Usha Vance, the wife of former President Donald Trump’s candidate, Senator. JD VanceR-Ohio defended her husband when pressed about resurgent 2021 comments she made about him “childless cat ladies” lead the country which was widely investigated last month.
In a taped interview that aired Monday morning on “Fox & Friends,” Vance said her husband’s “joke” was meant to convey that U.S. policies are not enough to provide the support families need.
“He made fun of it to make a point that he wanted to make,” he said. “And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about these things and that we’d spend less time going over that three-word phrase or that three-word phrase, because that’s what it’s really saying, that it can be. Being a parent in this country it’s really hard, and sometimes our policies are designed to make it even harder.
“And we have to ask ourselves, ‘Why is this true?’ What is it about our leadership and the way they think about the world that sometimes makes it difficult for parents?’” he added.
When asked what she would say to women offended by the phrase “childless cat ladies,” Vance said her husband would “never” want her comment to “offend someone who is trying or struggling to start a family.” and reiterated that he wants to continue the conversation about improving the lives of families.
“I also understand that there are many other reasons why people may choose not to have a family, and many of those reasons are very good,” she said. “I guess what I’m saying is let’s look at the real conversation that he’s trying to have and deal with it and what can we do to make it better for those who have families — for many of us who want to have families and for whom it’s really difficult?” What can we do to make it easier to live in 2024 and live a very fulfilling life, not just professionally, but with such a rich personal life and community behind it.
There was Vance defended the phrase “childless cat ladies”. amid backlash over the comments, he told SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” that it was a “sarcastic comment” and accused the media of “focusing too much on the sarcasm rather than the substance of what I said.”
In re-emerging comments on then-Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson’s show, Vance referred to Vice President Kamala Harris, now the de facto Democratic presidential nominee, as one of the “childless cat ladies” who wanted to make the country. miserable.”
He asked how he was doing negative press about her husband, Usha Vance admitted it was difficult, but it allowed her to grow a “thick skin.”
“Sometimes I don’t see it all, and sometimes I do, and I look and think, ‘That’s not JD, I know, that’s not for sure,'” he said. “And other times, it can create discussions or thoughts about what we should do next or how we should live. But I think we’ve been doing it for a while and I’ve gotten used to it and I’ve grown a little bit of a thick skin, and so it’s I try not to let it affect me.”
Asked how life has changed for their family since Trump announced Vance as his running mate, Vance said he thinks everyone is doing well during this “adventure.”
“You know, obviously it’s like nothing we’ve ever done before, and everybody’s been really friendly since we started doing it,” he said. “We have a lot of people volunteering to help us, to help us figure out how to do things. I can’t thank people enough for that.”
He noted that having a Secret Service detail was a “huge change” and praised the agents assigned to their families.
“They are amazing. “They’ve really taught us an incredible amount over the last few weeks about the security detail and how to live with all of that,” he said.
Vance said she and her husband discussed keeping their children out of the press as much as possible, adding that they did not appear at the Republican National Convention last month and instead went sightseeing in Milwaukee.
“But I think the best thing we can do is continue to keep them, let them live their lives as children, which I think they really deserve, and let them spend a lot of time with their dad,” she said. “And if it’s sometimes seen by other people, great, and other times if it’s private, great, but I don’t think we’re going to make them a real feature of any of these.”
He also praised the Secret Service detail that covered former President Donald Trump attempted assassination At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month, he said it was an “absolutely horrific” and “incredibly shocking” incident.
“He actually had a Secret Service detail looking for him and was able to get off the scene,” he said. “I mean, I think it’s incredibly shocking for everyone to see.”
“From a personal point of view, I try not to worry too much about it,” he said. “We are really lucky. The people here are just amazing. I don’t know how they do what they do, the Secret Service detail, so I believe most people, the vast majority of people out there, would never think of doing something like that.