it's inflammatory and i think it's problematic. it just increases the probability or likelihood that there will be other nation troops that are fighting in ukraine. >> congressman-elect, thank you for being here. congressman vinman, a retired army lieutenant colonel. and that does it for me. thank you for watching. catch me back here every saturday and sunday morning from 10:00 a.m. to noon eastern. give thn social media conversation, you can follow me on threads, blue sky, linkedin. i've been posting content daily for over a year on these sites and plan to do so. stay where you are. "inside" begins right now. "inside" begins right now. behind the middle surrounding all of them and talk about what

it would actually mean for these people to fill these jobs. senator-elect alissa slatkin will have a vote on these nominations and she's coming up first. then we're just going to go one by one. we'll talk about matt gaetz with attorney general with former doj official andrew weissman and tulsi gab art with former cia director john brennan and former hhs secretary kathleen sebelius. okay. so before he became joe biden's secretary four years ago i oversaw the confirmation team for the biden-harris transition so let me give you a sense of how this process is actually supposed to work. potential nominees before the president makes a final decision go through a rigorous vetting process that tears through every aspect of their lives and their

finances. it is grueling and anyone that has been through it will tell you invasive and sometimes things that wouldn't be a blip in the normal hiring process blows up the nomination before it even begins. sometimes it's small like taking gummies to sleep better and sometimes it's bigger like some client that some nominee had business before the government. there is a reason the process is owe grueling because you want people who don't have conflict of interest and won't have controversy representing the public interest and advising the president. and for national security nominees, there is typically even greater scrutiny because any skeletons like an unreported scandal can be seen as vulnerabilities, that can be used by a foreign adversary and there is, of course, typically a great deal of consideration of whether the person can actually do the job they are being nominated for. go figure. so that's how this normally

works and that's how it should work and then there's how trump is doing it, and the people donald trump announced this week for key jobs could each, of course, fill their own tabloids for weeks with their own scandals. some of those scandal alone should be disqualifying and we'll talk about those and why. we also need to look beyond the headlines because these are people who could be sitting in the situation room and the oval office very, very soon. these are the people who will be advising the president on every crisis that crossis his desk esd they're the people who have an impact also on your daily lives. see, these choices are on the one hand cartoonishly outrageous, but when the dust settles it's not just about the scandals and the personal lives of these nominees and there are many. it's about what their positions and their lack of experience could do to our health system and our national security and the rights we have in this country. so let's start with rfk, jr.,

shall we? rfk jr. produced the strangest headlines in the history of presidential campaigns? he sure did. is rfk jr., has a strange pen chant for carrying dead animals in his car? he sure does, but rfk, jr., is one of the most dangerous purveyors of inaccurate vaccines that our country has seen. the hhs secretary overcease the nih and the fda. in hume an terms our vaccines, our medicine and our food. his nomination and confirmation would mean that the guy who founded one of the nation's most prominent anti-vaccine groups would be in charge of the agency who makes recommendations on vaccines. the guy who said he would stop research into infectious diseases would be in charge of the agency that studies infectious diseases. so that's what's coming on that front, and then there's matt gaetz, trump's pick to run the justice department. is matt gaetz one of the most clownish members of congress? of course, he is.

was he previously investigated for allegations of sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl? he was, and even though he was never charged that alone should, of course, disqualify him for any cabinet position especially the top law enforcement job in the country. but if he gets confirmed, a guy that spreads conspiracy theories about january 6th and championing the cause of the rioters will oversee cases. the guy who said he is ready to abolish all three agencies from the fbi and the atf will be in charge of those very agencies. so that's what's coming. part of what's coming if matt gaetz is attorney general, and then there's tulsi gab bard, trump's pick for director of intelligence. she is, and that's pretty odd. tulsi gabbard as director of national intelligence means an apology from vladimir putin will

oversee the sa and see spon at the top who has shown a greater fondness for dictators and our adversaries than our friends and some of those allies will see someone they think twice about sharing their own secrets with. we don't know. that's what's coming with tulsi gabbard and finally, pete hegseth, a veteran and cable news hoax who has gone viral for axe-throwing mishaps who can't remember once washing his hands over the last decade, which is gross. most recently a sexual assault against him in which he was never charged, his lawyer says he agreed to pay his accuser for a non-disclosure agreement. mainly the last piece should be disqualifying on its own, but also consider the much bigger picture here again. his confirmation would mean someone who champions service member accused of war crimes would oversee the military. someone who said the military should not have women in combat

