DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Usha Vance said during an interview that aired Monday that critics of Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio focused on a “quip” about childless women to avoid discussing issues and policies that result in parents having a “really hard” time raising children.
Democrats attacked Vance over comments about “childless cat ladies” in a Fox News interview and remarks in a July 2021 speech about women who didn’t have children that have resurfaced since former President Donald Trump chose the “Hillbilly Elegy” author to be his running mate. Vance told “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt that the then-Senate candidate had been explaining the difficulties of being a parent.
“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 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 he wanted to the make that was substantive and it had actual meaning,” Usha Vance told Earhardt.
Usha Vance Speaks Out On 'Childless Cat Lady' Controversy pic.twitter.com/OrJAS4xcQE
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 5, 2024
“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 it can be really hard to be a parent in this country and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder,” Vance continued. “And we should be asking ourselves why is that true? What is it about our leadership and the way that they think about the world that makes it hard sometimes for parents? That’s the conversation that I really think we should have, and I understand why he was saying that.”
Vance also pushed back on those who claimed the Republican vice-presidential nominee was trying to offend people with the comments.
“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 he made that clear at the time,” Vance said. “He has made that clear today 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.”
JD Vance made clear he excluded couples struggling with infertility from his criticism of the “childless left” in his 2021 speech, according to Snopes.com.
“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,” Usha Vance continued. “I think what I would say is let’s try to look at the real conversation he is trying to have and 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, what can we do to make it better? What can we do to make it easier to live in 2024?”
Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by 0.8% in a national head-to-head matchup, according to the RealClearPolling average of polls from July 22 to Aug. 2, with Harris taking a slight lead of 0.2% when Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein and independent presidential candidates Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are included in surveys.