https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/08/05/usha-vance-jd-vance-childless-cat-comments/74671798007/WASHINGTON − Usha Vance, an attorney and the wife of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, defended her husband's 2021 remarks calling Democratic leaders "childless cat ladies" who “are miserable at their own lives” after they sparked new criticism.
In an interview with Fox News that aired Monday, Usha Vance was asked what her reaction was when his comments, which resurfaced when Vance made his debut as former President Donald Trump's running mate, became a point of controversy.
“He made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive,” she said.
“And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase, because what he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country,” she added.
When asked what she would say to people offended by his message, Usha Vance said that her husband would “absolutely, at the time and today would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family.”
“And I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families, and many of those reasons are very good,” she said.
Vance made his "childless cat ladies" remarks in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. He claimed at the time that, "If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children."
Vice President Kamala Harris doesn’t have any biological children, but she is a stepmother to her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff's two children, who call her "Momala."
