Usha Vance defends husband’s ‘childless cat ladies’ comment as a ‘quip’ in first solo interview

CNN —

Usha Vance, the wife of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, defended her husband’s previous comments deriding childless adults and downplayed his labeling of some Democratic politicians as “childless cat ladies,” calling it a “quip.”

In a sit-down interview with Fox News that aired Monday, Usha Vance, a trial lawyer, argued her husband’s past comments, which have received renewed scrutiny since he joined former President Donald Trump’s presidential ticket, were in service of an argument about the challenges facing parents and the role government plays in parents’ lives.

“The reality is, JD made a quote – I mean, he made a quip, and he made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive,” she said. “And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase.”

“What he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder,” she continued.

The first solo interview from Usha Vance comes alongside fresh urgency for the Republican senator to quickly change the conversation around his candidacy. Trump allies have been eager to see Usha Vance defend her husband and the Republican ticket publicly as the campaign continues its defense of different resurfaced clips of JD Vance.

His past remarks have attracted ire from celebrity icons and Taylor Swift supporters but also from conservative outlets. The Wall Street Journal editorial board eviscerated Vance’s comments as the “sort of smart-aleck crack that gets laughs in certain right-wing male