Vance fires back at 'childless cat lady' criticism, claiming original comment was sarcastic

Ohio Senator and GOP vice presidential hopeful JD Vance on Friday fired back at criticism he's faced over commenting that the United States was run by "childless cat ladies." 

The senator originally made the comment to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2021 when running for his Senate seat, but it has resurfaced after Vance was confirmed as the Republican nominee for vice president last week.

Vance said the original comment was made sarcastically, but continued to attack the Left as antichildren and 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 told Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM “The Megyn Kelly Show.”

“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 that this is not about criticizing people who for various reasons didn’t have kids,” he continued. “This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming antifamily and antichildren.”

Vance claimed that there are still liberal schools that require to wear masks, despite the coronavirus pandemic ending years ago, and that the Harris campaign does not support expanding tax credits. He also said that workplaces should be more accommodating to working parents.

"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 ... I think we should be honest about the problem.”

The senator also said that he was not opposed to families using in vitro fertilization (IVF) in order to have biological children, but that the rights of Christian hospitals should be protected too.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.