Presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) came to her Fox News town hall ready to rumble on Sunday, getting into scrapes with host Chris Wallace about gender equality and abortion as he interrupted her comments.
She garnered raucous applause after her parries on inclusion and intersectionality.
“We want women to have a seat at the table,” Gillibrand said.
Wallace interrupted: “What about men?”
“They’re already there,” Gillibrand shot back, “do you not know? It’s not meant to be exclusionary, it’s meant to be inclusionary.”
Gillibrand gets applause on gender equality line pic.twitter.com/Ih2DMp7Ei2
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 3, 2019
She also did not hold back on Fox News’ coverage of the abortion debate, accusing the network of spreading a “false narrative” around the issue.
Wallace again cut her off. “I understand, maybe, to make your credentials with the Democrats who are not appearing on Fox News, you want to attack us, I’m not sure it’s frankly very polite when we’ve invited you to be here,” he snapped.
Unfazed, she continued, though she said she’d attack the network “politely.”
“The debate about whether or not women should have reproductive freedom has turned into a red herring debate,” she said. “What happens on Fox News is relevant because they talked about infanticide for six and a half hours — six and a half hours — right before President Trump’s State of the Union. That is not the debate of what access to reproductive care is in this country.”
Gillibrand lands critiques on Fox News’ coverage of the abortion debate despite Wallace’s protestation pic.twitter.com/OdhfwLbykH
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) June 3, 2019
Gillibrand has struggled to get her campaign off the ground, not yet qualifying for the first Democratic debates. Back in April, she blamed her lackluster fundraising on donors being vindictive because of her calls for then-Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign.