Bolton on JD Vance, childless cat ladies: Hitting opponent's supporters a bad strategy

Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton is joining those criticizing vice presidential nominee JD Vance's past statement about "childless cat ladies."

Bolton thinks the comment could resonate politically as much as 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's remarks describing some Trump supporters as "deplorables."

“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 Trump supporters ‘deplorables,’” Bolton said on CNN’s “The Source” 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,” Bolton said.

“And that’s just not a way to win friends and influence people,” Bolton continued. “I don’t think Vance learned the lesson that Hillary Clinton, unfortunately for herself, learned in 2016. That’s gonna hurt Trump as you get closer to the election.”

Vance, the Ohio Republican senator, was selected by Trump as his running mate less than two weeks ago. He's seen as a potential inheritor of the MAGA label from Trump, and is friends with Donald Trump Jr.

He's faced a signficant backlash for the 2021 comments in which he said that the country was being run by “childless cat ladies,” however. His remarks have sparked criticism from the likes of Hollywood's Jennifer Aniston.

“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,” Vance said. “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?”

Vance said the statement on “childless cat ladies” was “sarcastic” Friday on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show.”

“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,” Vance said.

Vance has sought to explain the cat lady remarks as sarcastic, and has said he is criticizing the Democratic Party and no people who choose to not have children, or those who have difficulties in having children.

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins seemed surprised by the vehemance of Bolton's comments regarding Vance.

“That’s about as damning of a comment that you can hear from a Republican, that something that someone said is equal to what Hillary Clinton said in 2016 about the ‘basket of deplorables,’” Collins said.

The Hill has reached out to a spokesperson for Vance and the Trump campaign.