J.D. Vance defends his 'childless cat lady' comments
Republican vice presidential hopeful, Sen. J.D. Vance , said Friday that his 'childless cat lady' comment was 'sarcastic' but doubled down on Democrats having 'anti-family' and 'anti-child' stances.
'Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I've got nothing against cats, I've got nothing against dogs, I've got one dog at home and I love him,' the Ohio Republican said. 'But look, people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said.'
Vance taped an episode of The Megyn Kelly Show amid the fallout over the resurfaced quip that angered a number of women including actress Jennifer Aniston and legions of Taylor Swift fans.
The VP nominee claimed that both liberal and conservative women responded to the cat comments by saying they were 'glad' Vance pointed out there's 'something profoundly anti-family in our public policy.' He tried to pin that on Democrats' policies.
'We have to ask ourselves, Why do we have masking of toddlers years after the pandemic ended?' he mused. Vance also claimed that the Harris campaign came out against the extension of the child tax credit. 'Why do we have the Harris campaign coming out this very morning and saying that we should not have the child tax credit which lowers tax rates for parents of young children?' the VP hopeful said. That claim appears to be false.
The Biden administration's current position is that the White House is 'committed to restoring the American Rescue Plan's critical expansion of the Child Tax Credit to lift up all American families and children.' And Axios reported Wednesday that Harris, as president, would work to expand the Child Tax Credit, as she championed it in the Senate and led the effort to get it expanded after the enhanced version that was part of the American Rescue Plan expired.
She failed at that effort, as Republican senators and some moderate Democrats tanked it. Aniston's chief beef with Trump's VP was over Vance's perceived resistance to IVF treatments. 'All I can say is … Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day,' Aniston wrote in a rare political Instagram post.
'I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.' Vance voted against the Democrat-led Right to IVF Act last month, though was supportive of a GOP-sponsored bill, the IVF Protection Act, which would strip states of Medicaid funding if they barred IVF treatments, though would allow for some restrictions.
During his Q&A with Kelly, Vance explained that he was for IVF within reason. 'I think we have to protect the rights of Christian hospitals to operate the way that they want to operate,' he said. 'But of course, that's totally consistent with promoting fertility treatments for parents who need it.'
