Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley failed to definitively state during a tele-town hall with Iowa voters over the weekend that a man cannot become a woman.
Haley was originally supposed to hold an in-person town hall in Dubuque over the weekend, but that turned into a tele-town hall due to the extreme winter weather. During the event, she took a question from a man named John, who expressed that he was unhappy with the way former President Donald Trump answered that same question during a sit-down with Megyn Kelly.
“A lot of the stuff that Trump does, you know, and says, really bothers me, and I’m concerned about it,” the man told Haley.
“You know, one thing I saw him do was, he said that, uh, he had trouble answering the question, could a man become a woman? And I’m just wondering what, what your response to that question is?” he asked.
“Yeah, I mean, I think first of all, let’s look at the facts. Again, I’m sorry that we didn’t make it to Dubuque, and, and I hate that we’re not there but I appreciate you coming on here,” Haley began, first ignoring the question by acknowledging her belief that Trump was “the right president at the right time”:
I agree with a lot of his policies. But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. And everybody on this call knows that. And we can’t be a country in disarray and a world on fire and go through four more years of chaos. We won’t survive it. And I think a lot of that is how he communicates and what happens. It just sets us all in disarray, and we can’t afford a President Kamala Harris.
Haley finally addressed the issue at hand, but she refused to look at the “facts,” as she stated at the beginning of her response, and failed to definitively state that a man cannot become a woman. Rather, Haley responded by stating that she does not believe any individual should be able to undergo sex reassignment surgery before they reach adulthood.
She began:
Now, can a man become a woman? There’s been a lot that’s been talked about when it comes to all of these roles and all of these issues. I strongly believe that we should not allow any gender change surgeries to anyone before the age of 18. Period. We– kids now can’t get a tattoo until they’re 18. We shouldn’t have them permanently change their body until they’re 18. And that includes puberty blockers, that includes any sort of hormones that would do that.
“After the age of 18, we want to make sure people can live any way they want to live. I don’t think government needs to be in control of anybody’s life,” she said. “You go live the way you want to live, you should be free to live the way you want to live, and every– government and everybody else should stay out of your way,” Haley said, refusing to answer the question.
It remains unclear how acknowledging that it is biologically impossible for a man to become a woman — or vice versa — equates to the government controlling someone’s life. But it does open the door to question if Haley supports government-enforced recognition of gender claims.
“But prior to 18, it is an important time, especially when you’re going through your teenage years that can be confusing. I don’t think we should ever in any way have any sort of permanent changes,” Haley continued.
“But after 18, I’m not going to say anything. I think that, you know, you always have to believe in freedom and allowing people to live the life the way they want to live, and if that’s how they choose then, you know, I don’t think government should have any say in that,” she said, failing to say that a man cannot become a woman.
The tele-town hall attendee’s question stemmed from Trump’s Q&A with Megyn Kelly, although he did definitely state that “you have a man, you have a woman” and that he would “continue [his] stance” that men cannot give birth.
Former President Donald Trump (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)
However, his lack of a quick, more definitive response drew concern.
Over the summer, however, Trump became the first Republican candidate to sign a pledge to American women, vowing to “uphold the truth that women are exclusively female” and establishing that the dignity of women and girls will “not be compromised in law or policy” in his second term if he made it back to the White House.
More specifically, that pledge reads in part, “As President of the United States, I promise to uphold the truth that women are exclusively female. Only women can be pregnant and bear children. Only women can be mothers.”
The pledge Trump signed also states, “Sex is binary is a scientific reality, and all federal agencies will be directed to uphold this fact in every policy and program at home and abroad.”
“A persons’ [sic] claim of ‘gender identity’ does not overrule their sex,” it adds.
