JD Vance pleads sarcasm in latest effort to clean up ‘childless cat ladies’ remark

The Republican vice-presidential nominee, JD Vance, claimed that calling leading Democrats "a bunch of childless cat ladies" was merely a "sarcastic remark", as he attempted to deflect charges of misogyny and redirect fire at Harris's own running mate, Tim Walz, on Tuesday.

"The media wants to get offended about a sarcastic remark I made before I even ran for the United States Senate," the Ohio senator and Republican vice-presidential nominee told reporters in Philadelphia.

In response, a spokesperson for Harris said Vance and Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, were "not pro-family, they are anti-women", adding: "Women are paying attention - and will use their power at the polls."

Vance was in Philadelphia in direct opposition to Harris and Walz, as the vice-president and the Minnesota governor prepared to host their first joint rally in the Pennsylvania city.

Calling Walz "a joke" and "one of the most far-left radicals in the entire United States government at any level", Vance accused the governor of "wanting to ship more manufacturing jobs to China" and of being weak in the face of protests for racial justice in Minneapolis in summer 2020.

Nonetheless, Vance continued to face questions about his "childless cat ladies" comment, in which he named Harris.

Speaking in 2021 to the then Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Vance called senior Democrats in Congress and the Biden administration "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.