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JD Vance has defended his sexist comments branding Kamala Harris and other women “childless cat ladies” and is now trying to flip the narrative by accusing Jennifer Aniston of making “disgusting” remarks about his daughter.
Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick continues to face backlash after a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News resurfaced and went viral last week.
The controversy has also sparked some talk within Republican circles that party members – and possibly even Trump – are now regretting having the Ohio senator on the ticket against Kamala Harris and her as-yet unknown vice-presidential pick this November.
Now, Vance is doing the rounds, trying to explain away his misogynistic remarks.
On Friday, Vance brushed off his comments as “sarcasm” in an interview with Megyn Kelly – before appearing to reconsider this by saying “it is true”.
“People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance, and the substance of what I said, Megyn – I’m sorry, it is true,” he said.
Vance claimed he was trying to argue that Democrats are “anti-family”.
“The simple point I made is that having children – becoming a father, becoming a mother – I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way. This is something, of course, we’ve recognized for hundreds of years in this country – that human civilization has always recognized,” he said.
“This is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.”
Vance then went on to slam Aniston after she criticized him for his comments.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, the Friends star – who has spoken openly about her fertility struggles – condemned the vice-presidential candidate for his comments.
“I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,” she said.
“All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option,” she wrote.
“Because you are trying to take that away from her, too,” she added, in reference to Vance’s stance on IVF.
Vance hit out at Aniston for mentioning his daughter, calling it “disgusting”.
“Hollywood celebrities say, ‘Oh, well, JD Vance, what if your daughter suffered fertility problems?’” he told Kelly.
“Well, first of all, that’s disgusting because my daughter is two years old. And second of all, if she had fertility problems, as I said in that speech, I would try everything I could to try to help her because I believe families and babies are a good thing.”
On Sunday, Vance continued with the damage control in an appearance on Fox News’ Sunday Night in America With Trey Gowdy.
Again, he claimed that he was simply criticizing Democrats for what he claims is its “explicitly anti-child and anti-family” stance.
“The left has increasingly become explicitly anti-child and anti-family, and they encouraged young families not to have children at all over concerns of climate change, and they suggested people having children are somehow being selfish, when being a parent is the most selfless thing that you can do,” he said.
“This is not a criticism and never was a criticism of everybody without children – that is a lie of the left. It’s a criticism of the increasingly anti-parent and anti-child attitude of the left.”
He then went on to falsely claim that Harris wants to cut child tax credit – something that has actually been expanded under the Biden-Harris administration.
In the 2021 interview, Vance said that the US is run 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.”
“Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he continued.
“How does it make any sense we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Several public figures besides Aniston, as well as Democrats and members of the public, have slammed Vance for the comments.
Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff weighed in on the comments last week, branding Vance’s attack as “baseless” and fiercely defending Harris as a “loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present” co-parent.
Vance’s comments mark only the tip of the misogynistic and racist comments Harris has faced in the days since announcing her run for the Oval Office.
Several Republicans have branded her a “DEI hire“ – something that even top GOP lawmaker Kevin McCarthy has urged them to stop doing.
