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, Curtis 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:
- Attacking Kamala Harris for Not Having Kids Will Backfire
- JD Vance and the Age-Old Trope of ‘Childless Cat Ladies’
- Vance Denigrated Harris for Being Childless. Her Blended Family Is Defending Her.
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’
- Ella Emhoff knocks JD Vance over childless cat lady remarks
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
- Ella Emhoff Claps Back at Vance’s ‘Childless’ Kamala Claim
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 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.”