Celebs Pounce on JD Vance's 'Childless Cat Ladies' Comment

A clip from three years ago featuring GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance resurfaced this week, and it's drawing the wrath of celebrities, politicians, and even Taylor Swift fans.

• The clip: On Monday, anti-Trump commentator Ron Filipkowski posted a video from 2021 in which Vance railed against "childless" Democratic politicians like Kamala Harris (who has two stepchildren), Pete Buttigieg (who now has two kids), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, telling Tucker Carlson they have no "direct stake" in America. "We're effectively run in this country 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," Vance claimed.

• Jennifer Aniston: "I truly can't believe this is coming from a potential VP of the United States," the 55-year-old Morning Show star, who has documented her fertility struggles, wrote on her Instagram story, per USA Today. "Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too."
• Whoopi Goldberg: "Sir, there are people who have chosen not to have children for whatever reason," Goldberg said during The View on Wednesday, per Entertainment Weekly. "There are people who want to have children who cannot. How dare you. You never had a baby; your wife had a baby. ... so you know nothing about this."
• Pete Buttigieg: He "sharply dressed down" Vance, per the New Republic. "The really sad thing is, he said that after [husband] Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey," the transportation secretary told CNN this week. "He couldn't have known that, but maybe that's why you shouldn't be talking about other people's children."
• Swifties fight back: The Mercury News notes that women are flooding social media with "defiant memes," including fans of one Taylor Swift. "Hell hath no fury like a certain childless cat lady who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate," one commenter wrote on X.
• Origins: Writing for Semafor, David Weigel, who notes Vance made similar "childless" comments days before his Carlson sit-down, says he talked to Vance in 2022 for an explanation. Vance said a friend mentioned that Washington, DC, was one of the top cities in terms of childless adults. "I was like oh, that's really odd, right?" Vance told Weigel. "The city that's governing for the rest of the country is also the place that, in some ways, is the least like the rest of the country, where ... most people do start families."
• Project 2025 ties: Meanwhile, Vance is also taking flak for writing the foreword for a new book by one of the architects of the controversial conservative proposal for a government overhaul by the Heritage Foundation, per Newsweek. Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025.

(More JD Vance stories.)