Some participants in last weekend’s annual CatCon in Pasadena, California — a gathering for cat lovers — shared their displeasure with Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance over a past remark about “childless cat ladies.”
Vance made the remark in 2021 during an interview with Tucker Carlson, then of Fox News. He was trying to argue that the country is being run by liberal elites who do not have children and therefore do not think about the future.
He said at the time:
“We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, be it via our corporate oligarchs, by 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. And it’s just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
Democrats have made that remark the center of their criticism of Vance.
But the self-proclaimed “childless cat ladies” of CatCon took the attack further by embracing the label, proudly:
PASADENA, CA – AUGUST 3, 2024 – Left, Shannon Peace, 43, makes her message known, standing next to her friend Beverly Suzuki, 72, at CatCon held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena on August 3, 2024. “He messed with the wrong demographic,” said Peace about Sen. J.D. Vance’s comment about “childless cat ladies.” “You mess with the cat lady, you get the claws,” she concluded. The event, often dubbed the comic con for cat lovers, will include cat celebrities, an art show and all things cat related. The event comes days after 2021 Fox News interview of Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance’s surfaced in which he complains that the country was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs and “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.” (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA – AUGUST 3, 2024 – Dug Rusinek, 39, owner of Felinious, wears one of the t-shirts his company created and being sold at the Homocats booth at CatCon held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena on August 3, 2024. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA – AUGUST 3, 2024 – Mandy Chow is excited to find t-shirts in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, as salesman Rick Herron looks on at the Homocats booth at CatCon held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena on August 3, 2024. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Vance addressed criticism of his 2021 comment head-on during a rally and press availability event on Tuesday:
.@JDVance comes out swinging against a reporter who told him that his remarks on families were "offensive to millions of women."
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 6, 2024
"What I said is very simple: I think American families are good and government policy should be more pro-family. If the media wants to get offended… pic.twitter.com/n3jYjYFJP3
A supporter called out from the audience to Vance: “This cat lady loves you!” He laughed, and replied: “I love you, too.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
