Vice President JD Vance has publicly owned a widely criticized 2021 remark about “childless cat ladies,” calling it one of the dumbest things he’s said while explaining the point he really wanted to make about cultural hostility to having children. He reflects on the fallout in his new book, Communion, and acknowledges the remark distracted from deeper concerns about family and faith. The episode connects to public figures he named at the time, and it has followed him through his Senate election and rise to the vice presidency. What follows is a clear retelling of the moment, the backlash, and his later rethink, with the key quotes preserved exactly as he spoke or wrote them.
Vance first made the line during a 2021 appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, when he said, “We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats … 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 who desire to make the rest of the nation “miserable too.” That blunt formulation was meant to provoke and it landed as incendiary rather than illuminating. The reaction was immediate and punishing, and it became a political liability the moment he spoke it.
At the time he named public figures as examples, pointing to Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and declaring, “The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” Those words drew fire for lumping together very different people and circumstances. Today, some of those he mentioned have family situations that undercut the caricature.
Kamala Harris has two adult stepchildren, and Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten later announced they had expanded their family through adoption. Buttigieg’s public posts announced the arrival and later the names of the children, and his comments about privacy and gratitude were straightforward and personal. To preserve the record exactly, Buttigieg wrote, “For some time, Chasten and I have wanted to grow our family. We’re overjoyed to share that we’ve become parents! The process isn’t done yet and we’re thankful for the love, support, and respect for our privacy that has been offered to us. We can’t wait to share more soon.” He later added, “Chasten and I are beyond thankful for all the kind wishes since first sharing the news that we’re becoming parents. We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family.”
In Communion, Vance takes a different tone and calls the line out for what it was. He writes, “One of the dumbest things I ever said came when I argued that ‘childless cat ladies’ across the Democrat Party were running our country into the ground.” He admits the comment “caused two firestorms: the first when I made it, the second years later during a political campaign.” That admission is blunt: the line was “boneheaded,” intentionally provocative and ultimately unhelpful to the real argument he wanted to make.
Vance said the remark was “enraging” to many and that it “had the added effect of distracting from the actual point I wanted to make, which was that our society is becoming pathologically hostile to having kids.” He uses his own misstep to pivot back to the policy concern he thinks matters most: the cultural and economic pressures that make family formation harder for many Americans. That shift from insult to policy makes the confession politically useful to those who care about family issues.
The book also includes a moral reflection tied to his faith, where he writes, “When I consider the Church’s admonition to respect the dignity of every life, this was a clear moment where I failed.” Vance’s acknowledgement ties personal growth to a broader appeal for dignity and respect in political debate. For conservatives focused on restoring pro-family priorities, owning mistakes and refocusing on constructive arguments can be persuasive.
Those moments of contrition come after a rapid political rise: Vance won election to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and took office in early 2023, and in 2024 then-former President Donald Trump tapped Vance as his running mate; Vance became vice president in early 2025. The episode is a reminder that blunt talk can cut both ways, and that admitting error while steering the conversation back to policy—especially family policy—can turn a setback into a chance to make a clearer case. The quotes above are presented exactly as spoken or written to keep the record straight.
