Vance Calls ‘Cat Ladies’ Remark ‘Sarcasm’ but Amplifies Birthrate Argument

Senator JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate, on Friday dug in on his past remarks lamenting that the United States was being run by Democrats without children, arguing that their party had become “very anti-child in their messaging and their public policy.”

“This is not about criticizing people who, for various reasons, didn’t have kids,” Mr. Vance told Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM radio program, “The Megyn Kelly Show.” “This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.”

In a wide-ranging conversation that spanned Mr. Vance’s biography and issues such as immigration and race and gender equity initiatives that were central to the Republican National Convention last week, Mr. Vance said that his earlier comments, which prompted bipartisan outrage, had not been aimed at specific families but instead were a broader argument against what he described as a shift in American society against having children.

He chastised the nation’s low birthrate, saying that Democrats believed they could “replace American children with immigrants,” and cast himself as a political leader willing to take on the left for what he has called its “rejection of the American family.”

“That is what I think the Republican Party stands for,” he said. “We’re the party of parents with kids, and we want to fight for parents and children to have good lives.”

Mr. Vance has come under fire in recent days from elected officials, celebrities and Taylor Swift fans for his past comments condemning Democrats without children, which have resurfaced in the heat of the 2024 presidential campaign. It is a moment when many women, in polls and at the ballot box, are defending their right to make their own