roles would be in charge of women in combat roles. the secretary of defense leads the largest organization in the government with millions of employees including active service members and a $900 billion budget. their job is not at all to decide whether the military is woke or not, whatever that mean, but that's what a secretary of defense pete hegseth will see it as. so my point here is there, there's a lot of information coming at us fast and furious about all of these picks. maybe trump is testing his power over republicans in the senate by putting these people forward, maybe or maybe he thinks that matt gaetz and rfk yes and pete hegseth are the best people for these jobs, whatever the motivation we can't focus on the latest shocking headline and that shouldn't be the only messaging because it's easy to assume these personal scandals will prevent them from getting these job, but with this republican party we just can't count on that so it's important to understand what could be coming and of course, how it could impact all of your lives. joining me now is democratic

senator-elect e lisa slotkin an she held key roles in the state department and department of defense. congratulations on your election just a few weeks ago. you have such an extensive national security background, i just wanted to start there, and i just outlined some of the national security officials and what they're responsible for, and i wanted to just start with the department of defense. pete hegseth is to be honored and a good thing for cabinet members and you worked there. what does a defense department under pete hegseth looks like? >> well, i don't think anyone knows that for sure, but i think the only way we know what someone might do in the future is looking at their past statements and i happened to be over at the pentagon on thursday and there's just a lot of stress in the system particularly from women officers, from women who are just now entering the military, young folks that we've sent west point and the

academy and whether they'll be in line for promotions or not. >> or serve in combat roles. fighting to be in those roles and recruited sometimes to be in those roles and now what's the plan? so we don't know. i think we have a long road to get there and i think it's important that people understand it's not just the parlor game of who will get what job, right? the secretary of defense, the dni, the director of the cia, these people literally keep us safe. they are in charge of making sure we are not attacked again. not attacked here or abroad, and we can live our lives here because we are kept safe and the concern is are the folks nominated the right people to be literally keep us safe. and that's the question. >> do you think pete hegseth is

the right person to keep us safe? >> i am a new senate-elect. we oversee nominations when they come to the senate so i will take my time and treat it the way i would want to be treated is have people come in, talk to them and make sure they go through a thorough background check and understand what's in their background before i make decisions, but as someone who served in these places i've seen up close and personal how critical it is to have people of character and truth it power even when the commander in chief doesn't want to hear it. that's so important for these roles because security issues aren't just political issues. the enemy gets a vote, things happen abroad you can't control. to me i want to hear that we have someone who is a, be willing to be more open minded than their previous statements and understands the huge, enormous responsibility and the character that's required to lead with purpose. >> let me ask you about tulsi

gabbard because it sounds like you will take an open approach to pete hegseth. the russian television which is a propaganda machine says that she is a russian asset and i don't know that for a fact, but that's something that they've talked about. she's made sympathetic comments of bashar al assad, and ukraine, and is that a nomination that you're open to considering? >> i am open to everything because i am just starting out this process and we don't go anywhere by saying, well, i don't like, you know, the president's nomination, so without even considering it, i'm going to throw them out. i'm not going to do that. i will say that we're going to have to have this conversation inside the house here and inside the united states about what role we want to have in the world. are we okay ceding our leadership to people like putin or xi jin-ping or are we okay that there should be an american leadership role in the world and that's fundamentally the question, and i -- from her statements it is concerning to

me that she seems to give more value in some cases to foreign leadership than to american leadership. we ain't perfect. we're not perfect, but i would choose us any day of the week over russian leadership in the world or chinese leadership in the world. so that's what concerns me about her statements and about speaking truth to power. if putin is doing something really egregious and you have to come and tell president trump that that's going on and it's important that we move and count counteract that are you willing to do that or are you willing to support whatever the president's view of the world and you can't do that in the intelligence community and it literally keeps us unsafe by doing that. >> the other piece that you've experienced and you've had a role in, and we have intelligence with other countries including the partners. do you have concerns about how they might look at tulsi gabbard given her affection for adversaries in some ways.

