Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand reassures Fox News' Chris Wallace that she's not trying to silence men

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand with Chris Wallace.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Fox News host Chris Wallace is apparently afraid that under President Kirsten Gillibrand, men would go the way of the dodo.

Gillibrand, a Democratic senator from New York and 2020 presidential candidate, participated in a Fox News town hall Sunday night in Dubuque, Iowa. Serving as moderator, Wallace asked Gillibrand to explain something she tweeted in December. "Our future is: Female, Intersectional, Powered by our belief in one another," she wrote. "And we're just getting started."

Gillibrand said she was inspired by the record number of women who ran in the 2018 midterms and won, and she wants "more women's voices heard. ... We want women to have a seat at the table." Wallace replied, "What about men?" "They're already there!" Gillibrand shot back. "Do you not know?" This exchange drew laughter, applause, and cheers from the audience.

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Wallace continued, skipping over the part about amplifying women's voices to talk some more about men. "I guess what I'm asking is, are we part of the future, too?" he inquired. "Yes, you're already there," Gillibrand responded. "It's not meant to be exclusionary, it's meant to be inclusionary. Just add a couple more chairs for the rest of us." This was enough to dispel Wallace's fears of a world where women hold all the power and men don't have a say in matters affecting their own lives. "All right," he said. "We're not threatened." Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.