JD Vance defends Harris’ childless cat comment

Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, on Friday defended his comments accusing key Democrats — including Vice President Kamala Harris — of being miserable “cats without kids” who want to “make the rest of the country miserable.” ” as well as against the family and against the children.

Vance has been under fire for days after the “cat lady” statement resurfaced online following the Ohio Republican’s nomination as the party’s vice presidential nominee.

His decision Friday to double down on the comments, rather than apologize or say his views have changed, means the Trump campaign can expect the criticism to keep coming.

“Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I have nothing against cats,” Vance said Friday. The Megyn Kelly Show on SiriusXM.

“I know the media wants to attack me and want me to back down, Megyn, but the simple point I was making is that having children — becoming a father, becoming a mother — I really think it changes your perspective in a very profound way,” Vance said.

“Democrats over the last five, 10 years Megyn, have become anti-family, it’s embedded in their policies, it’s embedded in the way they talk about parents and children, and it’s time to call it out,” Vance said. who has three children.

“I don’t think we should back down from it… I think we should be honest about the problem.” Vance’s comments on Kelly’s show were the first from him to address the renewed controversy over remarks he made in 2021 while running for the Ohio Senate seat.

“It’s not a criticism of people who don’t have children. I made that clear in my remarks,” Vance said. “This is not about criticizing people who for various reasons don’t have children. This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for being anti-family and anti-child.”

“I want to take aim at the left, especially the childless left, because I think the rejection of the American family is probably the most pernicious and evil thing the left has done in this country,” Vance said during an appearance of the Institute of Intercollegiate Studies.

Vance said at the time that while Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., came from different parts of the country and had different backgrounds , “the one thing that unites each of them: none of them have children.”

While he said he wasn’t targeting people “who can’t have children for very complex and important reasons,” Vance said, “It’s another thing to build a political movement, theoretically invested in the future of this country, when neither of them have any physical commitment to the future of this country.”

Harris, who is the de facto Democratic Party candidate, is stepmother to her husband Douglas Emhoff’s two children, who refer to her as “Momala.” At the time Vance made his comments, Buttigieg was in the process of adopting twin babies with his partner.

A month after his 2021 comment, Vance appeared on the now-defunct Fox News show of Tucker Carlson — Kelly’s former employer — and expanded on it.

“We’re essentially run in this country, through the Democrats, through our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable about their lives and the choices they’ve made, and that’s how they want to do the rest. and the country miserably,” Vance said.

“It’s just a basic fact that if you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, the AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he said.

Last week, much of the criticism of those remarks came from Democrats and their allies, who blasted Vance for suggesting that politicians’ decisions to have children or not are a function of their political ideology.

But Vance’s remarks were also used by some of Harris’ supporters to embrace the idea of ​​being “cat ladies” who could help elect the first female US president after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and endorsement of Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. candidate.

Harris’ campaign on Friday seized on an issue raised online by supporters calling Vance “weird.”

“JD Vance Is a Creep (Who Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide),” said an email from the Harris campaign. “JD Vance is weird. Voters know it – Vance is the most unpopular VP pick in decades.”

Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, said Vance’s comments were “baseless” and referred to Harris’ role in their children’s lives.

“For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a compatriot to Doug and me,” Kerstin Emhoff said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday. “She is loving, caring, fiercely protective and always there. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her with her.”

Ella Emhoff, 25, posted a snap on her Instagram, backing up her mother’s statement and adding her own words: “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like me and Cole?”

“I love all three of my parents,” Ella wrote.

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal – which regularly supports Republicans – wrote on Wednesday that “Ms. Harris’s claim to be childless is another false note” struck by Republicans as they face her bid for the White House.

“The decision to have children is intensely personal and often a matter of luck as much as choice, and the attack underscores the culturally censorious side of the GOP that alienates many voters,” the Journal board wrote in its editorial.

“She has two stepchildren. It is possible to emphasize the virtue of families and children without sounding like a moral rebuke.”