>> in michigan, we border canada and we have a ton of dual citizens and you're looking at the united states and saying, okay, i'm trying to figure this place out. the place that i understood to be this consistent leader particularly on international affairs since world war ii. i mean, the pendulum swing from obama to trump to biden to trump, you are just hanging on for dear life, right? i don't think it's any one nomination. i think we're clearly going through a period of political turmoil in the united states and other countries are going through it, too, but i can only speak for this place, and i don't think we'll always be here. i think if you're a foreign country you're trying to not get motion sickness trying to understand how you engage the united states of america where we had 60+ years of stability and we just don't have that in international affairs right now, and i think that ultimately makes us weaker. that's the problem. it makes us weaker and people perceive us as not a good friend

and an easily pushable adversary and that ain't good. >> let me ask you about matt gaetz and you're a member of the republican house that expressed concerns about his character. is that a nomination, you don't know what committees you'll be on and is that a nomination you're keeping an open mind about? >> i'm keeping an open mind, and like all of these you need a background check. we've had people who have been disqualified because they had a nanny that they didn't report properly on a tax form. so if you're going to lead the most important federal law enforcement agency, we should have an open, transparent process for the investigations that have just gone on in the house and anywhere else that he's been involved in the justice system that he is hoping to lead. >> including the release of the report? >> yes. >> there is so much i want to ask you about, but very quickly before i let you go. in terms of people's analysis of michigan, you won in michigan. congratulation again. >> thank you.

>> vice president harris did not win. what do you wish people would look at there and what are people getting wrong in their analysis? >> i mean, look, again, you'll have lots of people debating, but i can just say very, very clearly, any party, and i can only represent the democratic party needs to focus on the things that keep people up at night, that's their pocketbooks and their kids. the economic situation, inflation, of course, but even beyond inflation, it has just become harder to get in and stay into the middle class and if we do not address that as a very complicated democracy experiment in democracy, we've got a problem, and if we are not understanding that that is where the american people want us to be focusing, there are a lot of issues out there, but you've got to start with what keeps people awake and that is kitchen table issues, economics. we have to -- we want equality for all people and we don't need to obsess about identity politics and by the way, this last election demonstrated very clearly that you can't just put

a label on a certain community and say they're latino so they'll be with us on this issue. it doesn't work anymore. if i'm going to be frank, we have to be honest that the traditional ways of communicating through the media including this are just not the way that many, many people are getting information and if you stay in your fox hole and only talk to your friends you shouldn't be surprised. >> i appreciate your frankness. thank you very much for joining me. really appreciate it. we just got news that might explain why they might want to keep the report of matt gaetz under wraps. andrew weissman is with us. we'll be right back. e, ahhhh! what is — wow! sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh!

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gaetz was under federal investigation for child sex trafficking, but the justice department did not end up charging him. it did prompt the house ethics committee to open their own investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use and this week we got a sense how damaging their findings will be when their lawyer revealed that their client revealed that she actually saw gaetz have sex with a minor. when it comes to the committee makes their findings public the house speaker mike johnson said he can't be involved in releasing the report on gaetz. after a quick visit to mar-a-lago the speaker suddenly became very involved. >> do you think the public has a right to know given that he will be trump's top attorney? >> the rules of the house has been the former member is beyond the jurisdiction, i don't think that's relevant. no. i am going to request -- strongly request, that the

ethics committee not to issue the report because that is not the way to do things in the house, and i think that would be a terrible precedent. >> so to sum this all up trump has named an alleged sex trafficker to carry out the laws of this country as our next attorney general and the republican speaker of the house says the american people have no right to know more about the allegations. according to speaker johnson, that kind of transparence e the release of the report would be a terrible precedent. as multiple outlets have reported there's ample precedent to do exactly that. joining me now is andrew weissman, the former general counsel of the fbi and former special counsel of andrew mueller's team. there's a lot of focus on this report and what it might do, and if it's released or if people get access to it in some way what kind of details have the potential to be in there that are beyond what we already know? >> there are two things to focus

on. one is what may or may not be in the report. we simply do not know and obviously the public has a right to know that in connection with somebody who would be the attorney general of the united states. remember, there's no right to be attorney general of the united states anymore nor to be president of the united states or to sit on the supreme court. so transparency is in order so people have the information, but even if it turns out at the end of the day there is transparency and let's assume there's nothing there and there are responses to this and there are reasons he wasn't charged, there's still the issue of competence of should this person be in a position which, as the senator-elect said is such a serious position. so there are really two things to keep one's eye on. one is this potentially explosive and disqualifying event, but there's already something we know which is from a competence point of view, this is not someone who you want

