"A quip": Usha Vance downplays husband's comment about "childless" women

• Vance's dig during an interview with Tucker Carlson — directed in part at Vice President Kamala Harris, who has two stepchildren — has become a rallying cry of sorts for other "childless cat ladies."

What they're saying: "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 in her first solo interview with Fox News aired Monday.

• She contended the country should instead focus on the "real conversation" she said her husband was "trying to have" about the difficulty of raising children in the U.S.
• Asked what she would say to individuals who were hurt by his comments, she continued, "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."
• Usha Vance added, "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."

Catch up quick: Vance addressed the comment in an interview last month with "The Megyn Kelly Show," saying, "I've got nothing against cats."

• Former President Trump's No. 2 pick continued, saying, "The simple point that I made is that having children — becoming a father, becoming a mother — I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way."

Zoom in: The possible future second lady also responded to criticism Vance has received for his flip-flop from a self-proclaimed "never Trump guy" to a fierce Trump ally and his eventual VP pick.

• "If I didn't feel that ... 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," she said.
• Usha Vance told Fox's Ainsley Earhardt she's had "several years" to "understand what it is that he [Trump] is out to do."

Go deeper: Vance's path to power