Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade obviously doesn’t understand the law when it comes to discriminating against people who are pregnant. Well… this is Fox News we’re talking about.
HuffPost reports that Kilmeade, a Fox & Friends host, babbled on Thursday about the recent hire to a new advisory board of the Homeland Security Department—the Disinformation Governance Board, Nina Jankowicz, who apparently is (brace yourself) pregnant. Kilmeade just couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the complexity of that fact.
In addition to being pregnant, Jankowicz, is a disinformation expert, a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy fellow, an advisor to the Ukrainian government, and a frequent speaker on issues about Russian and Eastern European disinformation issues. Can’t imagine why she was hired?
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“Then, we find out who is in charge of it ... Nina Jankowicz, who’s about eight-and-a-half months pregnant, so I’m not sure how you get a job, and then you just, you can’t do a job for three months… I’m not faulting her, but I don’t know why you would give someone a job that you think is so important,” Kilmeade driveled.
Christine Pelosi talks about the Supreme Court's leaked decision on Roe v. Wade, and what Democrats are doing now, on Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast
Surprisingly, his co-host Ainsley Earhardt challenged Kilmeade on his comments, saying, “Well, I’ll defend her on that one, Brian… She has the right to have a baby and have maternity leave.”
Of course, Kilmeade stood his shaky ground, answering with: "No, I know, but if you really want to have someone head up and organization, this is the face of the organization.”
Kilmeade, a father of three, has made no bones about proclaiming himself as “pro-life.” But, his recent comments come just days after a draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court indicating a ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to Politico.
If Roe is rolled back, citizens in 13 U.S. states will be severely impacted—forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and criminalization for birth control or traveling to other states for safe and legal abortions.
Kilmeade’s comments only highlight how out of touch conservatives are on the issue of abortion and on maternal rights. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a mandated paid family leave policy or paid maternity leave. And according to Paid Leave US, one in four working mothers are forced to return to work within two weeks of childbirth.