Revenge Of The Childless Cat Ladies
After initially cheering J.D. Vance's "childless cat ladies" smear, the Media Research Center ultimately realized it would become an issue and started bashing people for talking about it.
After J.D. Vance was named Donald Trump’s running mate, the Media Research Center’s first reaction to his smear of liberal females as childless cat ladies was to wholeheartedly embrace it:
After MSNBC host Alex Wagner criticized Vance, Jorge Bonilla huffed in a July 18 post that “Wagner’s unhinged rant leaves one thinking that Vance missed an opportunity to renew his epic blast at miserable cat ladies who want to make the rest of the country miserable.”
Curtis Houck groused in a July 24 post that “former conservative reporter” Robert Costa how Vance was “heaping ‘scorn’ on Democrats like Harris, whom he described in a 2021 Fox News appearance as one of the ‘childless cat ladies…without children’ who are “run[ning]…this country.”
Bonilla clipped a couple of non-right-wing networks quoting Vance’s smear.
Apparently realizing that this was a thing that was going to impact Vance, Houck went into outrage mode in a July 26 post by accusing people of “LYING” about Vance’s remarks, though he cited no actual lie, just an alleged lack of context (as if that makes his remarks any more palatable to normal people):
In perfectly coordinated fashion this week, the liberal media have gone postal on GOP vice presidential nominee and Senator JD Vance (OH) for 2021 comments about the left being dominated by unhappy progressives who don’t have children.
Everyone in the liberal media have piled on, ranging from ABC, CBS, and NBC on their flagship morning and evening newscasts to major newspapers to the insufferable blogosphere.
[…]
But here’s the important passage the left has left out from Vance’s speech; the left has ignored where Vance showed compassion for both those not able to and struggled to conceive (and how, as evidenced in a brief X thread by the great Kaylee McGhee White, Vance was right in terms of voting behavior):
From there, Houck was in defense mode about another remark Vance made:
At the same time, Alexander was on NBC Nightly News again reiterating (two days after it first was made into a manufactured scandal) that Vance was “facing new backlash” for his comments to Carlson. Yet again, Alexander held up Aniston’s Instagram post and a statement from Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife.
Come Friday morning, Wang was on ABC’s Good Morning America again to bludgeon Vance with nearly identical meltdowns. This time, she added a new claim, noting Vance “call[ed] for people without children to be taxed more” in an interview with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
What did Vance actually say? He simply argued, “[i]f you are making $100,000, $400,000 a year and you’ve three kids, you should pay a different lower tax rate than if you are making the same amount of money and you don’t have any kids.”
Thanks to child tax credits and even a Biden administration promise to end child poverty, we can safely rate Wang’s meltdown as pants on fire.
So, yes, Vance wants childless people to pay more taxes than families with children, which is simply an alternative way of putting it. Houck’s whining ramped up:
Friday’s CBS Mornings had senior White House and campaign correspondent Ed O’Keefe play the Vance-Carlson appearance and even boasted of Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) pushing back as someone rumored to be in the running for Harris’s running mate.
But this ending from O’Keefe was embarrassing as he pretended old clips resurfacing were coincidental: “Notably, the video of Vance saying what he said about childless women resurfaced on what’s known as World IVF Day. And the Harris campaign sent out email fundraisers saying, ‘Happy IVF Day to everyone but JD Vance.’”
The newspapers weren’t great either. The Washington Post bemoaned in a piece headlined: “‘Childless cat ladies,’ Jennifer Aniston, and Swifties take on JD Vance”.
Here were some online headlines from The New York Times:
USA Today was also having a normal one being tools for the left. Here was just a sampling:
Jennifer Aniston hits back at JD Vance’s viral ‘childless cat ladies’ comments
Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Aniston, more celebs denounce JD Vance’s ‘cat ladies’ remarks
Kamala Harris, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Aniston and when we reduce women to ‘childless cat ladies’
How about the freaks over at The Daily Beast? They were definitely enthused:
Jennifer Aniston Slams J.D. Vance Over ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Comment
Kesha Has 3 Nasty Words for J.D. Vance’s ‘Cat Lady’ Nonsense
Gabby Giffords Rips Into J.D. Vance Over ‘Childless’ Comment
Now that, dear readers, is what a coordinated media push looks like.
In a statement to NewsBusters, Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk lambasted “the leftwing media” for “hav[ing] twisted Senator Vance’s words and spun up a false narrative about his position on the issues.”
“The Democrats are in complete disarray with the most unpopular Vice President in history as their party’s nominee. The only childlessness we should be talking about are the childless parents who lost their kids to the murderous thugs and deadly fentanyl coming across Kamala’s southern border,” he added.
Nothing says “coordinated media push” like Houck running to the Vance campaign to get his designated talking points straight from the source in order to defend his preferred candidate. And, again, Houck cited no specific lie that was told, given that everyone appeared to quote Vance accurately.
