J.D. Vance is getting slammed for once calling Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, “childless cat ladies,” and all this newfound attention should probably worry him.
During an interview on Fox News’s now-canceled Tucker Carlson Tonight in July 2021, Vance took aim at Democratic politicians.
“We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, 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,” Vance said .
“And it’s just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttegieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
To be clear, Vance is not objecting to actual childlessness. What he’s essentially saying is that only people who reproduce have a stake in America. While this statement was from years ago, this idea is still deeply embedded in his current campaign, which is built on pronatalism and his own phony brand of economic populism , which places the biological nuclear family at the center.
The clip’s resurfacing has led to an intense online firestorm that has attracted the attention of one high-profile critic, as well as a mob that Vance should truly fear.
Actress Jennifer Aniston took to Instagram to post the clip of Vance’s “childless cat lady” remark, with her own scathing criticism.
“I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States,” Aniston, who rarely makes political statements, wrote . “All I can say is … Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”
Aniston has been open about her struggles to get pregnant, including by trying IVF, but how she has no regrets that it didn’t pan out for her.
In June, Vance voted against legislation that would codify access to in vitro fertilization, a strange position for someone who purports to think of procreation as the barrier to entry for civic engagement.
Meanwhile, Vance has angered one group that should strike fear into the heart of any man: fans of pop singer and monocultural icon Taylor Swift, known as the Swifties.
Their beloved icon has proudly touted her cat lady status in the past, and so now, the internet is anticipating his imminent destruction at the hands of her devoted fans.
While the deafening far-right noise around Swift has died down a bit since the Super Bowl, she still has the ability to enrage conservatives and amass support around any issue of her choosing. Should she choose to direct her ire against Vance, or voice support for Harris to spite him, one can only imagine the intensity of the backlash that will follow.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who is in contention to be Harris’s vice presidential pick, may have summed it up the best: There are some lines you just don’t cross on the internet.
“My God, they went after ‘cat people,’ good luck with that! Turn on the internet and see what cat people do when you go after ’em,” he said Wednesday night.
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