CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Fox News host Chris Wallace called Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand “not very polite” during a town hall last week, and Gillibrand is not letting it go. The New York senator made Wallace’s comment the focus of her speech to Iowa Democrats Sunday.
“’Not very polite.’ That’s what I was told by a Fox News host at the town hall I did in Iowa last week because I spoke out about the nationwide assault on women’s reproductive freedoms,” Gillibrand said at the Iowa Democratic Party Hall of Fame Forum, where 19 candidates made speeches. “Not very polite. You got that one right.”
In a Fox News town hall last week, Gillibrand condemned how the network covers abortion.
“I want to talk about the role that Fox News plays in this. Because it’s a problem. I can tell you before President Trump gave his State of the Union, Fox News talked about infanticide,” Gillibrand said at the town hall before Wallace cut her off.
“I understand you want to maybe make your credentials with the Democrats who are not appearing on Fox News, you want to attack us,” Wallace said. “I’m not sure, frankly, it’s very polite.”
I’m never going to stop fighting for women and for our progressive values—whether or not it’s considered “polite.” That’s why I’m running for president. pic.twitter.com/YWQr3EsNwx
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) June 3, 2019
Gillibrand responded at the town hall by saying she would voice her criticisms in a polite way, but now she is embracing the “not very polite” label.
“If Fox News takes issue with me demanding the fundamental human rights for women, 50% of America, I must be doing something right,” Gillibrand said in her speech Sunday. “Women, luckily, I’m not alone. I proudly count myself among the formerly well-behaved women fighting back, the women in this room, the men who love us. We are rising up and we are demanding our rights and our voices.“
In addition to bringing attention to the line in her speech, Gillibrand added “not ‘very polite'” to her Twitter profile and started selling campaign merchandise that reads “frankly, not very polite.”
Des Moines resident Sara Lemke, 28, told the Washington Examiner after the Hall of Fame event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa that she found Gillibrand’s focus on the Fox News exchange “kind of hilarious.”4
“I think it was interesting that she took that stance when Elizabeth [Warren] had decided not to get Fox News,” Lemke, who works at a nonprofit food bank, said. “And then Kirsten kind of had her whole speech about it. I liked it. She was really high-energy and that’s what I liked about her.”
Gillibrand is struggling to make an impact in the crowded 24-candidate Democratic primary field. Her campaign has not yet announced that she reached the Democratic National committee’s 65,000 donor threshold to qualify for the first round of primary debates and she received 0% support in the latest poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus-goers.
“Now is not the time to settle for the status quo or compromise or to be polite,” Gillibrand said near the end of her speech.
