MSNBC host Jen Psaki on Sunday described how President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans have amplified “bad-faith attacks” toward the transgender community, and warned Democrats not to fall for their “noise.”
“It’s important not to yield to manufactured panic, and to align with the actual facts before making sweeping claims,” Psaki said. “Echoing and adopting the panic from the other side is not leading. It’s not meeting people where they are. It’s simply falling prey to right-wing propaganda without checking the facts first.”
Psaki, a former White House press secretary under President Joe Biden, said Democrats have “a lot of soul-searching” to do, although she worries some people in the party could reach “wrong sweeping conclusions” on issues related to trans rights.
Republicans spent nearly $215 million on anti-trans TV ads in this year’s election, data from AdImpact shows.
This includes a Trump campaign ad that referred to Vice President Kamala Harris remarking on government funding for gender-affirming care for prisoners and detainees.
“If that sounds like a particularly obscure issue, it is ― because it applies to a tiny group of people. And it’s also a policy that, by the way, was in place during the first Trump presidency,” noted Psaki, who pointed to other lines in right-wing ads that falsely depict America as facing a “crisis” of trans youth playing sports.
She later turned to recent comments from Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who expressed his concerns about trans children playing sports with his “two little girls.”
“But as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” said Moulton, who later declared he was “speaking authentically” on the topic and that the backlash against him proved his point.
Psaki said trans youth playing sports would be “worthy of a debate” if it were “actually an issue,” but there are “incredibly few examples” of trans girls playing in youth sports and there’s no evidence they’re a “threat” to safety.
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“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,” said Psaki, who went on to cite examples.
“And yet the noise on this issue has been constant,” she said. “And according to Donald Trump, that is on purpose.”
