J.D. Vance Once Called Kamala Harris a 'Childless Cat Lady.' Now Real-Life 'Cat Ladies' Have Thoughts

Comments made by Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance in a 2021 interview are now resurfacing — and stirring conversation among people who either don't want, or can't have, children.

Years before he was selected as Donald Trump's running mate, Vance gave an interview with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson in July 2021. During the conversation, Vance said the U.S. was being run, under Democratic leadership, 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. "

"It's just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children," Vance, 39, told Carlson. "And how does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?"

Vance went on to say that those who "actually have kids" are "the people who have a more direct stake in the future of this country."

That Vance, who has three children with wife Usha Chilukuri Vance, called out three "childless" Democrats by name is particularly noteworthy — in part, because it's not true. One of them, Harris, became a stepmom to her husband Doug Emhoff's two children in August 2014. Now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Harris has for years spoken openly about her close relationship with her stepchildren, who refer to her as "Momala."

Buttigieg, meanwhile, now the Secretary of Transportation, does have children: twins he adopted with husband Chasten in September 2021, just weeks after Vance's interview aired.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, meanwhile, does not have children. But as critics of Vance's comments have weighed in: so what?

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Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani chided Vance for his comments in a post on X, writing, “As a childless cat lady I have a huge stake in America and am not miserable but thanks for your concern, Vance.”

Former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, who ran for the presidency against Trump in 2016, wrote sarcastically: “What a normal, relatable guy who certainly doesn’t hate women having freedoms.”

Others have expressed similar thoughts, questioning why someone without biological children is less invested in the good of the country than someone with children.

“Calling step-mom Kamala Harris a childless cat lady is going to enrage not just single women but all the parents of step-kids who are having their parenting denigrated," one user on X wrote. " Vance’s history of misogyny is just an endless wellspring of hate to highlight.”

Another offered a more sarcastic assessment of the Republican's comments, asking: “Should really help win over women voters, huh?”

Speaking to CNN's Kaitlan Collins this week, Buttigieg noted that the comments directed at him came at a time when he and his husband “had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey."

"[Vance] couldn't have known that, but maybe that's why you shouldn't be talking about other people’s children," Buttigieg added.

And many others have seized on a very famous cat-owner without kids — Taylor Swift, sharing photos of her 2023 TIME Person of the Year (on which she appeared alongside one of her cats) in response to Vance's comments.

As Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi wrote, though, it is possible Vance didn't actually mean what he said back in 2021, especially considering his track record (though now Trump's running mate, he previously called the former president "America's Hitler" and called himself "a never Trump guy."

Mahdawi cites data that shows that many women who are unmarried and childless aren't unhappy in the slightest — in fact, the opposite, often ranking higher in terms of health and happiness than those with children.

Others have simply taken Vance's comments and run with them, espousing Vance's comments as something of a rallying cry. As one social media user put it, the "childless cat ladies" might just have their claws out.