Usha Vance says husband JD Vance’s comment about ‘childless cat ladies’ was a ‘joke’

In her first interview since her husband was named former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Usha Vance sat down with Fox & Friends, where she addressed her husband’s comment about “women with cats and no children” that has gained attention recently, calling it a “joke.”

“The reality is that JD made a quote — I mean, he made a joke — and he made it to make a point that he wanted to make and that was substantial,” Usha Vance said of her husband’s comments in 2021. “And sometimes I just wish people would talk about that stuff and we would spend a lot less time going over this or that three-word phrase.”

She continued: “What I was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in ways that make it even harder.”

In a 2021 interview on Fox News, JD Vance questioned Democratic leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for not having biological children, referring to them as “childless cat ladies.”

“In reality, we are run in this country by Democrats, by our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat-loving women who are miserable with their own lives and the choices they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too,” Vance said in the 2021 Fox News interview.

Usha Vance added that her husband “would never, ever want to say anything that would hurt someone who is trying to raise a family and is really struggling with that.”

JD Vance called the comments “sarcastic.”