Vice President JD Vance is calling one of his most memorable political zingers exactly what it was — a mistake. In his forthcoming memoir, Communion, set to be released Tuesday, June 16, 2026, Vance takes direct aim at his own 2021 remark describing prominent Democratic women as “childless cat ladies,” admitting the comment was among the worst things he has ever said publicly.
Vance made the original comment while appearing on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program in 2021, during his campaign for an Ohio Senate seat. He singled out then-Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as examples of Democrats without children who, in his framing, lacked a personal stake in the country’s future. The remarks sat largely dormant for years — until Vance became President Donald Trump’s running mate in July 2024, at which point they exploded into a full-blown campaign controversy.
A Reversal Years in the Making
At the time the comment resurfaced in 2024, Vance was unapologetic. He deflected criticism in a July 2024 interview with Megyn Kelly, insisting the remark was sarcastic and that he had nothing against cats. In an August 2024 appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Vance said he had plenty of regrets but that a joke from three years earlier wasn’t among his top concerns. The backlash at the time was fierce and wide-ranging, drawing responses from celebrities including Jennifer Aniston and Taylor Swift.
Now, in 2026, the tone has shifted considerably. In Communion — a spiritual follow-up to his bestselling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy — Vance frames the reconsideration as part of a broader faith lesson. The book traces his religious evolution from a Protestant upbringing through a period of atheism to his conversion to Roman Catholicism as an adult.
Vance writes that “one of the dumbest things I ever said” was his argument that childless women in the Democratic Party were running the country into the ground, adding: “It was a boneheaded comment, intentionally (and successfully) provocative rather than illuminating.”
Faith, Accountability, and a Chapter on Pope Francis
The mea culpa lands inside a chapter of Communion that recounts Vance’s meeting with Pope Francis before the pontiff’s death in 2025, and grapples with how Christian teaching should shape a statesman’s positions on immigration and abortion. Vance wrote that Christian statesmen should be willing to acknowledge when they’ve gotten something wrong.
He acknowledges in the book that the inflammatory phrasing ended up undercutting his own argument. His actual concern, he writes, was that American society has grown increasingly hostile toward family formation — a point he believes he could have made far more effectively, and with more charity toward Americans who, for reasons sometimes beyond their control, do not have children. “When I consider the Church’s admonition to respect the dignity of every life,” Vance writes, “this was a clear moment where I failed.”
Adding a layer of irony to the original slight: Harris had long been the stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children, who called her “Momala.” And just weeks after Vance made his comments in 2021, Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, welcomed adopted twins.
Vance on Abortion and Political Persuasion
Communion also finds Vance wrestling with the political reality of the post-Roe v. Wade landscape. He points to the 2023 Ohio ballot measure that codified abortion rights into the state constitution — a measure he opposed and that passed by a wide margin — as evidence that the anti-abortion movement has a persuasion problem, not just a policy problem. He argues that rather than abandoning the cause, pro-life advocates need to make a more compelling and compassionate case to the public.
Vance dedicates the book to his wife, Usha Vance, crediting her with teaching him to focus on what is honest, just, pure, and lovely. The couple, who already share three children, are expecting their fourth child in July 2026.
A New Chapter for the Vice President
The timing of the book’s release — approximately seventeen months into Vance’s tenure as vice president — gives the admission a particular weight. The “childless cat ladies” phrase dogged him throughout the 2024 campaign and became shorthand for a style of politics critics said was needlessly divisive. By addressing it head-on in print, and grounding his self-critique in religious conviction rather than political calculation, Vance is signaling a somewhat different public posture heading deeper into the Trump administration’s second year.