J.D. Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ comments keep coming back to bite him
J.D. Vance, the current running mate of Donald Trump who became infamous for stating that the U.S. was run by “childless cat ladies,” has recently drawn more criticism for saying, on a podcast, that he told his son to “shut the hell up.”
This comment has opened up yet another discussion about Trump’s running mate and his position on the importance of the family unit. On a recent episode of the Full Send Podcast, Vance, who was picked as Trump’s running mate last month (Pence was hardly going to step back into the role), recounted the phone call he received to let him know he was Trump’s vice president pick. Vance has been married to his wife, Usha, since 2014 and has three children, two-year-old Mirabel, four-year-old Vivek, and seven-year-old Ewan. During his call with Trump, his oldest son came into the room to talk to his father.
“My son, who is seven, is in the hotel room with me. And he is really into Pokémon cards right now, he’s going through a Pokémon phase…he’s really into it. So he’s trying to talk to me about Pikachu, and I’m on the phone with Donald Trump, and I’m like, ‘Son, shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu, this is the most important phone call of my life. Please just let me take this phone call.’”
Look, kids are going to interrupt you sometimes when you have something important to do. All parents, especially work-from-home parents, can understand well and sympathize with it. God knows we love to watch news reporters deal with their kids walking into the room when they are live on air. But for a man who has deliberately attacked women who do not have children (or even attacked a woman who does have children, even if they aren’t biologically hers), the above statement where he admits to telling his kid to “shut the hell up” leaves a sour taste. While he may not have been directly quoting himself and just put it that way as a bit of artistic license in telling the story, it’s a weird way to intentionally characterize how he feels about the very kids he claims are so important.
Vance’s recently resurfaced comments about “childless cat ladies” who “want to make the country miserable” (Bring out the pitchforks! They must all be witches!) led to a flurry of responses, with even celebrities getting involved in lampooning the politician’s statement. If you claim that politicians need to be parents to care about the future but then talk about your kid like this because he wanted to share something he loved with you when it isn’t convenient, then you can expect people to call you out on it.
Vance has suffered terribly in the polls and is currently the lowest-polling GOP vice president candidate since the ’80s. The former White House campaign manager for Trump, Alyssa Griffin, has called him “a disaster” as a VP choice. The Democrats have, of course, used this as an opportunity to go on the attack against Vance, stating that the Republican Party has yet “another dumpster fire of their own creation.” Basically, if you are going to stand as a politician with family values, you probably shouldn’t be talking about telling you son to “shut the hell up” on a podcast. Not a good look at all.
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