Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade Doesn’t Understand How a Pregnant Person Can Get an ‘Important’ Job

Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade once again used his time on air to illustrate that just because you can get a job talking to an audience of millions for hours a day, that does not mean you should take it, or that you have anything of value to offer.

Kilmeade spent some time Thursday morning talking about Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation expert who recently took a position heading up the Biden administration’s new Disinformation Governance Board.

Jankowicz is also pregnant, and Kilmeade simply cannot understand how she got such an “important” job, given that fact.

“Then, we find out who is in charge of [the department],” Kilmeade said, “and this woman that’s 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,” he said.

“I’m not faulting her, but I don’t know why you would give someone a job that you think is so important,” he said, as if she didn’t earn that job by being an expert in her field.

Kilmeade’s Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt pushed back, saying, “Well, I’ll defend her on that one, Brian. She has the right to have a baby and have maternity leave.”

Do you know how wrong you have to be to get me to agree with Ainsley Earhardt? Very!

It is, in fact, illegal—not to mention ethically despicable—to discriminate against a potential employee based on their pregnancy status. Apparently no one has told Kilmeade that because this isn’t even the first time he’s questioned her appointment.

He did the same thing barely a week ago, saying on-air, “If you’re going to take over a brand new bureau, shouldn’t you not need maternity leave the first few weeks in? Just saying.”

I am curious to know what Brian Kilmeade thinks is the acceptable time for women and other people who can get pregnant to be hired. Certainly not after the child is born, as mothers face increased workplace discrimination thanks to everything from inflexible work schedules to biased hiring practices to begin with. Even women who are not pregnant and with no children—especially those around Jankowicz’s age, in her early 30s—can face hiring discrimination for fear they might someday get pregnant.

So please, Brian Kilmeade, tell us: When is it OK to “give someone” an “important” job. I’m guessing his answer is “never.”

(image: screengrab)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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