Trumps First Attack On Walz: "He's Very Into Transgender"
The attack is the latest in a series of attacks on transgender people in the lead up to the 2024 elections, a strategy that has seen few wins in the past.
On Wednesday morning, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump launched his first attacks on Tim Walz, the Democratic Party's Vice Presidential pick. Trump criticized Walz for being too supportive of transgender rights. These sentiments have been echoed by other prominent Republican campaigners, including some from organizations known for spending millions in failed campaigns against candidates with pro-LGBTQ+ and pro-transgender records.
The segment on Fox & Friends opened with a list of things that make a Harris/Walz ticket “too liberal,” according to the panel. The list included healthcare for immigrants, making abortion a fundamental right, COVID-protection measures, and “signing a law making MN a sanctuary for children seeking ‘gender-affirming’ care.”
Trump then took to answering questions from the hosts. When asked about his reaction to Governor Tim Walz joining Kamala Harris as the Democratic VP pick, Trump responded, “I would say my reaction is I can’t believe it, I never though this would be the one that was picked,” before turning to Walz’ role in the Black Lives Matter protests.
Then, he turned to Walz record on transgender people, stating, “This is… there’s never been a ticket like this. This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner. We want no security, no anything. He’s very heavily into transgender. Anything transgender, he thinks is great.”
See the video here:
The attack on Walz’s record on transgender rights primarily centers around a 2023 executive order that designated Minnesota a “safe state” or “refuge” for transgender people seeking care across state lines. Before this executive order, transgender individuals who obtained care in Minnesota could potentially have their health records subpoenaed by attorneys general in other states. This notably happened with Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas, who attempted to obtain transgender patient records from trans youth who received care at Seattle Children’s Hospital, where a nearly identical law prevented those records from being subpoenaed.
Importantly, most safe state and shield law protections apply not only to transgender care but also to abortion care. In April 2023, the Biden administration finalized a rule to protect individuals' contraception and reproductive healthcare records from investigations across state lines, asserting that such investigations violated patient privacy, especially when the healthcare was legally obtained in another state. Republican vice presidential pick JD Vance signed a letter opposing this rule change, asserting that states had the authority to pursue individuals crossing state lines to provide or access care.
Still, Republicans continued attacking Walz's record on transgender rights on Wednesday. Gregory Price, the communications director for the far-right State Freedom Caucus Network, said of Walz, “He made Minnesota a 'sanctuary state' for child sex changes.” Jon Schweppe, the policy director at the American Principles Project, which has spent tens of millions on anti-trans ads with little success, stated, “The trans industry got its guy.”
Attacks on transgender people have little record of electoral success, with similar efforts failing in many campaigns over the last few elections. In elections where Republicans made trans people the major issue, the Republican Party faltered: 70% of Moms for Liberty and Project 1776 candidates lost their races in 2023. In Kentucky, the American Principles Project spent millions on anti-trans ads against Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, who won by a larger margin than his first election. Other losses Republicans have suffered on this issue occurred in the Virginia legislature elections, the Arizona Governor’s race, the Michigan legislature elections, the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, the Walker-Warnock Senate race, and in dozens more places. Furthermore, recent polling from Gallup, Navigator, and the LA Times indicates fading public support for such laws, with huge majorities of respondents seeing them as a distraction and opposing bans on trans youth care.
Nevertheless, it appears that Trump and Republican operatives will intensify their anti-transgender attacks against the Democratic ticket in the 2024 election, a strategy may signal desperation in the wake of falling poll numbers.
Vance claims “states had the authority to pursue individuals crossing state lines to provide or access care.”
MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS!
His support for all of this makes me love him more.