Republicans are unhappy with Vance because of the phrase about "childless cat owners"

Some members of the US Republican Party are dissatisfied with the personality of Senator James David Vance, whom presidential candidate Donald Trump has chosen as his vice president, Bloomberg and Politico report. Most of the complaints are related to Vance's phrase, which he uttered in 2021 in an interview with Tucker Carlson, then still working for Fox News.

"We are actually being run in this country through the Democrats, through our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat owners who are unhappy because of their own lives and the choices they have made, and therefore they want to make the rest of the country unhappy," the senator said at the time.

He clarified that he was referring to Vice President Kamala Harris and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Harris's subordinates soon reminded Vance that she had children.

Another reason for criticism, already from the Democrats, was the title of the senator's autobiographical book "Village Elegy", since Vance studied at Yale University.

"None of my country cousins went to Yale," remarked Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz.

"Of those who were called finalists [for the post of vice president], he was the most risky because he was never tested [in the vote] at the national level," said Bill McCoshen, a Republican strategist in Wisconsin.

He believed that during the 102 days remaining before the vote, it would become clear whether Vance would withstand the "bright light of a nationwide campaign."

"If you are trying to win the favor of suburban women and call them 'childless cats', you will not be able to convince them to come over to your side," said conservative political commentator and host of the OutKick program Tomi Laren.

She doubted that many women living in the suburbs would find Vance's phrase funny. Another pro-Republican commentator Ben Shapiro expressed confidence that Trump, if he could go back in time, would not have chosen Vance.

Trump, however, defended Vance.

"He is, in fact, for the workers. He saw how the workers were cruelly abused and used to their advantage, and he is for the workers," he said and named the senator's book among the reasons why he chose him as his vice president.

Vance himself called his words a joke.

"Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. People pay so much attention to sarcasm, not the essence of what I actually said," he explained.

As follows from the results of the polls, Vance has a record anti-rating among all vice presidential candidates over the past 40 years.