Democratic strategist James Carville suggested Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) will be fending off criticism over his "childless at ladies" remarks for a long time as Democrats slam the vice presidential candidate's abortion and reproductive views.
"JD Vance is for something called menstrual surveillance. How much weirder can you get than that?” Carville said on MSNBC's "The Beat" on Tuesday. “The whole outfit is obsessed and consumed with women’s reproductive decisions. They really are. And that is going to — that whole cat lady thing, man, that’s going to haunt him for a long time."
Vance is facing an onslaught of attacks from Democrats over resurfaced remarks he made in 2021 criticizing those who don’t have children.
In those remarks, Vance told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson the country was being run 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.”
Seizing on the comment, Democrats have sought to connect it to Vance's stance on abortion and women's reproductive rights.
The Ohio Republican defended the “childless cat ladies” remark last week, calling it a “sarcastic comment” and pivoting to attack Democrats as “antifamily.”
Democrats have also pointed to remarks Vance made in July 2021, when he suggested parents should have “more of an ability to speak their voice” at the polls than those who do not have children.
Carville quipped Vance could "rank voting by how many children" a person has.
"I mean, it's so — the whole thing is so unbelievably strange, and this is supposed to be what middle America is about," he added.
Nonetheless, the Democratic strategist suggested Vance's resurfaced remarks is "helping" Democrats and referred to potential vice presidents for the party.
"I don't think he can get away — yes, helping Democrats, absolutely," Carville said. "And I think when the vice president — the people I see she's considering, if that's factual — are all very substantial, accomplishment people and none of them are even remotely weird."
Vice President Harris became the likely Democratic nominee for president last week after President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her. Harris told reporters Tuesday she has yet to make her decision on a running mate.
“Trump has got to be furious, because he’s seeing this and he’s got primitive survival instincts. Don Jr. and Tucker are not in good standing. There are condiments flying around Mar-a-Lago. You stick your head up, you’ll be hit with a bottle of ketchup," Carville later quipped, referencing a moment in 2020 when an angry Trump reportedly threw a plate of food, leaving ketchup dripping down the wall.
Karoline Leavitt, a Trump national spokesperson, attempted to clarify Vance's 2021 remarks last week, stating they were “taken out of context and unfairly attacked.”
In a clip of Vance’s full remarks from 2021, the Ohio senator spoke about the difficulties some people face in having kids and said his comments were not about them.
“A lot of people are unable to have kids for very complicated and important reasons. … There are people, of course, for biological reasons, medical reasons, that can’t have children. The target of these remarks is not them,” Vance said at the time.
Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk pushed back against the criticism, arguing the "left-wing media have twisted Senator Vance’s words and spun up a false narrative about his position on the issues."
“As he has clearly stated, he was talking about politicians on the left who support policies that are explicitly anti-child and anti-family. The media can obsess over it all they want, but he’s not going to back down when it comes to advocating for policies that protect parental rights and encourage people to have more kids,” Van Kirk told The Hill on Tuesday.
