Watch: Chris Wallace Stops 2020 Democrat from Attacking Fox News During Town Hall
Fox News host Chris Wallace stopped 2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in mid-sentence Sunday as she began to attack Fox News.
“Senator, I just want to say, we’ve brought you here for an hour. We are treating you very fairly,” Wallace told Gillibrand.
Over the weekend, Gillibrand joined the ranks of other hopefuls such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg who have appeared on the network for a town hall-style questioning.
But she apparently decided to set herself apart from the others by directly taking on her Fox News hosts.
The heated moment began with a question from an audience member about late-term abortions.
“A woman should be able to decide when she’s having children, how many children she’s having, and under what circumstances she’s having,” Gillibrand said.
“What we have created,” she continued, “unfortunately is a false choice and a false narrative.”
It was then that she turned the dialog to attack the network.
“And Chris, I want to talk about the role that Fox News plays in this because it’s a problem,” she said.
Gillibrand added, “I can tell you, before President Trump gave his State of the Union, Fox News talked about infanticide.”
As she was beginning to say, “Infanticide doesn’t exist,” Wallace interrupted her and reminded her that she was a guest on a Fox News program and that she was being treated “fairly.”
“I understand that maybe to make your credentials with the Democrats who are not appearing on Fox News, you’re going to attack us,” Wallace said. “I’m not sure, it’s, frankly, very polite when we’ve invited you to be here.”
Gillibrand responded by saying, “OK, I’ll do it in a polite way.”
Wallace hit back with, “Instead of talking about Fox News, why don’t you answer [the audience member’s] question.”
Gillibrand went on to say that debate for women’s “reproductive freedom” has turned into a “red herring debate.”
She scolded Fox News for mentioning infanticide “35 times” before Trump’s State of the Union address saying it “doesn’t happen” and it’s “not a fact.”
Gillibrand proceeded to get very emotional, almost to the point of yelling, as she continued to talk about abortions.
Gillibrand is one of the few Democratic presidential hopefuls to appear on Fox News in a town hall setting.
Both Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Kamala Harris of California have refused invitations to appear on the network.
When asked about it, Warren said Fox News was a “hate-for-profit” network that “balances a mix of bigotry, racism, and outright lies with enough legit journalism to make the claim to advertisers that it’s a reputable news outlet.”
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