“Battle by Day, Love at Night” Fox News Host Rants About Democrats Pandering to Young Voters
(GEORGE CHINSEE/WWD)
A daytime Fox News host’s rant claiming Democrats are pandering to young voters by offering free beer and birth control at events has gone viral, equating the giveaways with what he says is a slogan from the ’50s and ’60s.
“I got to tell you, if they become the majority,” Fox News’ Harris Faulkner warned Wednesday, referring to younger voters, “we’re in trouble.” “I mean, do you want people whose motto is – and they took this right out of the ’50s and ’60s – ‘battle by day, love at night’ – which means birth control and dental dams and food.”
The 18-second clip has been viewed 240,000 times in just three hours. Faulkner appears to have been referring to a Tuesday Washington Post report by Michael Scherer, “Democratic efforts to lure young voters include beer and birth control.” “The donor-funded experiments target younger voters in major metropolitan areas of a few key states who, if they do vote, tend to favor Democrats,” Scherer wrote.
“They want to make politics look different in the seven or so states that will decide the presidency — like a dance party, a comedy show, or a place to chill out. Sometimes there will be free beer, manicures, boot shines, a rent check sweepstakes, a handout of contraceptive pills, or cooling towels. All you have to do is show up, like it’s Super Bowl Sunday, and belong to something bigger. Oh, and someone might mention voting at some point.”
These events are not Biden campaign events, nor does the Post article suggest the Biden campaign is in any way involved, but Fox News included b-roll footage of President Biden as Faulkner presented her commentary. The article also does not mention “dental dams,” or condoms for that matter.
As for Faulkner’s “battle by day, love at night” slogan, NCRM could find no specific reference to that. Also during that Fox News segment, Faulkner suggested the Democrats are using Hollywood and “manipulating these young people through their addictions.”
The Post’s report mentions several Democratic groups and donors behind the party favors. “No one throws more simultaneous parties than we do,” Dmitri Mehlhorn told The Post. The paper described him as “a donor adviser to billionaire Democrats like LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.”
“There are 2.2 million humans in those states under 45 who are just nonvoters, but they do all kinds of other civic stuff,” Mehlhorn added. Kevin Mack, the lead strategist for the Voter Project, which The Post reports “has been throwing parties this spring across Pennsylvania,” said young voters “will take actions automatically. It is not a big push.”
This is far from a new idea. “It is very 19th century in a way,” Columbia University political scientist Donald Green told The Post. “Before the so-called progressive era reforms of the 1880s, you would have a marching band, you would have entertainment, you would have free whiskey for a male-only electorate.”
