Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) said he is the product of “strong women,” amid criticism from Democrats over past derivative remarks he made about “childless cat women.”
At a rally in Reno, Nevada, Vance touched on his upbringing, mainly by his grandma. He used the story to implicitly counter allegations of sexism leveled by Democrats, who took issue with past comments he made about “childless cat women.”
“Now some of you know my story, and some of you don’t, but I grew up in a poor family,” he said. “I was raised by my grandmother. I called her Mamaw.”
“And I’ve been the beneficiary, I have to say, of a number of strong women in my life, especially my beautiful wife,” Vance added.
“But I’ve lived the American dream because of those strong women, especially my grandmother,” he continued. “I was able to go and enlist in the Marine Corps, and go to school, and get a good job, and become a husband and father and all the things that I’ve dreamed of. In fact, I’m living it right now, getting to spend this wonderful evening with you fine people.”
In a 2021 appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, Vance denounced “childless cat ladies” running the United States who “want to make the rest of the country miserable, too,” referring to Vice President Kamala Harris and other top Democrats.
Speaking with Fox News’s Trey Gowdy on Sunday night, the vice presidential candidate attempted to clarify his remarks, alleging Democrats such as Harris have become “anti-child and anti-family.”
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“If you look at the full context of what I said, it’s very clear the Democrats have tried to take this thing out of context and blow it out of proportion, which is what they always do, Trey, because they don’t have an agenda to run on themselves,” Vance said. He then attempted to contrast Republicans with Democrats while saying it’s important for the country to be “pro-family.”
“Of course, for a whole host of reasons, it’s not going to work out for some people,” he said, referring to people without children. “We should pray for those people and, of course, have sympathy for them. I still think that means we should be pro-family, generally speaking, as a party, and I think that our country has become particularly hard for parents, especially under the policies of Kamala Harris.”
