Usha Vance says media has created a “caricature” of her husband

Usha Vance, the Indian American wife of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, says the media has created a “caricature” of her husband.

“You look at the news sometimes and you just see this caricature of a human. And he’s a really good person,” she said in an interview that aired Monday morning on Fox News. “I wish people would pause and actually listen to the words he says and try to understand their meaning and purpose.”

Usha Vance asserted that her husband is a “real person. He has all sorts of dorky interests that anyone of our age could relate to. I think he really cares about having a good conversation, about actually changing things for people who have had a very hard time in this country, and changing it for the better, letting them have the kinds of lives that he’s been lucky enough to have himself,” she said.

She also defended her husband’s previous comments deriding childless adults and downplayed his labeling of some Democratic politicians as “childless cat ladies,” calling it a “quip.”

READ: Usha Vance steps into the spotlight at the Republican National (July 18, 2024)

Usha Vance, a trial lawyer, argued her husband’s past comments, which have received renewed scrutiny since he joined former President Donald Trump’s presidential ticket, were in service of an argument about the challenges facing parents and the role government plays in parents’ lives.

“The reality is, JD made a quote – I mean, he made a quip, and he made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive,” she said. “And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase.”

“What he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder,” she continued.

Usha Vance said she believes her husband “would never” intend to offend people who are struggling to have children while acknowledging that some people choose not to start families for “very good” reasons.

“JD, absolutely at the time and today, would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really was struggling with that,” she said. “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.”

Usha Vance insisted that her husband was attempting to have “a real conversation” about how government can help parents raise their children.

“Let’s try to look at the real conversation that he’s trying to have,” Usha Vance said, “and engage with it and understand for those of us who do have families, for the many of us who want to have families, and for whom it’s really hard, what can we do to make it better.”

Usha Vance also pushed back on reports that both she and her husband privately condemned Trump before JD Vance joined Trump on the Republican ticket.

In the interview, Vance appeared to confirm a Washington Post report detailing her outrage towards Trump in the wake of the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol but said that she has grown to “understand” Trump since then.

READ: Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter responds to Vance‘s ‘childless cat ladies’ attack (July 26, 2024)

“Well, you know, I’ve had several years since then to kind of understand what it is that he is out to do,” Vance said of Trump. “If I didn’t feel that the ticket, you know, the Trump-Vance ticket was able to do some real good for the country, then I wouldn’t be here supporting him and JD wouldn’t have done this.”

Vance said that her and her husband sometimes disagree about political issues, acknowledging “we’re two different people,” but said she believes in the “intention” behind his political career.

“We have lots of different backgrounds and interests and things like that. So we come to different conclusions all the time. But that’s part of the fun of being married,” she said. “What I never doubt about JD, even when I disagree about this or that, is his intention, what it is that he really wants to do.”