J.D. Vance is revisiting one of the most controversial comments of his political career. The Vice-President now says his infamous “childless cat ladies” remark was not only misguided but one of the biggest mistakes he’s ever made.
The surprising admission appears in his new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” where Vance reflects on the backlash that followed a comment that refused to disappear from the political conversation.
What J.D. Vance said about his viral “childless cat ladies” remark and the resulting backlash
The controversy dates back to a 2021 appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, when Vance was running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio.
At the time, he argued that America was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives” and pointed to several Democratic politicians as examples, including then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
The remark sparked immediate criticism and resurfaced years later when Vance joined Donald Trump’s presidential ticket, creating a second wave of backlash. Now, the Vice-President is publicly distancing himself from the comment.
“One of the dumbest things I ever said came when I argued that ‘childless cat ladies’ across the Democrat Party were running our country into the ground,” Vance wrote in Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith, as per NBC News.
He doesn’t stop there. “The comment caused two firestorms: the first when I made it, the second years later during a political campaign,” Vance adds. “It was a boneheaded comment, intentionally (and successfully) provocative rather than illuminating.”
According to Vance, the problem wasn’t just the backlash. He now believes the remark distracted from the broader point he was trying to make about family-friendly policies and declining birth rates.
“It had the added benefit of distracting from the actual point I wanted to make,” he writes, adding that he could have expressed himself with “a little charity to the many Americans who — some for reasons beyond their control — don’t have children.”
The reflection is tied to the book’s larger theme of faith and personal growth. Vance ultimately concludes that the episode represented a failure to live up to his own values.
“When I consider the Church’s admonition to respect the dignity of every life, this was a clear moment where I failed,” he writes.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK J.D. VANCE’S APOLOGY CHANGES HOW PEOPLE VIEW THE ORIGINAL COMMENT?
Originally reported by Vanshika Vasundhare Singh on Mandatory
