Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has hit back at Jennifer Aniston after she criticized him over his resurfaced complaint about “childless cat ladies” running the country.
Vance appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show on Friday to defend the anti-cat statement made in 2021 — which sparked a massive backlash from cat lovers across the country.
The Ohio senator claimed that childless women have no “direct stake” in America’s future, saying they are “unhappy in their own lives and in their choices.”
His comments angered Aniston, 55, who said: “Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter has the chance to have children of her own one day,” she said. “I hope she doesn’t have to resort to IVF as a second option. Because you’re trying to take that away from her, too.”
In response, Vance said: “It’s disgusting because my daughter is 2 years old.”
Vance appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show on Friday to defend comments he made to Fox in 2021 that have been recirculating online.
His comments angered Aniston, 55, seen here in New York City on July 27.
“And secondly, if she had fertility issues, as I said in that speech, I would try everything I could to try to help her because I believe that families and babies are a good thing,” he added.
The resurrected footage shows Vance criticizing childless women like Kamala Harris while speaking to Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
In the clip, Vance criticizes the idea of entrusting the country to childless women.
He said: “I say that we are effectively run in this country by the Democrats, by a bunch of childless women who are unhappy in their own lives and in the choices they have made, and who therefore want to make the rest of the country unhappy too.
“This is a fundamental fact. Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the future of the Democrats is completely controlled by people without children.
Vance’s wife Usha is seen here with their daughter Mirabel in a post on her Instagram page
“How is it possible that we have entrusted our country to people who have no interest in it?”
Aniston wasn’t the only one upset by Vance’s comments. Democratic women across the country immediately came to Harris’ defense, launching a meme titled “Childless Cat Ladies for Kamala.”
“My cats and I are MORE than ready to do whatever we can to elect Kamala Harris President! #YesWeKam,” one supporter wrote on X/Twitter.
The “kid-free” vaccine also prompted a response from Ella Emhoff, the vice president’s daughter-in-law, who wrote on Instagram: “How can you be ‘kid-free’ when you have cute kids like Cole and me?”
Ella Emhoff was referring to her brother and Harris’ stepson, Cole. Ella and Cole are the children of Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, and his ex-wife Kerstin, who has also come to Harris’ defense.
“These are baseless attacks. For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has co-parented with Doug and me,” Kerstin said. “She is loving, caring, fiercely protective and always there. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in our midst.”
The controversy over Vance’s cat comes amid speculation that Republicans are unhappy with Trump’s choice for vice president.
“If you had a time machine, if you went back two weeks, would Trump have chosen J.D. Vance again? I doubt it,” said conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
During his appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show on Friday, Vance responded: “Obviously, that was a sarcastic comment. I have nothing against cats, I have nothing against dogs, I have a dog at home and I love him.”
“But look, people are so focused on the sarcasm and not the content of what I actually said.”
Vance said both liberal and conservative women responded to the cat comments by saying they were “glad” he pointed out there was “something deeply anti-family in our public policy.”
He tried to blame it on the Democrats’ policies.
“We have to ask ourselves: why are we still masking little ones years after the pandemic is over?” he mused.
Vance also claimed that Harris’ campaign had come out against expanding the child tax credit.
“Why is the Harris campaign coming out this morning and saying we shouldn’t have the child tax credit that lowers tax rates for parents of young children?” the vice presidential candidate asked. That claim appears to be false.
The current position of the Biden administration is that the White House is “committed to restoring the American Rescue Plan’s critical expansion of the child tax credit to support all American families and children.”
Vance voted against the Democratic-led IVF Rights Act last month but supported a GOP-sponsored bill, the IVF Protection Act, which would strip states of Medicaid funding if they ban IVF treatments, while allowing some restrictions.
In his interview with Kelly, Vance explained that he supported IVF within reason.
“I think we have to protect the right of Christian hospitals to operate as they wish,” he said. “But of course, this is entirely consistent with promoting fertility treatments for parents who need them.”
dailymail us
