Kirsten Gillibrand Isn't Laughing At This Election

Donald Trump has done an impressive job of tainting his entire presidential campaign with fear, hate, and downright outrageous comments. His supporters have proven over and over again that, for some reason, his rhetoric resonates with them. But when they started advocating to repeal the 19th Amendment (you know, just casually trying to rescind women's right to vote in 2016), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand didn't appreciate their election joke.

"To say 51 percent of the U.S. population of voting age doesn't have a right to vote is disgraceful," Gillibrand tells Bustle. "Of course women should have a right to vote. Women must be heard in this election and to even make a joke about it is exceedingly disappointing, so I just think it shows who [Trump] is."

In case you missed it, Trump's supporters got #RepealThe19th trending on Twitter as a response to Nate Silver's map that showed Trump would decidedly lose the election if only women voted. In this scenario, Silver found that if women were the sole voters, Clinton would receive 458 electoral votes to Trump's measly 80 electoral votes.

Trump's supporters were clearly unhappy to see a hypothetical victory for Hillary Clinton, especially one in which she would earn the overwhelming majority of votes thanks to women voters, which led to their tasteless "joke" to repeal our right to vote.

The only funny thing about this #RepealThe19th movement is that these Trump supporters seemingly didn't realize rescinding our right to vote would also prevent those women who support Trump from voting for him. But that didn't stop them from spreading their divisive and hateful message.

Sen. Gillibrand has spent her entire political career fighting from women — "whether it's equal pay for equal work, paid family medical leave, ending sexual violence in the military and on college campuses" — so this election joke was not amusing to her. "I think it's hateful and I think it's sexist and I think it's inappropriate for a presidential candidate to say those words," Gillibrand says. Moreover, Gillibrand tells Bustle why it's so important for women to vote in this election, especially when Trump is one of the nominees, and especially when people are trying to rescind our rights:

Their life experience is different, and if they aren't voting their views and values won't be represented. They may have a different take on this election than the men in their lives. They may have a different view on what priorities they should have. They should know that they must be heard and that their voice valuable, and their life experience is different, which is what makes their voice so valuable.

So while you might think this entire election has been one big joke, Sen. Gillibrand is not here for your sexist quips about repealing women's right to vote. Trump supporters are afraid of our power in this election, so following Gillibrand's advice and takedown of the #RepealThe19th movement, we'll be laughing our way all the way to the voting booth and making sure our voices are heard on Nov. 8.