JD Vance Defends ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Comments, Criticizes Jennifer Aniston

JD Vance has been defending his sexist remarks, which labeled Kamala Harris and other women as “childless cat ladies,” while attempting to turn the tables by accusing Jennifer Aniston of making “disgusting” comments about his daughter.

The controversy began when a 2021 interview Vance did with Tucker Carlson on Fox News resurfaced and went viral. The backlash has led to some speculation within Republican circles that the party and possibly even Donald Trump are regretting having the Ohio senator on the ticket against Kamala Harris and her yet-to-be-announced vice presidential pick this November.

Vance is now making the rounds to explain his comments. On Friday, he dismissed them as “sarcasm” in an interview with Megyn Kelly, only to later claim that what he said was true. “People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance. The substance of what I said, Megyn—I’m sorry, it is true,” he stated.

Vance argued that Democrats are “anti-family” and “anti-child.” He elaborated that becoming a parent changes one’s perspective profoundly, a point he claims has been recognized for hundreds of years. “This is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child,” he asserted.

Aniston criticized Vance’s comments in an Instagram post, highlighting her personal fertility struggles. “I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,” she expressed, adding, “Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day and that she won’t have to turn to IVF as a second option—because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”

Vance responded by calling Aniston’s mention of his daughter “disgusting.” “First of all, that’s disgusting because my daughter is two years old. And second of all, if she had fertility problems, as I said in that speech, I would try everything I could to help her because I believe families and babies are a good thing,” he told Kelly.

On Sunday, Vance continued his damage control on Fox News’ Sunday Night in America With Trey Gowdy. He reiterated that his comments were a critique of the Democratic Party’s allegedly “explicitly anti-child and anti-family” stance. He accused the left of discouraging young families from having children due to climate change concerns and called this perspective selfish.

“This is not a criticism and never was a criticism of everybody without children—that is a lie of the left. It’s a criticism of the increasingly anti-parent and anti-child attitude of the left,” Vance said.

He also falsely accused Harris of wanting to cut child tax credits, which have been expanded under the Biden-Harris administration.

In the 2021 interview that sparked the controversy, Vance claimed that the US is run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” He added that the Democratic Party’s future is controlled by people without children, citing Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Public figures, along with Democrats and members of the public, have criticized Vance for his comments. Kerstin Emhoff, Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife, called Vance’s attack “baseless” and fiercely defended Harris as a “loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present” co-parent.

The controversy reveals only a part of the misogynistic and racist comments Harris has faced since announcing her run for the Oval Office. Several Republicans have labeled her a “DEI hire,” a term that even top GOP lawmaker Kevin McCarthy has urged them to avoid using.

Source: Independent, Fox News