On the June 16 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, when host Chris Matthews asked why “most women vote Democrat,” radio host Heidi Harris responded, “Most women? I don't know. I think women -- sadly, a lot of women are very emotional, and they tend to think with their hearts and not with their minds about some of these issues. They tend to feel more of these kind of things than think it through.” She added, “I hate to say it, but it's true.”
In response to Harris' comments, Matthews asked, “You mean it's not hard issues like abortion rights, or Social Security, or minimum wage? Logical reasons?” Harris replied: “You know what it is? I don't think, Chris, that most women under 50 care about abortion rights, and here's why. Because women at that age have -- Roe v. Wade was passed in '73, as you know. So all the women growing up -- my generation, the women 10, 15 years younger than I am, it's always been legal. I don't think that 30-year-old women have any concept of what it's like not to have that right.”
On the June 11 edition of Hardball, discussing an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released that day, Matthews referred to Sen. John McCain's six-percentage-point advantage over Sen. Barack Obama among suburban white women (the poll found an Obama lead among women overall, 52-33 percent), and asserted, "[W]omen are low-hanging fruit, though, in the terms of politics. You can reach up and say, 'I'm pro-choice, he's not.' " He then added, “But you're playing for a close election. If you want to reach up for the higher, for the harder ones to reach, you can win big.”
From the June 16 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:
MATTHEWS: Why do you think most women vote Democrat, Heidi? And have for years?
HARRIS: Most women? I don't know. I think women -- sadly, a lot of women are very emotional, and they tend to think with their hearts and not with their minds about some of these issues. They tend to feel more of these kind of things than think it through. I hate to say it, but it's true.
MATTHEWS: You mean it's not hard issues like abortion rights, or Social Security, or minimum wage?
HARRIS: You know --
MATTHEWS: Logical reasons?
HARRIS: You know what it is? I don't think, Chris, that most women under 50 care about abortion rights, and here's why. Because women at that age have -- Roe v. Wade was passed in '73, as you know. So all the women growing up -- my generation, the women 10, 15 years younger than I am, it's always been legal. I don't --
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
HARRIS: -- think that 30-year-old women have any concept of what it's like not to have that right. So whether you stand left or right on it, it doesn't really matter to most women, 'cause they can't conceive of it. And on the other hand --
MATTHEWS: Well should they have -- well, shouldn't they have a concept of it if the Supreme Court moves further right, and there is no more right to have an abortion?
HARRIS: I don't think it's going to change. I don't think -- no matter who's on the Supreme Court -- it's going to be overturned. And the women who are complaining about it the most are too darn old to get pregnant. So I don't think it's a big issue for young ones.