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Republican vice presidential candidate<\/a> J.D. Vance<\/strong> claimed that his past remarks on the country being run by \u201ca bunch of childless cat ladies\u201d was merely a \u201csarcastic comment\u201d in a face-saving interview<\/a> with journalist and television personality Megyn Kelly<\/strong> that aired Friday.<\/p>\n In a 2021 interview<\/a> with former Fox News host and current ally<\/a> Tucker Carlson<\/strong>, Vance said, \u201cWe\u2019re effectively run in this country\u2014via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs\u2014by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they\u2019ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.\u201d Vance then mentions Vice President Kamala Harris<\/strong> by name.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, it was a sarcastic comment,\u201d Ohio Senator Vance told Kelly on Friday. \u201cI\u2019ve got nothing against cats, I\u2019ve got nothing against dogs, I\u2019ve got one dog at home, and I love him, Megyn.\u201d \u201cBut,\u201d he continued, \u201cpeople are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said, and the substance of what I said, Megyn, I\u2019m sorry, it\u2019s true. It\u2019s true that we\u2019ve become anti-family. It is true that the left has become anti-child.\u201d<\/p>\n In the week since President Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s decision to drop out of the race<\/a> and subsequently endorse Harris, there\u2019s been a fresh resurgence<\/a> of backlash for comments<\/a> Vance made in the past on the political and social value of parents over childless Americans.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u2019s Editorial Board slammed Vance\u2019s comments as \u201cthe sort of smart-aleck crack<\/a> that gets laughs in certain right-wing male precincts\u201d but \u201cdoesn\u2019t play well with the millions of female voters, many of them Republican, who will decide the presidential race.\u201d<\/p>\n Vance\u2019s 2021 conversation with Carlson was an attempt to address comments he had made just days earlier during a speech hosted by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a nonprofit that promotes conservative thought on college campuses. In that address, Vance said parents should have more voting power than childless Americans.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s give votes to all children in this country, but let\u2019s give control over those votes to the parents of those children,\u201d Vance said at the time. \u201cWhen you go to the polls in this country, as a parent, you should have more power, you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our Democratic Republic, than people who don\u2019t have kids.\u201d<\/p>\n He took aim at Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg<\/strong>, Senator Cory Booker<\/strong> (D-NJ), Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/strong> (D-NY), and Harris, claiming that leading Democrats without kids have no \u201cphysical commitment to the future of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Booker and AOC do not currently have children. The month after Vance\u2019s comments, Buttigieg and his husband Chasten adopted<\/a> newborn twins. And while Vice President Harris does not have biological children, she is the stepmom of two children, Ella<\/strong> and Cole Emhoff<\/strong>, who refer to her as \u201cMomala.\u201d On Thursday, Ella addressed<\/a> Vance\u2019s comments about her stepmom on Instagram, saying, \u201cHow can you be \u2018childless\u2019 when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?\u201d<\/p>\n On Kelly\u2019s show this week, Vance claimed that his remarks about parental voting power was \u201cobviously\u201d a \u201cthought experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know her family situation,\u201d he continued, referring to Harris. \u201cI\u2019ve read in the media that she\u2019s got two stepkids. I wish her stepchildren, and Kamala Harris and her whole family, the very best. The point is not that she\u2019s lesser; the point is that her party has pursued a set of policies that are profoundly anti-child.\u201d<\/p>\n In both past<\/a> campaign cycles and this one<\/a>, Harris has been outspoken in her support for implementing policies that benefit parents, such as comprehensive access to child care and paid family leave.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n