Vance regrets 'childless cat ladies' remark as 'dumbest thing I ever said'

Vice President Vance has stated that his past remark referring to members of the Democratic Party as "childless cat ladies" was "one of the dumbest things" he ever said. Vance made the comment in 2021 while running for an Ohio Senate seat, telling Tucker Carlson that the U.S. was being run by "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too."

In his upcoming book, "Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith," Vance wrote that the comment caused "two firestorms: the first when I made it, the second years later during a political campaign." He described it as a "boneheaded comment, intentionally (and successfully) provocative rather than illuminating."

Vance had specifically referred to Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, questioning the control of the country by people without children. The resurfaced comment led to backlash in 2024, with pop star Taylor Swift even endorsing then-Vice President Harris as a "Childless Cat Lady."