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Donald Trump is trying to do some damage control as the fallout from his running mate’s comments about “childless cat ladies” continues.
In an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham that aired Monday night, Trump defended Sen. JD Vance, saying his vice presidential pick's past attacks on women without children were simply due to his love for family.
“He made a statement having to do with families,” Trump said. “That doesn’t mean people that aren’t a member of a big and beautiful family with 400 children around and everything else — it doesn’t mean that a person doesn’t have — he’s not against anything, but he loves family. It’s very important to him.”
The GOP presidential nominee pointed to Vance’s “interesting family situation,” which the Ohio senator documented in his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“He feels family is good. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong in saying that,” Trump said, accusing Democrats of “spinning things differently.”
Vance's questionable views on family and women have come under scrutiny in recent weeks. Trump’s attempt to portray his running mate’s past comments as innocuous is not exactly convincing, given the disdain with which the Ohio senator himself spoke about women without children. Vance lamented to Fox News in 2021 that the country was being 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.”
Vance’s comments have provoked intense backlash from Democrats and risk jeopardizing the Republican presidential ticket’s support among undecided voters, including women. Last week, Vance himself went on the defensive, saying in an interview that his “childless cat ladies” barb was part of his argument that Democrats are “anti-family and anti-child.”
“Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment,” he said. “I’ve got nothing against cats.”