Oops: Whitnum confuses Kirsten Gillibrand for Carolyn McCarthy

Jonathan Gillibrand, the husband of New York’s junior Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, is alive and kickin’, we are pleased to report.

Sunday talk show viewers might have come away with a different impression following Democrat Lee Whitnum’s appearance on “Face the State” with Dennis House.

Whitnum, who is running for Senate here in Connecticut for the second time, confused Kirsten Gillibrand for Long Island Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy on the program.

Discussing her motivations for seeking public office, Whitnum told House that women usually feel compelled to enter politics for reasons that are quite personal to them.

“I liken it to Kristen (sic) Gillibrand who ran after her husband was killed. She ran on a gun control platform,” Whitnum said at the 1:42 mark of the video.

McCarthy, in fact, lost her husband Dennis in the 1993 Long Island Railroad shooting massacre that also severely injured her son.

Whitnum told House that she is running because she wants to see an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Kirsten Gillibrand

Carolyn McCarthy

Neil Vigdor