It looks like Jennifer Aniston and J.D. Vance won’t be friends.
The actress took to social media earlier this week to give her thoughts on a recently resurfaced clip of the GOP vice presidential nominee in which he said the Democratic Party is led by “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives.” Aniston, who has been open about her own fertility struggles, posted that she “truly can’t believe” a vice presidential candidate would say such a thing and tried to tie the remarks to in-vitro fertilization.
On Thursday’s show, Megyn reacted to the fuss that has been made about Vance’s comments and why she takes issue with Aniston weighing in.
Aniston vs. Vance
While he was running for the U.S. Senate in July 2021, Vance was on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show when the conversation turned to the leadership in Washington, DC, and who is making policy decisions. That is when Vance made the now-infamous “cat ladies” comment:
VANCE: All I am really saying is we are effectively run in this country – be it via the Democrats, be it via corporate oligarchs – by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.
And it’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?
Harris is a stepmother to her husband Doug Emhoff’s two children with his ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff, while Buttigieg welcomed twins not long after Vance’s interview. Aniston, who has shared that she does not have children due to infertility, attempted to tie the remarks to women’s reproductive rights.
“I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States,” she posted on her Instagram Story Wednesday. “All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day. I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”
Vance on IVF
As The Washington Examiner reported, Vance gave an interview to WCMH-TV in the wake of the controversial Alabama IVF ruling in late February stating that he and “pretty much every Republican that I know is pro-fertility treatments.”
“My view is babies are good, families are good,” Vance said. “And I want there to be as much access to fertility treatment as possible. And I think 99% of people agree with me, Democrat, Republican, or in the middle.”
And while he voted against the Democratic-sponsored Right to IVF Act last month, he cosigned a separate bill on in-vitro fertilization, titled the IVF Protection Act, that was introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Katie Britt (R-AL).
Megyn Reacts
Megyn said she believes Vance’s comment was “tongue in cheek” and made as a “passing reference,” but that hasn’t stopped the left from making this about how “he hates women” and “he hates people who have no children.”
Aniston is not alone in her indignation, but Megyn said hers in particular falls short for a few reasons. “Where was Jennifer Aniston standing up for little girls who are getting their breasts chopped off for political purposes by people who are shoving this gender ideology down their throats without figuring out that they might just be temporarily depressed, or for girls being forced to compete against boys in high school sports to the point where they wind up partially paralyzed and with permanent nerve damage,” she asked. “I didn’t see her sticking up for that.”
While Megyn is “perfectly happy to see her on board the women’s rights train,” she said it rings a bit hollow. “But you know what,” she concluded. “I haven’t seen her there ever before on any of the key issues that don’t involve a passing reference and a stupid joke.”
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 848 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.