Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), the GOP vice presidential nominee, has faced sustained criticism over a sarcastic remark he uttered several years ago about "childless cat ladies" that, unsurprisingly, has been deliberately taken out of context and misinterpreted by Democrats and their media allies.

Pressed on the matter during a Sunday interview, Vance acknowledged that the remark intended as a joke had offended some people but admitted that it was not a comment that he regretted making, according to Axios.

That admission came just a few weeks after Vance's wife defended the supposedly controversial statement by explaining the surrounding context that all too often has been ignored by the senator's partisan critics.

Vance under fire for sarcastic "childless cat ladies" remark

In July 2021, during an interview with then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, then-candidate Vance said, "We're effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by 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. And it's just a basic fact."

He went on to explain at that time that the "miserable" people he was referring to were "childless" policy-makers who "don't really have a direct stake" in the future of the country or the long-term consequences of their proposals that make it harder for people to start and raise a family -- an explanation that has seemingly been overlooked, if it was ever even heard, by those who are currently assailing him over the remark.

During an interview that aired Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Vance was asked by host Kristen Welker about the uproar over his "childless cat ladies" remark and acknowledged, "Yes, I made a sarcastic comment years ago that I think that a lot of Democrats have willfully misinterpreted. But what I’ve simply said is that I think that it's really a profound change that's happened in our country, where we've become anti-family. And I would like to change that."

"I have a lot of regrets ... but making a joke three years ago is not at the top ten of the list"

Apparently unsatisfied, NBC's Welker pressed the issue and asked Sen. Vance if he regretted the "childless cat ladies" comment, to which he replied, "Look, I regret certainly that a lot of people took it the wrong way, and I certainly regret the DNC and Kamala Harris lied about it."

He went on to assert that as a "real person," he was bound to "make jokes" and "say things sarcastically" that some people might disagree with, but insisted that "those sarcastic comments were made in the service of a real substantive point. This country has become too anti-family. It's too expensive to afford a house. It's too expensive to afford groceries. Donald Trump and I want to change that. And unless we get better leadership, we're not going to."

Still unaccepting of his explanation, Welker again asked if he had any regrets, but Vance fired back, "I have a lot of regrets, Kristen, but making a joke three years ago is not at the top ten of the list."

Vance's wife previously defended his "childless cat ladies" joke

Just a few weeks earlier, NPR reported that the Ohio senator's wife, Usha Vance, was asked about her husband's "childless cat ladies" quip during a Fox News appearance and defended the remark by pointing out the pro-family message that underlined the critique of policy-makers who don't have children.

"I took a moment to look and actually see what he had said and try to understand what the context was," she explained. "Because 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 makes it even harder."

Of course, blinded by partisanship, NPR disputed Vance's interpretation of the comments even as they published what her husband had said that, to any reasonable person, could easily be interpreted in the same way.

Vance went on to insist that her husband would never seek to denigrate people who tried but were unable to have children, as some have falsely claimed, and further acknowledged that "there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families, and many of those reasons are very good."

"I think what I would say is, let's try to look at the real conversation that he's trying to have," she added. "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? What can we do to make it easier to live in 2024?"