Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), former President Trump's running mate, said he thinks Democrats are intentionally misrepresenting his past comment about "childless cat ladies" as he continues to face backlash for what's been seen as a dismissive remark about women.
"I made a sarcastic comment years ago that I think that a lot of Democrats have willfully misinterpreted," Vance said during a Sunday appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"I regret, certainly, that a lot of people took it the wrong way, and I certainly regret that the [Democratic National Committee] and Kamala Harris lied about it."
Vance, while building support for his 2021 Senate run, lamented to then-Fox News personality Tucker Carlson that he thought Democrats were promoting an "antifamily" agenda led 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."
"It's just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance said to Carlson at the time. “And how does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?"
Vice President Harris has two stepchildren with her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has since adopted two children with his husband, Chasten.
Vance's comments have been revived since he was announced as Trump's running mate last month, and he has repeatedly tried to explain the comment as "sarcasm" and a "joke."
"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. And I think that what's important is that we focus on the policy," he said Sunday. "I have a lot of regrets ... but making a joke three years ago is not at the top 10 of the list."
The "childless cat ladies" remark has become a rallying cry among some Democrats — female voters, in particular — since President Biden ended his campaign and Harris took the top of the ticket and surged in the polls.
It was brought up multiple times during the recent Democratic National Convention in Chicago, with a particularly memorable line coming from superstar celebrity Oprah Winfrey in the context of people helping someone whose "house is on fire," despite their differences.
"If the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out, too,” Winfrey said to cheers.
Harris's campaign website now sells shirts and mugs with the slogans "Proud member of the Childless Cat Ladies Club" and "Childless Cat Ladies for Kamala."
Vance said Sunday he intended the "joke" to make a "real substantive point."
"This country has become too antifamily," he said. "It's too expensive to afford a house. It's too expensive to afford groceries."
He didn't directly apologize but said he would tell women concerned by the comment that he cares about the family choices they face.
"I think if you talk to young women, whether they have children or don't want to have children, what you consistently hear is that a lot of young women feel like they don't have options," he said.
