By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-19 18:12:04 | Updated at 2024-11-23 15:41:53
3 days ago
Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki urged Americans to not join in on 'bad-faith' attacks against the transgender community after a Congressional Democrat slammed his party's views on trans athletes.
The political advisor-turned-commentator said on MSNBC that such attacks have ramped up in the wake of Donald Trump's win over Kamala Harris, and warned her fellow Democrats accordingly.
She told them not to fall for that 'noise,' and that the issue involving transgender athletes in sports has merely been blown out of proportion.
Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton recently said otherwise, earning Psaki's ire.
Referencing Moulton's concerned comments over trans athletes competing against his daughters, Psaki said there's no evidence that it is a 'threat' to safety.
The 45-year-old, who's served under both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, went on to say that such an issue would be 'worthy of a debate,' if it were 'actually an issue.'
She further insinuated that Trump was the one pulling the strings - before clipping the rant and posting it to TikTok.
The post has since received 167,000 views, and is currently catching fire across a plethora of other platforms.
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Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki urged Americans to not join in on 'bad-faith' attacks against the transgender community after a Congressional Democrat slammed his party's views on trans athlete
Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton - seen here recently on CNN - has expressed concerns about trans children playing sports with his daughters. Psaki said there’s no evidence such a thing is a 'threat' to their safety
'If that were actually an issue at thousands of schools across the country, it would be worthy of a debate,' Psaki said in response to Moulton's widely circulated comments.
'But there are incredibly few examples of transgender girls playing in youth sports.
'When I say few examples, I mean that if you were to count the examples of transgender girls playing youth sports in any single state, the number often rounds to zero,' she added, offering examples.
'And yet the noise on this issue has been constant,' she continued.
'And according to Donald Trump, that is on purpose.'
The host of Inside with Jen Psaki then claimed prospective bans on transgender athletes would only affect 'one or two' people - and panned 'legislators in more than 20 states.'
She accused them of not being able to 'cite a single instance in their own state or region where a transgender athlete competing was a problem.'
As she spoke, a chyron on the screen insisted: 'GOP amplifies bad-faith attacks on trans community.'
The issue of has gained prominence in recent years after trans swimmer Lia Thomas won an event in the 2022 college championships
New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard was the first openly trans woman to compete in the Olympic Games, paving the way for others to follow. She is seen here in Tokyo in 2021, where she did not medal
South African long distance athlete Caster Semenya is also transgender. Track and field banned trans athletes from international competition in March of last year. Trans athletes are still allowed in the Paralympics, where Valentina Petrillo of Team Italy competed
Psaki did not stop there, taking a full 12 minutes to address the issue.
Such discourse seemed to gain prominence after transgender swimmer Lia Thomas won an event in the 2022 college championships, spurring some sanctioning bodies to take action.
Track and field banned trans athletes from international competition in March 2023, but trans runners are still allowed to compete in the Paralympics.
Since 2020, some 23 states have passed laws restricting transgender athletes' ability to participate in school sports, though the laws vary from state to state.
In April, the US took its first steps to address the situation on the federal level.
The House of Representatives passed HR 734, which sought to make it illegal to 'allow individuals of the male sex to participate in programs or activities that are designated for women or girls.'
The bill further stated that 'sex shall be recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth,' but it has yet to be taken up by the Senate.
It had been unlikely to become law -until Republicans flipped the Senate a few days ago.
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif roars in victory as she wins Olympic Gold at this year's Paris Games
Former college swimmer Riley Gaines has been an outspoken critic of transgender athletes competing in women's sports - criticism that appears to now be gaining traction in the court of public opinion
Meanwhile, the legal patchwork created by state laws has created a series of local lawsuits - at least one of which is likely to end up being heard by the Republican-dominated Supreme Court.
States that already restrict athlete participation include Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Indiana, Utah, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, Arizona, Kansas, Arizona, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida.
Moulton, a 46-year-old progressive who ran unopposed to retain his seat this month, spoke on the subject in the immediate wake of Trump's win.
He chided fellow Democrats for 'spend[ing] way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face.'
'I have two little girls, I don't want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I'm supposed to be afraid to say that,' he told the New York Times.
New York Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat who won ousted Rep. George Santos' seat on Long Island, followed suit, saying: 'The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left. I don't want to discriminate against anybody, but I don't think biological boys should be playing in girls' sports.'
He further claimed that 'Democrats aren't saying that, and they should be'.
Democrat Seth Moulton has slammed the Democrat Party's views on transgender athletes in the wake of Kamala Harris ' election loss to Donald Trump
Trump, meanwhile, has made no secret of his sentiments, saying he would 'just ban' trans athletes from participating in sports opposite their biological gender.
Psaki on Sunday appeared to home in on this - along with the fact that the Senate, House, and Supreme Court are all now aligned.
She said 'it's important not to yield to manufactured panic, and to align with the actual facts before making sweeping claims.'
'Echoing and adopting the panic from the other side is not leading,' she insisted. 'It's not meeting people where they are.
'It's simply falling prey to right-wing propaganda without checking the facts first.'
As for the NCAA, following Thomas's title win, it said it would defer responsibility to each sport's sanctioning bodies.
The controversy erupted in the case of gold medal-winning boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria, who was assigned female at birth but disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing unspecified and transparent eligibility tests.
Trump and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni went on to blast the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) threshold for fighter eligibility for allowing her to fight, citing inconsistencies between the sport's governing body and the IOC.
Donald Trump has made no secret of his sentiments, saying he would 'just ban' trans athletes from participating in sports opposite their biological gender.
This came after the IBA - one of boxing's sanctioning bodies - disqualified Khelif from the final of the 2023 world championships due to 'high levels of testosterone.'
The circumstances of that disqualification have since come under scrutiny, as Khelif has filed a lawsuit against the French media for reports claiming the 25-year-old has XY (male) chromosomes, while calling it all 'a big conspiracy'.
She went on to win Olympic gold despite the gender eligibility row, and not being transgender.
