MSNBC's Velshi Cheers Colleague's Rude Treatment of GOP Guest

bradwilmouth | May 2, 2021
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MSNBC

Velshi

May 2, 2021

9:36 a.m. Eastern

West Virginia has become the latest state to enact anti-transgender legislation that targets children who want to play sports with their classmates. According to the Human Rights Campaign, there are 120 bills being considered by state legislatures right now that directly infringe on transgender rights, and more than half of those -- 66 of them -- would target transgender girls and young women, banning them from playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identities.

It's a culture war checklist item for Republicans. There's no reason for it. No problem is being solved by these bills. We know no children who transitioned for the purpose of participating in sports. Republicans pass these bills and sign them into law to score political points at the expense of children.

But rarely are these Republican officials asked to justify their position. Well, that changed last week when West Virginia Governor Jim Justice joined my friend Stephanie Ruhle on Friday. Stephanie, as you know, can be refreshingly direct. Here's what happened.

(shows clip of almost two and a half minutes from Friday's Stephanie Ruhle Reports in which Ruhle confronted Governor Jim Justice about him signing the bill barring transgender girls from girls' school sports in West Virginia)

Based on that clip, it looks like justice got served. Stephanie calls it as she sees it, and so does Jonathan Capehart, the host of The Sunday Show, who joins me now. Jonathan, that may be one of the worst justifications I've ever heard for signing a bill. It's just not a thing. I mean, I invite people to tweet you or tweet me with any example of anybody who decided to undergo gender reassignment because they wanted to play on a different team literally to succeed in sports. I mean, it's just not a thing.

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