Trump downplays JD Vance’s ‘childless cat ladies’ comments.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump sought to limit the impact that vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s comments about childless Democratic women would have on his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a largely chaotic panel at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago on Wednesday, Trump claimed he was unaware of Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” before he chose him as his running mate.

“No, I know this: He’s very family-oriented, and he thinks family is a great thing,” Trump told a panel of ABC’s Rachel Scott, Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and Semaphore’s Kadia Goba. “I know people with families, I know people with great families, I know people with really troubled families, and I know people without families. They haven’t met the right person. It happens. You go through life, you don’t meet the right person.”

After more questions from Scott and Goba, Trump reiterated the “He believes strongly in family” comment.

“What he’s saying is he thinks the family experience is a very important thing,” Trump explained. “It’s a very good thing. But that doesn’t mean that if you grow up and get older and don’t meet someone who’s wonderful to meet and it’s good, that’s a bad thing. He doesn’t say that.”

Trump later tried to flip the script, saying Democrats are the ones struggling to attract families.

“I think the Democratic Party is really the problem. I think they are radical on abortion because they allow abortion in the ninth month,” Trump said before the moderators argued that abortion at this late stage is illegal in every state.

Trump was again asked if his campaign supports Vance’s claim that people with children should have more votes than a person without children.

“Well, no,” he replied. “But it’s not something I’ve heard before.”

Vance has faced strong backlash for his comments since joining Trump’s ticket during the Republican National Convention in early July, which Faulkner asked the former president about.

“I elected him because he is a very strong believer in work and the working man and woman, and especially the working man and woman who have been treated very unfairly,” Trump said.

Vance is the author of the popular book Hillbilly Elegywhich was produced as a film in 2020. Trump emphasized the Ohio senator’s ability to appeal to working-class people in the Midwest, a critical area he must win to be re-elected president.

“He’s a very smart guy without the benefit of having a family that has connections, like a father that was well connected,” Trump said. “He went to Yale Law School. He is someone who was born into a difficult situation. Most people know this situation because it was very well documented in his book. And I have a lot of respect for someone who can get into Yale and become one of the best students at Yale who meets a young woman at Yale who was also outstanding and married. They have a beautiful family.”

But when Faulkner asked if Vance would be ready on Day 1, Trump equivocated in his answer and didn’t quite say yes.

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“I’ve always had great respect for him and the other candidates,” Trump began. “But I will say this, and I think it’s well documented: Historically, the vice president, as far as elections go, has no impact. I mean, basically no impact. You have two or three days where there’s a lot of buzz about who, like you have on the Democratic side, who’s going to be, and then it dies down, and it’s all about the presidential election. Basically, it never mattered.

“Historically, picking a vice president makes no difference,” Trump continued. “You vote for president and you can have a vice president who is outstanding in every way. And I think JD is, I think they all would have been, but, but don’t vote like that. Vote for president. You vote for me. If you like me, I will win. If you don’t like me, I won’t win.”