Host Megyn Kelly framed J.D. Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” by saying that they were taken out of context, but the interviewer to whom Vance initially made those remarks, Tucker Carlson, took responsibility Thursday for getting Vance to make the observation.
“The childless cat lady thing I felt bad about,” Carlson told his fellow ex-Fox News anchor on “The Megyn Kelly Show.” “I haven’t looked at the tape again, but I’m pretty sure I egged him on to say something like that, and I think it’s a mean thing. I think I’m responsible for that, and I have a tendency to get way over my skis and get mean, and I regret that. It’s very ugly, and I’m ashamed of the many, many times when I’ve said nasty things like that.”
Vance delivered his comments in response to Carlson asking him about liberals attacking Vance for criticizing “the childless left.” Vance responded at the time to Carlson’s inquiry, “Look, what I was basically saying is that 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.” He went on to specifically name Harris, who is a stepmother herself.
On “The Megyn Kelly Show,” Carlson expressed his sympathies for people without children.
“I feel sorry for childless people, whether they have cats or not, and I mean it as someone who has four children who are the root of my happiness. I really feel compassion,” Carlson added.
But Carlson ultimately turned to a series of insinuations about Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.
“I don’t want to be mean. I’ve already said I don’t want to be mean. But like, that Walz guy is a creep,” Carlson began. “I’m just telling you that as someone who went to boarding school in the ’80s, like I know exactly who that guy is. And I’m sorry. It’s just, you know, I hope I’m wrong. I don’t think I am.”
Kelly responded by making a derogatory remark about allowing children to express their gender identity, asking, “Why is [Walz] so obsessed with trans-ing children?”
Carlson responded, “Well, I lived in a boy’s dorm in a New England boarding school in the 1980s with a lot of guys like Tim Walz… So I saw that guy. I’m like, ‘Oh, wow, I know exactly [who you are], you’re a creeper,’ as we used to call him. For sure.”
While saying he shouldn’t be implying what he just implied, he continued to make those implications. “And I probably shouldn’t, I definitely shouldn’t suggest what I’m suggesting without evidence. I don’t have evidence beyond what I’ve seen,” Carlson said. When asked by Kelly if he means, “like a pervert,” Carlson responded, “There’s something wrong with that guy. He’s a weirdo. And you can tell watching him. And I’m sorry, I just lived long enough that I know that your gut level perceptions are rooted in truth.”
He conceded that he could be slightly off as he continued to make his baseless remarks. “They’re not always precisely true. I’ve gotten many things wrong, like the details are unknown to me, but I look at that guy and I’m like, ‘You’re a weirdo.’ And everyone’s like, ‘Oh, he’s so normal.’ No, not normal, sorry.”
After he’d shared his regret over pushing Vance to make his widely criticized “childless cat ladies” comments, Carlson had earlier circled back around to defend Vance from Tim Walz’s critique of Vance as being “weird.”
“J.D. Vance, it was hilarious, because ‘He’s so weird.’… He’s like, one of the only politicians I know — and I know a lot of politicians — who has a happy, normal marriage,” Carlson explained. He continued to defend Vance from criticism over his views on the roles of women. “He actually cares what his wife thinks… He has a normal, happy marriage. I’ve actually been around it in private. If you brought a camera into J.D. Vance’s household, you would see a husband who loves his wife, a father who loves his children — like, you really would.”
“You can’t say that for almost any other politician on either side,” Carlson claimed.
“The whole point is, we should be encouraging people to experience the things that make them the happiest,” Carlson added as he talked about having children. “And I think any parent will tell you, as hard as it is, having kids, that is one of the main sources of happiness for people from the beginning of time. And if we’re discouraging that or making it impossible for people to have kids, that’s on us, that’s a major sin, and we should try to make it better.”
“So I just want to say that, that I felt bad about that and many other nasty things I’ve said over the years where I diminish people or make fun of their appearance. That’s totally wrong,” Carlson concluded. “So I’m sorry.”
Kelly also noted that Carlson was a part of getting Vance onto the Republican ticket to begin with, as well as being involved in Robert Kennedy Jr. potentially endorsing Donald Trump, with the independent candidate set to make a major public announcement of some sort on Friday.
You can watch Tucker Carlson on “The Megyn Kelly Show” talking about J.D. Vance and Tim Walz in the video above.
