Vice Presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) was upset when CNN’s Dana Bash asked him about his 2021 comments about “childless cat ladies.”
In a tense exchange of words on Sunday On the state of the nationBash confronted Vance with criticism from a Republican voter in Pennsylvania who took exception to the senator’s 2021 comments – in which he said, “We are effectively run in this country by the Democrats, by our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy with their own lives and the choices they’ve made. And so they want to make the rest of the country unhappy too. And that’s just a basic fact. You see Kamala Harris, Pete ButtigiegAOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
“What do you say to those key voters, those Republican swing voters who feel turned off by your views?” Bash asked.
“If you look at my statements in context, the Harris campaign frankly lied about what I actually said,” Vance responded. “I’m pro-family. I want us to have more families. And of course sometimes it doesn’t work out, sometimes for medical reasons, sometimes because you don’t meet the right person. But the point is that our country and its public policies are anti-family.”
“You specifically mentioned Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg,” Bash continued. “Kamala Harris has two stepchildren. Pete Buttigieg and his husband adopted twins. Do you recognize them as parents and more generally as part of a family?”
Vance replied, “Of course I do,” and went on to claim that he was criticizing Harris for “being part of a canon of ideas that prevails in American leadership and is anti-family.”
After some back and forth, Vance expressed his objection to Bash’s question.
“You’ve now asked me three questions about comments I made three years ago,” Vance said. “I wonder what Kamala Harris thinks about the fact that she supported a policy that opened America’s southern border. I wonder what Kamala Harris thinks about Joe Biden’s mental fitness for office.”
“I’m interviewing you,” Bash replied. “Not Kamala Harris.”
Vance used the opportunity to attack Harris for avoiding the press since President Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race – aside from a two-minute question-and-answer session with reporters on a tarmac in Wisconsin on Thursday.
“You’re interviewing me, Dana, because I have enough respect for the American people to choose to be interviewed,” Vance said.
“Kamala Harris has been the candidate for three weeks. She has not yet sat down for a real interview.”
Bash noted that CNN had requested a meeting with the vice president.
“The point is, Dana, you’ve got me for 15 minutes or however long,” Vance said. “We should be talking about important public policies. How can we reduce inflation? How can we reduce the cost of food and housing? How can we close the southern border? We’ve talked so little about that. We’ve talked a lot more about a sarcastic remark I made three years ago.”
Watch it above via CNN.
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