Vance defends ‘sarcastic’ ‘childless cat ladies’ remarks amid blowback

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Friday addressed the firestorm brewing around his recently resurfaced remarks that the country was being run by “childless cat ladies,” calling it a “sarcastic comment” and pivoting to attack Democrats as “antifamily.”

“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,” Vance said on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show,” his first time addressing his 2021 remarks since they were recirculated this week.

“There’s a deeper point here, Megyn. 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,” Vance said. “This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming antifamily and antichildren.”

Vance pointed to support from some liberals for young children to continue to wear masks in the years after the coronavirus pandemic began. He also claimed the Harris campaign has opposed the child tax credit, though Harris as vice president has supported expanding that policy.

“It’s because they have become antifamily and antikid. And I’m proud to stand up for parents. And I hope that parents out there recognize that I’m a guy who wants to fight for you,” Vance said. “I don’t think we should back down from it, Megyn. I think we should be honest about the problem.”

Vance said the government should make it easier for families to have children and that workplaces should be more accommodating to working moms and dads. 

He also told Kelly that he’s not opposed to in vitro fertilization (IVF) for parents having fertility problems, but said “we have to protect the rights of Christian hospitals to operate the way that they want to operate.”

Vance has come under fire in recent days because of comments he made in 2021 when he was campaigning for an Ohio Senate seat. He told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson the country was 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 want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

“It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance said. “And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

The Ohio senator, who was tapped by former President Trump last week to join the GOP ticket, told Kelly people were too focused on the “sarcasm” of his remarks and not enough on the substance.

In a separate 2021 speech at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Vance said his remarks were not targeting those who couldn’t have kids for biological or medical reasons.

ABC News reported Friday that Vance in a 2021 appearance on “The Charlie Kirk Show” podcast advocated for higher taxes on Americans without children.

Vance’s past comments have been at the center of attacks from Democrats and the Harris campaign, as well as some high-profile celebrities who have taken issue with his remarks.

“All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day,” actress Jennifer Aniston wrote in an Instagram post. “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.”

Buttigieg, the Transportation secretary, noted in an interview this week that Vance’s comments came after he and his husband, Chasten, had been dealt a setback in their effort to adopt.

“It’s only been 11 days, but voters know the Trump-Vance ticket is running to take America  backwards and take away our freedoms – but as Vice President Harris has said, we will not go back,” a Harris campaign spokesperson said Friday.