Brad Wilmouth joined Houck in defense mode in a July 27 post:
On Thursday, as CNN shows hyped actress Jennifer Aniston complaining about J.D. Vance quipping that liberals are mostly “childless cat ladies,” afternoon host Jake Tapper went so far as to have on CNN entertainment reporter Elizabeth Wagmeister to gloat over the story and tie in Taylor Swift.
Setting up the segment, Tapper recalled: “What do Jennifer Aniston, Pete Buttigieg, and Whoopi Goldberg have in common? They are all less than pleased with Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance after a clip from 2021 recently resurfaced. Take a listen to what Vance told Tucker Carlson on Fox back in 2021.”
[…]
It was not clarified that the then-Senate candidate was observing that both men and women who choose not to have children disproportionately tend to be Democrats more than Republicans.
Notably, according to the Wikipedia entries for current [sic] women, but only one out of nine Republican women do not have children.
After reading response statements released by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Vice President Kamala Harris, Tapper then brought in Wagmeister to tie in Aniston and Swift.
[…]
Then, even though Swift had not made a statement on the matter, Wagmeister stretched to make her part of the story by relating to viewers that the liberal singer’s fans have been taking shots at the Republican vice presidential candidate:
If Swift’s fans are commenting on Vance, then she is, in fact, part of the story.
Tim Graham grumbled that one TV personality allegedly suggested that “Vance’s 2021 comments about ‘childless cat ladies’ is somehow recent.” Given that the MRC continues to rant about Chappaquiddick even though it happened more than a half-century ago, Vance’s statement is quite recent by comparison.
Houck returned to rant in a July 29 post that TV morning shows are allegedly “bragging Senator JD Vance (R-OH) is still ‘facing backlash’ nearly a week into the (clearly coordinated) campaign to destroy Vance for ‘2021 comments referring to some Democrats as childless cat ladies’.” Houck offered no proof to substantiate his claim of “bragging” — can he read minds? Still, he ranted further about the “manufactured ‘cat ladies’ controversy.”
The complaining continued in a July 30 post by Sarah Butler:
Politico’s White House bureau chief, Jonathan Lemire began the discussion by sharing a statistic from Pew Research “47 percent of childless adults under 50 say they aren’t planning on having any children.” He continued to state that many young people want to “focus on other things” or are concerned about the “costs associated with raising a child.”
Unsurprisingly, Lemire mentioned “Vance’s comments about childless Americans, childless cat ladies could be so politically damaging” to his career. Jong-Fast jumped in and quickly exclaimed – without evidence – that Vance’s comment had racial undertones:
Well so what’s interesting is this is this nativism that comes from an authoritarian playbook right that there – there need to be more white children, right? That’s the idea that there is – you know this is about great replacement theory racism, right? This is what this is.
Jong-Fast failed to recognize that Vance, who married Usha Chilukuri, is a father to three biracial kids.
Regardless, Jong-Fast went on to say that we shouldn’t “misunderstand him for him wanting more children. He wants a certain kind of you now racist thing.” She then called his words an “attack [on] people for not having children” which she found “cruel.”
Adding on to what was previously said, Deutsch shared “you know it’s just so interesting. We live in this new cycle of — of politicians people say stupid things and the parade moves on.” But he professed that “this JD Vance parade is not gonna move on” because “there is just something that hit a nerve with people.”
Deutsch concluded “As I said, and you used the word cruel, I used the word cruel, that I think Vance, I don’t know if Vance is here in the end. We will see.”
Butler then made it clear how closely aligned she and her employer are to the Republican campaign machine, cheering that “The X account of RNC Research posted a video of Jong-Fast’s comments and called her out for spreading lies.”
Graham groused that Vance’s self-own was pointed out:
On the Monday PBS News Hour, NPR White House reporter and PBS pundit Tamara Keith ripped into Sen. J.D. Vance having a “really terrible, no-good week” as the pro-Biden media endlessly rehash his 2021 comments to Tucker Carlson.
Anchor Geoff Bennett began: “J.D. Vance is getting a lot of scrutiny now for his controversial comments about women without children. He called them childless cat ladies, said they’re miserable with their own lives….he has not disavowed the comments, and he said in a podcast just the other day that he stands by the substance of what he said. There are lots of Democrats now who are more than happy to target J.D. Vance.”
Graham then tried a bit of desperate spin: “You have to shake your head at ‘wow, Vance is so bad the pro-Kamala media is laser-focused on pro-Kamala messaging.’ The media love to think they allocate the ‘oxygen’ of political attention.”
Houck whined in a July 31 post that a reporter noted that Vance is “’drawing new scrutiny for referring to some Democrats without children as, ‘childless cat ladies,’ in 2021′ and played dumb in saying ‘a separate interview from 2020 is resurfacing’ instead of having the balls to tell viewers this was coordinated opposition research.” Um, isn’t Houck part of a coordinated anti-Harris oppo research operation? He has little room to complain.
