Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich recoiled with disgust over a Harris–Walz ad that encourages women to vote for the candidate of their own choosing – even if that means secretly voting differently from their husbands.
“How do you run a country where you’re walking around saying, ‘Wives should lie to their husbands. Husbands should lie to their wives’,” Gingrich said on Thursday evening’s episode of Hannity.
He added, “I mean what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?”
Gingrich was referring to a recent ad, featuring actor Julia Roberts, that subtly hints married women should not feel pressured to vote for the same candidate as their husbands. Though it does not expressly tell women to lie, it does remind people that voting is done individually and privately.
The ad was produced by Vote Common Good, a nonprofit organization aimed at influencing religiously motivated voters.
“To say, ‘Oh why don’t you lie to your husband’ as a publicly advocated ad, that is sick,” Gingrich said.
Hannity agreed, saying the message of “lying to your husband” is “not exactly a winning message.”
The two are the latest Republicans to criticize the ad and accuse Democrats of encouraging people to lie in order to elect Harris. Earlier this week, Fox News host Jesse Watters ripped the ad and said if his wife secretly voted for Harris he would treat it like she had an affair.
Abortion and reproductive rights are a major campaigning point for Harris who has warned voters that if Trump is re-elected, he would strip away women’s right to bodily autonomy. Trump’s selection of judges during his first term helped overturn the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade.
The former president has recently insisted he would not sign a federal abortion ban but he has previously voiced interest in a national 15-week ban. His running mate, Senator JD Vance, has also espoused anti-abortion values in the past.
Despite the Harris campaign running ads that use Trump’s and Vance’s words against them, the recent ad from Vote Common Good appears to go too far for conservatives.
Watters and Gingrich’s criticisms about spouses lying to each other were met with backlash online from people who reprimanded both men for publicly admitting to having extramarital affairs.
In 2018, Watters admitted he had an affair with his now-wife while married to his ex-wife. In 2011, Gingrich also admitted to having an affair during his second marriage with a staffer who later became his third wife.
