JD Vance Plants His Paws Down When Grilled Over 'Childless Cat Ladies' Comment

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) declared that its most important to be the person he is as he discussed during a Meet the Press interview that aired Sunday whether he regrets his controversial childless cat ladies remarks.

I have a lot of regrets, Kristen, but making a joke three years ago is not at the top 10 of the list, Donald Trump s running mate told host Kristen Welker .

Vance has faced backlash over the resurfaced 2021 remarks where he referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as one Democrat among childless cat ladies who dont have a direct stake in the future of the country.

Welker, who cited census data showing nearly 22 million U.S. women between the ages of 20 and 39 who dont have children, asked Trumps vice presidential pick for his message to those women who feel he wont represent them.

Vance, who has previously doubled down on his remarks, said hell represent those women before describing his comments as sarcastic and willfully misinterpreted by Democrats .

But what Ive simply said is that I think that its really a profound change thats happened in our country, where weve become anti-family. And I would like to change that, Vance said.

Welker later returned to the cat ladies remarks and noted that some women felt like his comments were a gut punch to them before asking if he regrets making the remarks.

Look, I regret, certainly, that a lot of people took it the wrong way and I certainly regret the DNC and Kamala Harris lied about it , Vance said, without explaining how they did so.

But do you regret what you said, senator? pressed Welker.

Look, Kristen, Im gonna say things from time to time that people disagree with. Im a real person. Im gonna make jokes. Im gonna say things sarcastically and I think that whats important is that we focus on the policy, Vance replied.

There are certainly gonna be things that I say if Im elected vice president that people are gonna say, Well, I wish he had said that differently. I think its most important to actually be the person I actually am and to say those sarcastic comments were made in the service of a real substantive point.