Fox News Channel’s “The Five” recently devolved into a fiery argument as the panel discussed contentious rhetoric before last week’s ABC News presidential debate. When addressing the topic of abortion, co-host Greg Gutfeld got into an intense spat with Jessica Tarlov, who rebukes the opinions of the of the conservative-majority panel as a dissenting liberal voice.
Gutfeld kicked off the conversation by questioning why women seemingly don’t worry about more pressing issues, such as violent crime, to the same extent that men do. “If she’s released illegal to reoffend, I don’t think she’s done much in terms of cop killers, in terms of pushing the death penalty. Men care about this stuff. Maybe it’s biological, but shouldn’t women care as well? How come women don’t care?” he asked rhetorically.
Answering his own question, the co-host pointed out that female voters have become fixated on abortion. “I think they do, but they’ve been told to care about one thing, and that is abortion. But thankfully, the Supreme Court and Trump have decoupled abortion, right? It’s not a national issue anymore. It’s off the table. So women don’t have to be the single issue voter anymore,” Gutfeld continued.
The conservative comedian continued explaining how overturning Roe v. Wade was a tactical win for former President Donald Trump, as it returned the issue to the state level, no longer making it a national issue. As a result, women are no longer “single issue” voters on abortion, according to Gutfeld’s analysis of the situation.
He added, “They don’t have to ignore crime, immigration, inflation, energy, education, all of these huge issues, what we would call the rest of the world. You don’t have to just vote based on what Planned Parenthood demands of you. You know, he’s already said he’s against the national ban, so the right to choose is now a state issue, which is closer to the voter. I bring this up because this is going to come up tomorrow, and Trump need just needs to say, this is not part of my, you know, my decision making. It’s now back to you.”
Gutfeld further explained that it is insulting to women to view them as political assets solely for abortion rights. “So a vote for or against Trump from a woman has no impact on the issue of abortion has no impact the Dems don’t want you to know that they’re very reductive. If you’re a woman, it has to be about abortion. How insulting is that? How stereotypical is that? That you can’t think about inflation, that you can’t think about foreign policy, that’s not important. It’s not what’s my right to choose, not on the table,” he said.
However, as Gutfeld concluded his monologue, Tarlov chimed in, “Then why did Trump flip-flop on that.” Gutfled doubled down, maintaining, “He never did.” Tarlov fired back, “He did last week…He said he knows that a six week abortion ban is draconian. And then when, I guess he heard from his big donors, he said, I you know what? I’m gonna let it go.”
Defending his argument, Gutfeld explained that he was talking about the issue at the macro level where the issue is no longer relevant for the election. He said, “You just heard my head, this is a state thing. It’s closer to the voters. I mean, you could bring that up, but that doesn’t that’s like playing in the weeds. What I’m talking about right now is the issue is decoupled right from the election, right?”
