Vance calls his ‘childless cat ladies’ comment ‘one of the dumbest things I ever said’

Vice President JD Vance now concedes that it was “boneheaded” of him in 2021 to call Kamala Harris and other Democrats “childless cat ladies.” The admission comes in Vance’s forthcoming memoir, “Communion,” which is set to be released Tuesday. “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 writes in the book, a copy of which was obtained and read by NBC News. “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.” Vance, who at the time was running for a Senate seat in Ohio, made the partisan crack while appearing on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. He described Harris, then the vice president, as one of several childless Democrats “who want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” Harris has two stepchildren. The remarks resurfaced nearly three years later, in Vance’s early days as Donald Trump’s running mate, translating into a rocky debut on the national stage. Vance stood by the insult then, refusing to apologize or express regret for it. “I have a lot of regrets,” Vance said in an August 2024 interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” “but making a joke three years ago is not at the top 10 of the list.” “Communion” — a follow-up to Vance’s 2016 bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” — covers his faith journey from Protestant to atheist to Catholic convert. His rehashing of the “cat ladies” episode comes in a chapter that chronicles a meeting with Pope Francis before his death last year and wrestles with Christian views on immigration and abortion. “And that brings me to another lesson of the faith for Christian statesmen,” Vance writes. “It’s okay to admit error.” Vance acknowledges that the comment was “enraging” and writes that it “had the added benefit of distracting from the actual point I wanted to make, which was that our society is becoming pathologically hostile to having kids.” He adds that he “could have made that point much more effectively, and with the benefit of showing a little charity to the many Americans who — some for reasons beyond their control — don’t have children.” Vance concludes: “When I consider the Church’s admonition to respect the dignity of every life, this was a clear moment where I failed.” On abortion, which he describes as “one of the most challenging issues for Christians,” Vance posits that the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade “has revealed the political unpopularity of our position.” Vance notes his opposition to a 2023 ballot issue in Ohio that codified abortion rights into the state constitution. The measure passed overwhelmingly. “Some people argue we should give up on the idea of protecting the unborn. I take a different view,” Vance writes. “Prudence is the better part of virtue. If your political argument on the abortion question — or any other — fails to persuade your fellow Americans, you have to make a better argument.” Vance then writes of women he knows who had abortions “out of a fear that they had no other choice,” that an unexpected baby “would ruin careers, relationships, and educational opportunities.” “To these women — some of whom regret their choice — so much of the pro-life movement is about eliminating the last option they thought they had left,” Vance adds. “That’s why we lost the Ohio referendum, but it’s also how we’ll start winning people over: by reflecting Christian charity in the way we champion the unborn.” Second lady Usha Vance figures heavily into “Communion.” Vance dedicates the book to her — “For my darling Usha, who taught me to think on those things that are honest, just, pure, and lovely.” In a recent interview with NBC News, Vance described his wife as a “vicious” but indispensable editor. “There is at least a little irony in the fact that my non-Christian wife helped lead me back to my own Christian faith, and then made it possible for me to discuss the journey on paper,” he writes of Usha, a Hindu, in the book’s acknowledgements. “The Lord works in mysterious ways, indeed.” In the book’s epilogue, the vice president writes of the couple’s efforts to console Erika Kirk after the assassination of her husband, conservative activist and Vance friend Charlie Kirk. “As my wife held Charlie Kirk’s widow on the first day of her terrible sorrow, Erika told Usha between sobs that she regretted having only two kids with Charlie,” Vance writes before noting how his wife had been resistant to adding to their family. “But something changed for Usha, and not long after we buried my friend, she became pregnant with our fourth child, a boy,” Vance writes. “One life was stolen from us, but another was given.”