“I don’t think that you want this massive cutoff for lower-income families, which you have right now,” the Ohio senator and Donald Trump’s running mate said on CBS’s Face the Nation. He didn’t offer specifics on who would quality if the tax credit were expanded from its existing maximum of $2,000 per child. 

“It’s called the child tax credit, and we should expand the child tax credit,” Vance said.

Vance went on three network political talk shows Sunday after a shaky start on the GOP ticket, damaged in part by resurfaced comments in which he belittled Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, as “childless cat ladies.” 

Vance, 40, a father of three, has also suggested a lower tax rate for parents than for people without children. 

His comments drew criticism from both parties. Tomi Lahren, the conservative commentator, blasted the senator on social media in response to the cat lady remarks. “I like JD Vance, but I’m not sure the calculation as VP pick checks out,” Lahren said in a post on X on July 25.

Asked Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union about how he would appeal to swing-state voters put off by those remarks, Vance accused the Harris campaign of lying about what he said.

“I criticized Kamala Harris for being part of a set of ideas that exist in American leadership that is anti-family,” he said. “I never criticize people for not having kids.” 

Trump defended Vance at a rally in Bozeman, Montana, on Friday.

“He’s really stepped up,” Trump said. “I said, you got your sea legs, you know, because the first day they were hitting him with a lot of nonsense.” 

Pressure on Trump and Vance has heightened since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid in July. Harris’ emergence at the top of the Democratic ticket and her pick of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as running mate have shaken up the campaign, largely erasing Trump’s lead in many polls.  

A New York Times and Siena College poll conducted Aug. 5-9 showed Harris with 50% support among likely voters in battleground states Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, compared with Trump’s 46% in each state.

Vance skipped a Senate vote on a bipartisan tax plan in early August, prompting attacks from Democrats who accused him of ditching his job to campaign. 

The $78 billion package would have allowed more of the $2,000 tax credit to be paid to those whose income is too low to qualify for the entire credit. Senators weren’t able to reach the 60 votes required to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Vance dismissed the recent tax package vote as a messaging ploy. 

“It was a show vote,” Vance said. “And if I had been there, it would have failed.”

Big Business

Vance reiterated his support of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, a Biden appointee who has focused antitrust efforts on big tech companies. 

“I don’t agree with Lina Khan on every issue, to be clear, but I think that she’s been very smart about trying to go after some of these big tech companies that monopolize what we’re allowed to say in our own country,” Vance said on CBS.

The comments signal that major tech companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Google could continue to face legal challenges under a Trump-Vance administration. The Justice Department already has two pending antitrust cases against the company.