J.D. Vance made a grave error when he described some of Vice President Kamala Harris’ supporters as “childless cat ladies,” former National Security adviser John Bolton told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Friday night.
“I think these comments by Vance are really the 2024 counterpart of Hillary Clinton’s famous statement in the 2016 election where she called Trump supporters ‘deplorables,’” he explained.
“I mean, if politicians can’t learn … it’s one thing to attack your opponent. It’s another thing to attack your opponent’s supporters,” Bolton added. “That’s just not a way to win friends and influence people.”
It may be that Vance did not learn the lesson Clinton did in 2016, the former U.N. ambassador continued, and that error might cause serious problems for Donald Trump as the election draws nearer.
Vance’s comments date back to a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson in which he lamented that the country is being run by childless women. The GOP vice presidential candidate has since said the comment was “sarcastic” and that he has “nothing against cats.”
“But look, people are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said,” Vance told Megyn Kelly on Friday. “And the substance of what I said — I’m sorry, it’s true. It is true that we’ve become anti-family. It is true that the left has become anti-child.”
It’s worth noting, however, the Democratic Party’s platform expressly states that they believes “all children should be able to lead happy, successful lives.”
Both the cat lady comments and Vance’s statements against IVF have prompted ire from typically private actress Jennifer Aniston, who wrote in an Instagram Story on Wednesday, “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States. 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.”
Vance was part of a group of Republicans who blocked protections for IVF treatments in June. The Right to IVF Act was made up of four bills that focused on the right to receive and provide IVF services, as well as making treatments — which can cost $15,000 to $30,000 each time in the United States — more affordable.
