Fox News Hosts Say Young People Shouldn't Vote When 'They Don't Know The Issues'

Ahead of the 2014 midterm elections in November, making sure that everyone who can vote does vote, has become increasingly important.

But the hosts of Fox News' "Outnumbered" on Wednesday decided instead to use their air time to discourage young voters from hitting the polls.

Why would they ever do that, you ask? Because young people don't know what's going on in the world, they argued.

Or maybe, just maybe, it's because the young voter is exactly who Republicans fear most.

Here's how it went down:

"Do we want them [young people] to vote if they don't know the issues?" Harris Faulkner asked Wednesday afternoon.

"No!" Lisa Kennedy Montgomery answered. "You absolutely don't!"

"Do you really want to motivate them to vote and be ignorant at the polls?" Faulkner continued.

Young people don't need Fox News to convince them not to vote. They already don't. During the last midterm election in 2010, less than 25 percent of voters ages 18 to 29 cast a vote. Predictions for the November elections are even more grim, with only 23 percent of young voters expected to go to the polls.

The problem is that the consequences of millennials not voting can be incredibly damaging. In reality, most reports find that millennials are actually more engaged and knowledgeable about political and economic issues than the generations before them. And their vote can be more powerful than you think. In the 2012 election, youth voters were the deciding factor in Obama's victories in Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In other words, if it wasn't for young voters, Obama may very well have lost the election.

Paired with the fact that young people tend to vote Democratic, this could be exactly why these Fox hosts would prefer young people just stay at home this election.

H/T Media Matters