Bolton: Vance's 'Cat Ladies' Comment Like Hillary's 'Deplorables'

GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance's past statement about "childless cat ladies" could backfire on him like Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" remark did during the 2016 election, according to former Trump national security adviser John Bolton.

"I think these comments by Vance are really the 2024 counterpart of [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton's famous statement in the 2016 election where she called then-candidate [Donald] Trump's supporters 'deplorables,'" Bolton told CNN Friday.

"[I] mean, if politicians can't learn — it's one thing to attack your opponent, it's another thing to attack your opponent's supporters," he added.

But Bolton said he doesn't think Vance learned from Clinton's lesson, and that will "hurt Trump as you get closer to the election."

Vance, R-Ohio, was picked less than two weeks ago as Trump's running mate, but quickly came under fire over the "childless cat ladies" comment from 2021.

"It's just a basic fact — you look at [Vice President] Kamala Harris, [Secretary of Transportation] Pete Buttigieg, [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)] — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children," he said at the time. "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?"

Friday, Vance told SiriusXM's "The Megyn Kelly Show" that his comments were sarcastic, but still defended what he said.

"I know the media wants to attack me and wants me to back down on this, Megyn, but the simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way," he said.

However, he also has said that he was criticizing the Democratic Party on family values, not people who choose to remain childless or who have difficulties having children.

Bolton, meanwhile, said he questions why Trump picked Vance as his "heir apparent."

"Now that he's got his heir apparent, how does that benefit him with the people who are going to vote for him already?" said Bolton. "Not at all. How does it benefit him? For the people who might consider him? Not very much. He does have the youth factor, but ironically, that underlines Trump's age and I do think that's going to — now that [Joe] Biden is out of the race — that's going to be a real subject of conversation."