JD Vance claims his 'childless cat ladies' remark is being taken 'the wrong way'

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance has responded to some controversial comments he made during his 2021 Senate campaign.

Vance's comments about "childless cat ladies" targeting Vice President Kamala Harris and other leaders without biological children were perceived as an attack on their legitimacy and ability to lead.

In a recent interview, the Ohio Senator sought to clarify his stance and expressed regret that his comments were misunderstood.

JD Vance addresses controversial 'childless cat ladies' remarks

The controversy traces back to 2021, during JD Vance's Senate campaign, when he made a statement on Fox News that has continued to haunt him.

"We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats 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," Vance declared at the time. 

This not only demeaned women without children but also implied that their leadership was flawed due to their personal choices. The term "childless cat ladies" quickly went viral, with many seeing it as an unnecessary and derogatory attack on women who do not have children.

In a recent interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press' with host Kristen Welker, Vance was pressed on his previous remarks.

When asked if he regretted his statements, Vance labeled them as "sarcastic" and said they had been "willfully misinterpreted" by his political opponents.

"Look, I regret certainly that a lot of people took it the wrong way, and I certainly regret that the DNC and Kamala Harris lied about it," he said.

JD Vance defends controversial comments as sarcasm

When pressed further if he regretted what he said, Vance replied, "Look Kristen, I'm going to say things from time to time that people disagree with. I'm a real person. I'm going to make jokes. I'm going to say things sarcastically."

He explained that the "sarcastic comments were made in the service of a real, substantive point." Vance added, "This country has become too anti-family. It's too expensive to afford a house, it's too expensive to afford groceries. Donald Trump and I want to change that."

When asked yet again if he wanted to walk back his comments, Vance said,  "I think that it's much more important for me to just be a normal human being who sometimes says things people will disagree with," adding, "I have a lot of regrets, Kristen, but making a joke three years ago is not at the top 10 of the list."

According to the Independent, Welker's questions didn't directly address the core of Vance's message—implying that a woman's primary role in society should be to have children.

Vance expressed these views in both a 2021 speech to a conservative group and during an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News around that time.

Critics, predominantly Democrats, have used Vance's comments as evidence of the GOP's growing extremism regarding women's roles in society. The suggestion that both Harris and Buttigieg are less invested in the country's future due to not having biological children has sparked significant controversy.