“Young families have been encouraged not to have children because of concerns about climate change,” he said.
“They’ve suggested that people who have children are somehow selfish, when I think being a parent is actually the most selfless thing you can do and, again, it really transforms your perspective,” she said.
Vance argued that Trump is a “true champion of fathers and families” as he attacked Democrats in response to criticism over his 2021 comment about the “childless cat lady.”
But her criticism of Democrats for being “anti-child and anti-family” comes as Harris and Democrats on the campaign trail have been campaigning on a platform calling for more affordable child care and paid parental leave.
Vance has spent several days pushing back against the fallout from his 2021 comments that have angered women across the country, from actress Jennifer Aniston, who took to Instagram with a brutal response to thousands of Taylor Swift fans.
Last week, Vance recorded an episode of The Megyn Kelly Show where he claimed his comment about the “childless cat lady” was a “snide remark.”
The Republican vice presidential nominee also attacked Democrats on policy issues in his interview with Kelly.
He claimed that Harris’ campaign is against extending the Child Tax Credit. However, that appears to be false.
Harris has called for extending the expansion of the Child Tax Credit as passed in the American Rescue Plan by Democrats in 2021.
Vance, however, reiterated his claim on Gowdy’s show on Sunday.
“How did we get to a point where Kamala Harris is calling for an end to the child tax credit? How did we get to a point where we’re having young children masked up for years into the pandemic? I think it’s because we’re radically underrepresenting the parent perspective in our public discourse,” Vance said.
Trump’s running mate said the former president is the “true champion of fathers and families.”
