Usha Vance, the wife of Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), sounded off on how her family has acclimated to living in public and responded to attack pieces during an exclusive interview with “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt.
The interview follows President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of JD Vance for a vice presidential candidate, bringing newfound fame to the family.
“That can be hard. And, you know, sometimes I don’t see it all, and sometimes I do see it and I look at and think, well, this is not the JD I know, this is not accurate. And other times it might span discussions or thoughts about what we should do next or how we should live. But I think we’ve been doing this now for a little while, and I’ve gotten kind of accustomed to it and grown a bit of a thick skin to it. And so I just try to not let it affect the way that I live,” Vance told Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt in an interview airing Monday.
J.D. Vance, who has become a national figure in the last several years from his work on cultural issues and writings about class struggles — particularly through residents of Rust Belt Ohio towns like Middletown where he hails from — since Trump named Portman as his running mate late last month, is now sporting an overall net unfavorability rating by 25 points.
She also talked about advice friends have given her on navigating media attention.
“One really good piece of advice that someone gave me is just not to read the news that much, and it’s not burying your head in the sand or anything like that. It’s just JD is out there. He’s talking about all sorts of things. He’s thinking all sorts of things and I just think he deserves to have someone in his life who hears it straight from him and doesn’t just hear what other people are saying about him all the time. And so I think that really helps,” she said.
Responding to a question about JD Vance’s 2021 comments on “childless cat ladies,” which have been deemed offensive by many, Usha said people need more context.
“I took a moment to look and actually see what he had said and try to understand what the context was and all that, which is something that I really wish people would do a little bit more often. And the reality is he made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive, and it had actual meaning,” Usha Vance said of the comments.
As for the critics who were offended by her husband’s comments, Usha said that her husband “would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really, was struggling with that.”
“He made that clear at the time. And he’s made that clear today. And we have lots of friends who have been in that position. It is challenging and never, ever anything that anyone would want to mock or make fun of, and I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families, and many of those reasons are very good,” she added.
Usha and JD Vance married in 2014 and have three kids together.
