Donald Trump has defended his running mate JD Vance’s slur that "childless cat ladies" were destroying America.
In 2021, the Ohio senator claimed America was being ruined by Democrats and "a bunch of childless cat ladies who are 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."
Naming the now presumptive Democratic candidate Kamala Harris among others, he said the “entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” saying the future of the country had been turned over to people “who don't really have a direct stake in it”.
Defending the controversial comment on Monday, Trump said that Mr Vance "likes families", and claimed that Republicans did not think people without children were in any way lesser than those who did.
"You know, you don't meet the right person, or you don't meet any person. But you're just as good, in many cases, a lot better than a person that's in a family situation," he said.
Ms Harris has two stepchildren with her husband, lawyer Doug Emhoff.
Trump, who is hoping to return to the White House after November’s vote, said his Vice Presidential pick had been trying to show how much he values family life.
"He grew up in a very interesting family situation, and he feels family is good. And I don't think there's anything wrong in saying that," he said.
"All he said is he does... like I mean, for him, he likes family."
Mr Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, has publicly criticised the “baseless attacks” on Ms Harris, calling her a “loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present” co-parent to her stepchildren.
Ella Emhoff, one of Emhoff’s daughters, has also defended her stepmother in a post on social media, writing: “I love my three parents.”
Last week, Mr Vance defended his comments, saying he had not been criticising people who don’t have children, but rather the Democratic Party for being “anti-family and anti-child.”
Democrats have picked up on the comments, alongside similar remarks on abortion, in campaign ads against the Republicans, dubbing them “weird”.
A Harris campaign spokesperson said that Vance had "spent all week making headlines for his out-of-touch, weird ideas."
