Last week, the internet was abuzz with clips from a 2021 interview where J.D. Vance infamously declared that the United States was being steered by "childless cat ladies." Chelsea Handler swiftly retaliated on Sunday, addressing Vance's resurfaced remarks with a scathing video posted on Instagram.
"In language you misogynists comprehend, you're nothing but a hysterical caricature," Handler lashed out. The week prior, Vance's outdated views, spoken as Donald Trump's vice presidential pick in 2021, had reemerged, including a damning clip where he told Tucker Carlson that the nation was under the thumb of "a cadre of miserable, childless cat ladies, who resent their lives and choices, thereby inflicting misery on the rest of the country."
"Listen up, you conservative echo chamber, this country remains firmly in the grip of men and their systems, meticulously designed to perpetuate male advantage," Handler retorted, her words flowing rapidly. "Let's be unequivocal: there's no nexus between being childless and presidential fitness. Take George Washington, our nation's first president; he had no biological children, merely two stepchildren. Just like someone else familiar—Vice President Kamala Harris, who nurtures two grown stepchildren with her husband, Doug Emhoff."
Addressing Vance's insinuation about Harris's fitness due to her lack of motherhood, Handler quipped, "And concerning your assertion that Kamala's unsuitable because she's not a mother, may I remind you that no US president has ever been a mother. Perhaps if she'd had a quintet of offspring with three different partners, a tawdry affair with a porn star, and a criminal record, she'd be more appealing to Republican men."
Handler didn't stop there, labeling Vance a "Diet Mountain Dew-guzzling, couch-hopping dolphin-porn enthusiast," alluding to the week's viral Vance campaign clips, including a since-debunked rumor about him detailing couch-based sexual encounters in his book 'Hillbilly Elegy.'
"All us feline and canine-loving ladies without kids are about to go from being childless and thriving to childless and triumphing over you in November," Handler declared. "And before you deny the couch escapade, save your breath. I grew up in '80s New Jersey where basements were couch-infested, and I recognize a couch-connoisseur when I see one."
Handler wasn't alone in her rebuke. Jennifer Aniston chimed in on Wednesday, expressing disbelief that such sentiments could emanate from a potential vice president. "I'm stunned this is coming from a potential VP candidate," she wrote, adding, "Mr. Vance, I fervently hope your daughter one day blesses the world with her own offspring. May she never have to resort to IVF as a backup plan, for you seek to strip that option from her too."
Aniston, who has been open about her IVF journey, continued, "I pray that she never faces the struggles you're advocating to eradicate." On Friday, Vance responded to Aniston's criticism, assuring Megyn Kelly he wasn't targeting women with fertility issues. "These Hollywood elites ask, 'What if my daughter struggled with fertility?' Firstly, it's repugnant as she's just two. And if she did, I'd do everything in my power to help, because families and babies enrich our lives."