The same day, Mark Finkelstein groused that people outside his right-wing bubble wouldn’t stop talking about Vance:
On Saturday, Hezbollah, an Iran-sponsored terrorist group, attacked a sports center in Golan, killing 12 children and teenagers. A few days later, an Israeli airstrike killed a top Hezbollah commander in retaliation.
Yesterday, another airstrike killed a senior leader of Hamas, another Iran-sponsored terrorist group. The bold strike took place in Iran’s capital of Tehran. The views of experts on the region are reflected in this Financial Times column: “The risk of all-out Middle East war is rising sharply.” CNN This Morning devoted a long opening segment to the ominous situation in the 6 am hour Wednesday.
Meanwhile, over on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Joe and Mika might be on vacation, but under the baton of Jonathan Lemire, that same crucial opening segment was all about “cat ladies,” “weird,” extolling the Kamala Harris rally in Atlanta, and reveling in a new swing-state poll showing things going the Democrats’ way.
Yes, the show eventually did get around to discussing the dire situation in the Middle East. But priorities, priorities! Boosting Kamala and dumping on Trump-Vance come first!
Morning Joe opened with a clip of Daily Show comedian Ronny Chieng mocking Vance’s cat ladies line that people without children are miserable. Hey, Chieng said, mimicking crying, they’ve got more disposable income, can afford to fly business class, and have sex lives!
Unaware of the irony, Lemire commented, “J.D. Vance’s childless cat lady comment continues to be a major story line in the presidential race.”
Uh, yeah, Jonathan: because people like you in the liberal media continue to pound it. You know, like, starting shows with it rather than prioritizing minor stories like the Middle East on the brink of possible conflagration!
[…]
Lemire then returned to the cat lady theme, telling Katty Kay that Vance’s remark was “deeply offensive.” And, again displaying a certain cluelessness, Lemire expressed surprise that the cat lady issue is “really staying.” Again, Jonathan, because people like you won’t let it die,wringing every last bit out of it to trash Vance and boost Harris.
[…]
Ex-Senator Claire McCaskill returned to the feline theme, saying that “Democrats are having fun, and it’s about joy, and opportunity, and freedom,” whereas those Republicans are about–you guessed it–“cat ladies.”
Wilmouth kept up the whining that Vance’s words were being accurately quoted in an Aug. 3 post:
On Tuesday’s The Source, CNN host Kaitlan Collins continued the media’s hyping of J.D. Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comments by bringing on the GOP vice presidential candidate’s former roommate at Yale who is now a Democrat state legislator to trash him as coming from a “dark” and “creepy” place. This is the danger of a Republican going to Yale — most of your roommates are going to be leftists.
The CNN host introduced a clip of Vance from an interview on The Chris Buskirk Show a few years ago in which he argued that becoming a parent improves one’s character, and that people who are “sociopathic” are more likely to be without children, not that all childless people are sociopathic.
Bill D’Agostino served up a little whining with an Aug. 5 compilation clip:
Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance appears to have touched a nerve in the news media, because the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC are still obsessing over his 2021 comments about “childless cat ladies” with thinly-veiled rage.
Corporate journalists have a habit of discussing their own reporting as though they’re talking about the weather. Back during the Stormy Daniels saga in 2018, for example, hosts on CNN and MSNBC would routinely remark how, for some reason, the story just wouldn’t go away.
The same phenomenon is very much at play here. It’s been weeks now, and journalists still aren’t finished shrieking about the phrase “cat ladies.”
On August 2, for example, MSNBC host Joy Reid laughed that Vance was “trying to squirm out of the cat ladies thing.” And just this Monday, longtime Washington Post writer Eugene Robinson called Vance’s remarks “the gift that keeps on giving” for the Harris campaign.
Larry Elder tried to defend Vance in an Aug. 5 column by invoking his own childlessness:
The outrage was as intense as it was predictable. His comment became translated to: Vance has disdain for women without children; Vance believes childless women ought not hold office; and the only woman the “sexist” Vance does not hate is the one he married.
I do not have children, had a beloved cat named Cream Puff, and ran for governor and president. That people with children have more skin in the game is a common point of view held by my mother, my father, my two brothers and my pastor.
Not sure that was helpful. And, of course, he played whataboutism: “Here’s the game. Every news cycle spent on castigating Vance for his ‘childless cat ladies’ comment is one less news cycle spent on the outrageous radical beliefs of Vice President Kamala Harris,” adding: “Democrat [sic] politicians and their media sympathizers do not want you to ask whether you are better off now than three and a half years ago. They do not want you to ask whether Harris’ radical, redistribution-of-income beliefs will make you better off. They want you to ask whether you are a ‘childless cat lady.'” Elder, by contrast, does not want you to ask why Vance is such a nasty person to anyone who doesn’t think exactly like he does, raising questions about his temperament to be a top public official.