CNN host S.E. Cupp shredded Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) Thursday as having a "dumbed-down" understanding of feminism and pandering to progressives after her tweet declaring the future is "female" and "intersectional."
CNN anchor Brianna Keilar brought up the widely mocked tweet Gillibrand sent out Tuesday, which declared "our future is female, intersectional [and] powered by our belief in one another. And we’re just getting started."
Among those knocking Gillibrand for her unique take on the future was her Senate colleague Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), who tweeted the future is "American. An identity based not on gender, race, ethnicity or religion. But on the powerful truth that all people are created equal with a God given right to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness."
Our future is:
Female
Intersectional
Powered by our belief in one another.And we’re just getting started.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) December 5, 2018
Cupp, a conservative critic of Donald Trump who hosts a weekend show on CNN, audibly groaned when Keilar read out Gillibrand's tweet, and she recalled Gillibrand's earlier panned quip this year that if it were Lehman "Sisters" instead of Lehman "Brothers" the 2008 financial collapse might have been avoided.
"She seems to have this really dumbed-down version of what feminism should sound like, and all it is in her mind is that women are better than men, and that's so passé," Cupp said. "It was thrown out with bra-burning. But it's also not a national message, and we know that she has presidential ambitions."
Cupp remarked it was possible to run a campaign that empowers women without excluding men.
"I happen to think if you polled a vast majority of people in this country, they do not know what intersectionality is, nor do they care, nor do they think it's relevant. I think this was a progressive pander to the far-left flank of her party in an attempt to prove her progressive bona fides ... It didn't really ring true," Cupp said.
Gillibrand has tried to carve out a lane as a leading women's voice in the Democratic Party. She was one of the fiercest lawmakers against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this summer, saying "women are going to die" if he was confirmed and the confirmation battle was about whether the country would "criminalize women."
The New York Democrat quickly walked back a pledge to serve out a six-year term after she was easily re-elected to her U.S. Senate seat in November, saying she is thinking about running for president. A former moderate voice in the House on guns and immigration, she is now one of the most partisan members of Congress.