JD Vance defends 'childless cat ladies' comment after backlash

Donald Trump's vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has defended resurfaced comments in which he called Democratic politicians a "bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives".

His remarks, made in 2021, have been roundly criticised this week, with Hollywood actress Jennifer Aniston among those to have hit out at the 39-year-old Republican.

"Obviously it was a sarcastic comment. People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said," Mr Vance told the conservative media personality Megyn Kelly on Friday.

"The substance of what I said, Megyn - I'm sorry, it's true," he added.

Mr Vance, who has three children, said he was not criticising people who do not have children in the interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which he gave while running for the Senate.

"This is about criticising the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-children," he told The Megyn Kelly Show.

"The simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way," he said.

"I'm making an argument that our entire society has become sceptical and even hateful towards the idea of having kids."

In the original interview, he questioned why some leading politicians did not have children. One of those he named was Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for November's election, who is stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children.

"The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children," he said at the time. "How does it make any sense we've turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it">Republicans have won control of both chambers of Congress, yielding Trump limited congressional oversight for at least 2 years.