Jen Psaki is lying about the challenges posed by trans athletes competing in girls sports, according to former Fox host Megyn Kelly, who cited this as proof that Democrats cannot grasp their 2024 election mistakes.
"My audience knows that's a lie," Kelly said on Tuesday, in response to comments made by Psaki on her MSNBC show on November 17, during which the former White House press secretary said that some Democrats had reached "the wrong sweeping conclusions" following Kamala Harris's defeat, and were following Republicans down "a path of anti-trans panic."
Newsweek has contacted MSNBC for a response to Kelly's statement.
Since Harris's loss, Democrats have engaged in a rigorous post-mortem of the vice president's campaign, some pointing to the party's focus on certain identity-based issues rather than the concerns that were foremost in voters' minds heading into Election Day.
Shortly after Trump's win was announced, Democratic Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts told The New York Times: "Democrats spend 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," he added. "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."
Psaki, who served in the Biden White House before joining MSNBC in May 2020, addressed Moulton's statement in a Sunday broadcast, arguing that Democrats' post-election "soul searching" should not involve a reassessment of the party's approach toward transgender rights.
"Look, if that was actually an issue at thousands of schools across the country, then it would be worthy of a debate," Psaki said. "But there are just incredibly few examples of transgender girls playing in youth sports. And when we see those examples, there isn't evidence that these kids are a threat to safety or fairness."
"My audience knows that's a lie," Kelly said during an episode of her SiriusXM show which aired on Tuesday, before highlighting examples in which girls had been injured while competing against transgender athletes in high-school or collegiate sports. These included Payton McNabb, a volleyball player who in 2023 told a committee hearing of the North Carolina state legislature that she had sustained a concussion and neck injuries while competing against a trans athlete.
"There have been multiple instances where girls have actually been hurt," Kelly said. "Never mind the thousand or so where they've lost medals and additional where they've lost scholarships."
Kelly said that Psaki's comments, and the general backlash to Moulton's statement, proved that Democrats had failed to "fully grasp" why they lost the 2024 election.
"One of the reasons I don't think they're getting it is because whenever you have somebody pop up to say, for example, 'I don't think the trans issue was a good one for us,' like [Moulton], he gets hammered," she said. "The left should be saying hmm, maybe the man has a point. Maybe we went too far and instead what you're getting is attacks on him and denials from the likes of Jen Psaki."
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