The Wall Street Journal editorial board slammed Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance for earlier comments he made about “childless, cat-loving women.”
“The comment is the kind of cheeky joke that elicits laughs among some right-wing men,” the Journal reported. The editorial committee “But it will not sit well with millions of women voters, including Republicans who will decide the outcome of the presidential election,” he said in a new opinion piece.
Vance has recently faced criticism for saying that in 2021, the United States is “run by childfree, catty-loving women who are miserable about their lives and the choices they’ve made, and so they want to make the whole country miserable, too.”
“The remark has gone viral on social media and been portrayed as an example of chauvinistic thinking,” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote. “TMZ has mocked it, but this is hard evidence that this is Mr. Vance’s first big cultural impression, and it’s not a good one.”
Vance said Friday on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” that his comments about “childless, cat-loving women” were “sarcastic.”
“I know the media is going to attack me and want me to back down on this, Meghan, but what I’m saying is, having a child, becoming a father, becoming a mother, really does change your perspective in a pretty fundamental way,” Vance said.
In response to Vance’s comments on Friday about becoming a parent, the Journal’s editorial board said, “Mr. Vance was right on that point, but then why didn’t he say it in 2021?”
“One possibility is that Mr. Vance does not, in some sense, truly respect people who make different life choices,” the committee continued. “Politicians often reveal their true beliefs when speaking with their supporters. [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton mocked the “bunch of deplorables” who support her. [former President] “Trump 2016.”
“The left-wing media is misinterpreting Senator Vance’s words to create a false narrative about where he stands on issues,” Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesman for Senator Vance, said in an emailed statement to The Hill.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign.
