Usha Vance, wife of vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 17.
Julia Nickinson/AP
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Julia Nickinson/AP
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Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, defended him in a Fox News interview that aired Monday in which she mischaracterized her husband’s past remarks, mocking Childless women are “childless cat ladies who are miserable with their lives.”
Usha Vance said of her husband’s comments during a 2021 interview with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson: “It took me a moment to really look at it and actually understand “Because what he’s really saying is that it’s really hard to be a parent in this country. Sometimes the way our policies are designed makes things more difficult. “
But that’s not what Vance claims. Here’s what he told Carlson at the time:
We are literally run in this country through the Democratic Party, through our corporate oligarchs, through a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable about their lives and the choices they make. So they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too. This is just a basic fact.
Look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg; [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]. The entire future of the Democratic Party is controlled by people without children. What’s the point of us handing our country over to people who have no direct stake in it? I just wanted to ask this question and suggest that maybe if we want a healthy ruling class in this country, we should invest more, we should vote more.
We should be supporting more people who actually have children, because these people ultimately have a more direct stake in the future of this country.
While Vance did call for more support for people with children, that was in service of a larger argument that Americans without children aren’t as invested in the country’s success — a claim Vance made in 2022 The early centerpiece of Ohio’s U.S. Senate campaign.
Most recently, he called the “Cat Lady” remark a “sarcastic comment.”
In her first solo interview on Monday, Usha Vance said her husband would never say something hurtful to someone who wanted to start a family and that she understood “people may choose not to start a family.” There are many other reasons for family”. Family, many of which are for very good reasons. “
“I guess what I’m trying to say is, let’s try to see a real conversation that he’s trying to have,” she continued. “For many of us who want to have families, this is really difficult for them, what can we do to make it better? What can we do to make life in 2024 better? easy? “
Adjusting to life in the spotlight
Vance also talked about all the changes that come with being on a major campaign trail.
She said her children were happy to choose their Secret Service codenames, but people shouldn’t expect them to feature prominently in the campaign.
“Giving them a stable, normal, happy life and growth is the most important thing to us,” Vance said. “But I think what we have to do is continue to… let them have the life of a child, which I think they really deserve, and let them spend a lot of time with their dad. If other people could see that sometimes , that would be great if it was out of their control and personal.
Vance also said she tries to avoid reading negative news about her husband.
“JD is right there. He’s talking about all kinds of things. He’s thinking all kinds of things. I just think he should have someone in his life who can hear those words directly from his mouth, not just Just hearing other people talking about him all the time,” she said.
