Fox News is discouraging young people from voting again, but this time the target is more specific: young women.
"The Five" co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle suggested Tuesday that young women should excuse themselves from voting in the upcoming midterm elections for the same reason that they should be excused from jury duty: because they don't share the same "life experience" as older women and should just go back to playing around on Tinder and Match.com.
"It's the same reason why young women on juries are not a good idea," Guilfoyle said. "They don't get it!"
Earlier in the conversation, co-host Greg Gutfeld made the point that "with age comes wisdom" and the "older you get, the more conservative you get."
In other words: "Hey kids! Hold off a little. You don't have to vote just yet. Wait until you're old enough!"
Guilfoyle agreed, suggesting that you can't cast an informed vote until you've gone through adult things, like paying the bills.
"They're [young women] like healthy and hot and running around without a care in the world," she concluded. "They can go back on Tinder or Match.com."
On a previous episode in October, co-host Harris Faulkner also said that young people should stay away from the polls if they "don't know the issues." We've already explained why it's a terrible -- and illogical -- idea to convince young people not to vote. But driving young women away from the polls? Do we even have to get into why that's potentially one of the most damaging and regressive things that could happen to society?
UPDATE (October 23): A spokesperson from Fox News told the Huffington Post that Guilfoyle will be continuing the discussion on "The Five" Thursday evening.
Guilfoyle tweeted the following preview:
UPDATE (October 24): Guilfoyle addressed her previous statements on Thursday evening's episode of "The Five." She told viewers that she takes the right to vote "very seriously" and was making "a joke." She went on to clarify that her point was, if you are going to vote or sit on a jury, "come equipped" and "come prepared."
More from Guilfoyle below:
“I made a joke at the end saying that yeah, if I wanted to thank and excuse someone from jury service that is the language you use in the courtroom – they want to go back and do social media, dating websites, fine. Nothing about voting. I take the right to vote very seriously, I take the right to serve on a jury very seriously and I think you should be informed when you do both things...
...My point is you’ve been given a powerful blessing in life in this country to be able to vote and to be able to sit on the jury so come equipped, come prepared because you don’t want to dilute the votes out there because you are uninformed and you’re spoon-fed something that’s inaccurate or you don’t even bother to equip yourself with the facts – anybody out there, this goes for everyone.”
H/T Media Matters