Donald Trump’s ads attacking Kamala Harris for her support of gender-affirming care for transgender prisoners are ringing a bit hollow following a New York Times exposé that showed his own Justice Department held a very similar position.
Trump is not being widely called out for his hypocrisy, however. Most Democrats, save Harris, sidestep any mention of transgender issues — appearing concerned that their support of transgender rights will hurt them among moderate and swing voters. Republicans, meanwhile, simply ignore all historical facts.
In his ads, Trump has lambasted Harris for supporting gender-affirming care for transgender inmates, including undocumented immigrants who are in custody, in an attempt to paint her as too liberal in the eyes of moderate and independent voters.
The ads are part of a larger campaign tactic deployed by Republicans in various races across the country, in which they seek to motivate their socially conservative base by exploiting Democrats’ support of the LGBTQ community.
Fox News host Brett Baier confronted Harris about her stance in a recent interview with the Democratic nominee, with his questions mimicking Republican talking points. He sought to corner Harris on policy issues, catch her off guard, or trick her into making an unforced error similar to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment from 2016.
Baier asked Harris if she was “still in support of using taxpayer dollars to help prison inmates or detained illegal aliens transition to another gender.”
“I will follow the law, and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed,” Harris replied. “Under Donald Trump’s administration, these surgeries were available to — on a medical necessity basis — to people in the federal prison system, and I think frankly that ad from the Trump campaign is a little bit of throwing stones when you’re living in a glass house.”
Baier replied that Trump aides have argued the former president “never advocated” for the prison policy, and that no gender-affirming surgeries actually happened during his presidency.
Harris shot back that Trump has to take responsibility for policies promulgated by his administration and said that, as president, she would follow the law — which currently allows transgender inmates to receive medically necessary health treatments for gender dysphoria.
Harris blasted the Trump campaign for spending nearly $20 million on anti-transgender ads, accusing the former president of “trying to create a sense of fear in the voters because he actually has no plan in this election that is about focusing on the needs of the American people.”
She noted that instances of transgender inmates receiving surgical care are very rare, and that most voters aren’t prioritizing transgender issues when they cast votes for president.
According to an analysis of Trump’s attacks against Harris by FactCheck.org, a spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed that only two prisoners in custody have received surgical interventions.
According to the Times, it was the Obama administration that first adopted guidelines aimed at ensuring transgender inmates could access programs and services, including health care, that meet their individual needs. The Trump administration kept much of that framework in place throughout the former president’s term.
In a February 2018 budget memo to Congress, Bureau of Prisons officials said they were obligated by federal law to pay for a prisoner’s surgery if it was deemed medically necessary.
The Times reports that the most significant change made to the treatment guidelines by the Trump administration was the addition of the word “necessary,” which created a higher, but not altogether insurmountable, barrier to federally-funded surgeries.
The Bureau also ended up spending between $60,000 and $95,000 a year on hormone therapy during Trump’s term, according to internal department estimates obtained by the Times.
When approached by the Times for comment about the Trump administration’s policy, senior campaign advisor Brian Hughes parroted the anti-Harris ad’s central contention.
“Kamala Harris has forcefully advocated for transgender inmates to be able to get transition surgeries. President Trump never has,” Hughes insisted.
Following President-elect Donald Trump's rout of Kamala Harris, many LGBTQ organizations were left reeling. Still, they vowed to continue advocating for their ultimate goal of equality for all LGBTQ people.
They emerged battered but unbowed following Tuesday's election, which was characterized as a populist revolt against inflation and higher prices for consumer goods, foreign interference in global conflicts, unchecked immigration, and liberal viewpoints. The latter issue was motivated, in part, by angst about increased LGBTQ visibility and allegations that schools were "indoctrinating" youth into identifying as LGBTQ.
Ad from anti-Trump Republican PAC seeks to defend Kamala Harris by pointing out Trump's hypocrisy and accusing the former president of "gaslighting" voters.
The Lincoln Project, a political action committee for anti-Trump Republicans, released an ad to counter former President Donald Trump's anti-transgender attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the past few weeks, the Trump campaign has leaned heavily into anti-transgender messaging in an attempt to cast Harris as out-of-step with Americans on social issues.
Many of the ads attack Harris over her support of gender-affirming care for incarcerated individuals, a stance she adopted in 2019 when she was running for the Democratic nomination for president.
"Kamala's for they/them," a narrator says in one of the ads. "President Trump is for you."
A gay Holocaust survivor is comparing former President Donald Trump's autocratic tendencies and propaganda tactics to former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
With the help of her children and grandchildren, the 88-year-old woman, known as Grandma Elli, was able to familiarize herself with TikTok and start posting observations about the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
"I've been around a long time and seen many crises, but never like this one in our country," she said in her first video. "As far as I can see, there's really only one question to answer as we decide who we want for our next president, and that is: Do we want to continue our democracy, civil liberties, and free elections, or do we want a 'wannabe dictator,' by his own words, who will go after our freedoms one by one, dismantle them, and then take vengeance on all who disagreed with him?"
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