GOP senator torches JD Vance over 'derogatory' and 'offensive' comments about women

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) is now attracting criticism from one of his fellow colleagues in the U.S. Senate for his previous remarks about women.

In a Tuesday interview with Politico, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who is considered one of the more moderate members of the Senate Republican Conference, unleashed on her colleague over controversial comments he made about "childless cat ladies." Politico reported that Alaska's senior U.S. senator called Vance's past criticism of liberal women unfortunate, unnecessary and "offensive to many women."

"If the Republican Party is trying to improve its image with women, I don't think that this is working," Murkowski said. "To be so derogatory in this way is offensive to me as a woman."

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Murkowski's reference was to a 2021 interview Vance did with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in which he insinuated that "childless cat ladies" were attempting to force a progressive agenda on the rest of America. He suggested that women without children — of which there are 22 million — wanted Americans to be "miserable."

"We are 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 so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too," Vance said prior to his 2022 U.S. Senate campaign. "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?"

Vance notably did not apologize to women when SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly asked him to clarify his comments.

"Obviously it was a sarcastic comment," Vance said. "I’ve got nothing against cats. ... People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance … and the substance of what I said, Megyn — I’m sorry, it is true."

READ MORE: Vance effort to retract 'sexist' remark ripped: 'No problem with the cats, just the women'

The Ohio senator has continued to be an anchor on former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign. On Tuesday, Newsweek reported that Florida Atlantic University's (FAU) Public Opinion Research Lab showed Vance was preventing Trump from pulling ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris in close contests.

"Vance's approval ratings are significantly trailing President Trump's," FAU pollster Kevin Wagner said. "It's early, but instead of lifting the ticket, the selection of Vance as his vice president may be a drag on Trump's reelection chances."

In its national poll of likely voters, FAU found that 45% of respondents had a "strong" or "somewhat" negative or unfavorable view of Vance, while only 41% had a "strong" or "somewhat" favorable view of him. This is not a great start for Vance, who was selected as Trump's running mate less than two weeks ago.

Click here to read Politico's full report.

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