Monday, during an appearance on FNC’s “Fox & Friends,” Usha Vance, wife of Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), the Republican nominee for vice president, offered her thoughts on Vance’s 2021 “childless cat ladies” remarks that Democrats have weaponized for the sake of the election cycle.
Usha Vance dismissed it as a “quip” to make a point and insisted her husband’s comments were not meant to attack someone struggling to start a family.
“There are a few comments that are out there that I have to ask you about,” “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt said. “In 2021, JD said, ‘We are effectively run by a bunch of childless cat ladies,’ taking aim at government leaders who don’t have children. What was your reaction?”
Usha Vance replied, “Well, I mean, I took a moment to look and actually see what he had said and try to understand what the context was and all that, which is something that I really wish people would do a little bit more often. And the reality is he made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive and had actual meaning. 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. And sometimes our policies are designed in a way that makes it even harder. And we should be asking ourselves, why is that true? What is it about our leadership and the way they think about the world that makes it so hard sometimes for parents? And that’s the conversation that I really think that we should have. And I understand why he was saying that.”
“What do you say to the women who were offended or were hurt by that?” Earhardt asked.
“Well, I think I would say, first of all, that JD absolutely, at the time and today, would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really, you know, was struggling with that. And he made that clear at the time, and he’s made that clear today,” Vance said. “And we have lots of friends who have been in that position. It is challenging and never ever anything that anyone would want to mock or make fun of. 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.
“I think what I would say is let’s try to look at the real conversation that he’s trying to have, engage with it, and understand for those of us who do have families, for the many of us who want to have families and for whom it’s really hard,” she added. What can we do to make it better? What can we do to make it easier to live in 2024?”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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