8 of J.D. Vance's Slip-Ups After Becoming the VP Nominee: Defending His Past Remarks to Revealing His Parenting Style

As soon as Donald Trump announced J.D. Vance as his running mate in the 2024 election, the Ohio senator began facing criticism for his past controversial comments and moments.

In July, a photo of the VP pick wearing a shirt depicting the U.S.S.R. flag made the rounds on social media sites. Critics called out Vance for donning the communist symbol, though some defended him as it was only part of the Halloween party.

Vance's 2021 "childless cat ladies" comments during his interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News also resurfaced. At the time, he used the label to describe women without biological children — including Kamala Harris — and explained the government was being spearheaded by people who were "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."

Celebrities, including Whoopi Goldberg and Jennifer Aniston, lambasted Vance over his comments. However, he defended himself when he spoke with Megyn Kelly on the "The Megyn Kelly Show" podcast.

“Obviously, it was a sarcastic comment. I’ve got nothing against cats," he said, adding social media should be blamed "for focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said.”

His other resurfaced controversial comments include his suggestion to give people with children more voting rights and his stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

On the "Full Send" podcast, Vance recalled the time he told his 7-year-old son, Ewan, to "shut the h--- up" while they were in a hotel room. The young child reportedly started talking enthusiastically about Pikachu, the star of the famous Pokémon game and anime series, while speaking to Trump.

"He is really into Pokémon cards right now, he’s going through a Pokémon phase... I mean, he’s really into it, so he is trying to talk to me about Pikachu, and I am on the phone with Donald Trump, I’m like, ‘Son, shut the h--- up for 30 seconds about Pikachu,'" he said, explaining he was having the "pivotal moment" in his life.

Vance reportedly told his son, "This is the most important phone call of my life, please just let me take this phone call."

Social media users and critics slammed Vance for his parenting style, calling him out for not being a loving and caring father to his child.

Vance made a plea while attacking his rival, Harris.

“She voted — even after it was obvious it was a mistake — she voted to preserve NAFTA, the very trade deal that sent American jobs to Mexico and turned the American dream into nightmares,” Vance stated. “And now she wants a promotion."

He then officially suggested the vice president be fired and replaced with The Apprentice star.

Trump told journalists during the National Association of Black Journalists that his presidential opponent "turned Black" for political gain and now "wants to be known as Black.”

“Is she Indian or is she Black?” he asked the crowd.

After his controversial comment, CNN's Steve Contorno got Vance's reaction to Trump's comments as a father to three biracial children.

"Did those comments give you pause at all?" Contorno asked, but Vance dismissed such an idea before calling Kamala a "chameleon."

"She goes to Georgia two days ago. She was raised in Canada. She puts on a fake Southern accent. She is everything to everybody and she pretends to be somebody different, depending on which audience she's in front of," the politician, 40, said.

He added, "I think it's totally reasonable for the president to call that out, and that's all he did."

On X, Vance put the blame on Harris for her support for LGBTQ+ after watching a clip of Imane Khelif and Angela Carini's boxing match at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"This is where Kamala Harris' ideas about gender lead: to a grown man pummeling a woman in a boxing match. This is disgusting, and all of our leaders should condemn it," said the VP candidate.

Khelif is a cisgender woman and has never identified as transgender.

On Tuesday, August 6, Vance admonished reporters on his plane before his Philadelphia rally as he told them to "do a better job" in forcing Harris to answer questions. He accused the vice president of not taking a single real question from a reporter since becoming a presumptive Democrat nominee.

"The American people deserve to get to know the people who want to lead them, and I think it’s shameful for Kamala Harris, but increasingly for the media, that she is taking a basement strategy of running from reporters instead of getting in front of them and answering tough questions about her record and letting the American people know who she is," he said.

In his message to introduce Trump during a campaign at a Georgia State University arena, Vance. reiterated his claim about the Democrats being responsible for the recent assassination attempt of the ex-POTUS.

“They couldn’t beat him politically, so they tried to bankrupt him. They failed at that, so they tried to impeach him. They failed at that, so they tried to put him in prison," he said. "They even tried to kill him.”

The FBI launched a probe into the incident but found no evidence that could support Vance's claim.