‘Where is he coming from?’: Hillary Clinton on JD Vance’s ‘childless cat lady’ comments

(CNN) — Hillary Clinton has criticized Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance for suggesting that families could ease the financial burden of child care by tapping grandparents for more help, saying that the Ohio senator is “just not in touch with what goes on in the lives and the working careers of the vast majority of Americans.”

“It’s almost impossible to understand his worldview. Where is he coming from? Where does he get these ideas?” the former secretary of state said in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria set to air on Sunday as she promotes her new book, “Something Lost, Something Gained.”

Clinton described the comments Vance made about child care in a recent interview with conservative pundit Charlie Kirk, as well as his recently unearthed 2021 remark about the United States being led by “childless cat ladies,” as the latest example of decades of opposition from Republicans in Washington to child care policy proposals that would provide government assistance to working families.

“It sounds to me like these are maybe personally connected to his own background, but also, it’s feeding into that same ideology: ‘Stand on your own. You’re a rugged individualist,’” she said.

But “families need support,” and relatives aren’t always nearby and available, Clinton said.

“I’m a grandparent. I’m also a very active person. I love being with my grandchildren, but I also have interests of my own,” she said. “And so, it’s not either-or. Obviously, I want to help my daughter and son-in-law with these three wonderful little kids. But they’re very active. They go to work. They need child care support, especially when the children were very young.”

Marriage to Bill Clinton

In her interview with Zakaria, Clinton also discussed her marriage to former President Bill Clinton, including surviving the “dark periods” when her husband’s affairs became public and he was impeached by the US House.

“Nobody really knows what happens in a marriage except the two people in it, and every marriage I’m aware of has ups and downs – not public,” she said.

Clinton said she would never tell anyone else to stay in a marriage or leave it.

“For me and for us, I think it’s fair to say we are so grateful that at this stage of our life, we have our grandchildren, we have our time together. I write about how we start the morning playing “Spelling Bee” in bed, and, you know, Bill is such a great player,” she said.

“We just have a good time. We have a good time sharing this life that we’ve lived together for now nearly 50 years of marriage,” Clinton said. “That’s what is right for us, and that’s really my message.”

It’s a stark contrast to a period in the 1990s when Clinton said she was deeply hurt and confused but also opposed to the Republicans who were seeking to remove her husband from office.

“I had a different kind of set of challenges. I mean, it’s always hard if there’s a problem in your marriage. You feel like it’s the entire world, but in my case, it was the world,” she said. “I had to go through it at my own pace, on my own terms, according to my own values, and I’m very grateful that we are where we are.”

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