J.D. Vance’s sister has come to the defense of the GOP vice presidential candidate after he was criticized by actress Jennifer Aniston for a past remark that America was run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”
Lindsay Lewis Ratliff, 44, said in a statement released by his campaign that her brother “was raised by some of the strongest women I know and went on to marry an incredibly strong woman in Usha.”
Married with three children, Ratliff added: “J.D. is a testament to the women in his life, and the attacks from the media and Democrats that assume anything otherwise is vile.”
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Ratliff is the senator’s half sister and the siblings grew up in Middleton, Ohio, the rough and tumble backdrop to his Hillbilly Elegy memoir. She is the daughter of Vance’s mother and her first husband.
She made no mention in her statement of the 2021 remarks that provoked this week’s condemnation by Friends star Aniston. Appearing on Tucker Carlson’s then Fox News show, Vance said the country was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Vance has three children, two daughters and a son.
He pointed a finger at Vice President Kamala Harris, adding: “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 stepmother to husband Doug Emhoff’s two children.
Posting a clip of the Carlson appearance, Aniston, 55, chastised Vance on her Instagram account, saying: “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.”
Aniston, who has no children, has spoken publicly of her challenges with fertility and IVF.