sitting in this position? >> i think the competence thing is the most important thing which is why i started the show that way, as well. i want to ask you one more technical thing because you know the answer to technical things and gaetz is under investigation since 2023. his spokesperson released a statement saying, quote, merrick garland cleared matt gaetz and didn't charge him. not bringing charges is not the same as clearing. can you explain people for people trying to understand the lingo? >> sure. there are lots of reasons that you would not bring a criminal case. now, just to be clear, you could not bring a criminal case because you think the person is actually innocent in which case it would be clearing, but you can also not bring a case because you think the proof doesn't rise to the level of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. it could be clear and convincing evidence or to be super technical or preponderance. there could be substantial evidence and just not enough for a criminal case.

it is also possible that you think that there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but the government decides in its discretion not to bring a case. that happens also all the time and the irony here is this is the incoming trump administration which didn't seem to have the same standard when they were accusing hillary clinton of simply mails and saying she should be locked up and that's where the department also declined and they're applying very, very different standards here in terms of how they're looking at this depending on whether they like or dislike the person involved. >> okay. thank you for the technical clarification there which i think everybody needs to understand. i want to go back to what you had mentioned where i started the show with. the sheer responsibility of these jobs and the competence factor, and speaker johnson called matt gaetz, i don't know if you saw this, but he called him one of the greatest minds in washington or anywhere, which

i'm sure you don't agree with. talk to our audience about what are the sheer responsibilities of the attorney general and how, if you can, does that role impact people's actual lives? >> so, there's -- it's easy in the abstract to say, you know, i'm anti-government, i'm anti-bureaucracy, but let's focus on what the department of justice does for people. on a criminal side, people can be victims of fraud. there's public corruption. there's unscrupulous executives and people that are polluters and all sorts of ways in which criminal cases are brought where american people are victimized, but more than that, and the thing that i am really laser focused on is that you need somebody who is going to really be able to read the presidential daily brief, the pdb which has enormous amounts of information about threat streams involving terrorist activity in this country that affects people and

can cause massive destruction of property and loss of lives, and what is critical and what i've seen first hand is you want somebody who is going to do the work and is able to do triage and separate the noise from what are the real threats out there. i have seen people with enormous experience engage in that task and this is not a time to learn on the job, and it really goes to our fundamental safety, that to me, that is why the things that you're talking about here in terms of the attorney general, the dni, the dod, those are critical positions for the american safety. >> no question. thank you for explaining that so clearly. i think people can sometimes get wrapped up in the bureaucratic aspect of of that. thank you, andrew weissman, as always. coming up, why one is calling the pick for director of intelligence the worst cabinet

in history. former cia director john brennan is standing by, and he joins me next.he joi

there are i couple a couples you may or may not be aware of when it comes to tulsi good-abb who is donald trump's pick for national intelligence. dictator bashar al assad and vlad meier putin. in 2019 gabbard traveled to meet with assad even though his atrocities with his own people were well documented at that point. after that she thought syria was behind the chemical attacks in aleppo, which they were, by the way, and the other is after

ukraine, she was echoing propaganda about the war. is it any wonder why russian state tv talked about her this week? [ speaking in a global language ] they are aren't friends of russia except for tulsi gabbard. quite a statement from russian propaganda tv. joining me is former cia director john brennan. great to see you, director brennan. we are trying to get to the bottom of it, helping viewers understand what these jobs actually are and let me start with tulsi gabbard because you served as cia director for four years and what would having her in the role of director of national intelligence mean for the intelligence apparatus of the u.s. >> there's uncertainty. as you pointed out, she's been

apologist for vladimir putin and bashar al assad and it's called into question whether or not she has a good understanding of global politics and the u.s.' role there and she does not have experience in the national intelligence and it's someone who sits on top of the 18 agencies and needs to orchestrate these agencies so that they collaborate, so that they coordinate, so that they're able to pursue the national security priorities in an effective fashion. so they need to have understanding of the human intelligence, the technical signals, intelience ligence and has none of that. she doesn't have the executive leadership experience of running a large organization and under the director of national intelligence comes the national counterintelligence center and maligned influence center, as well. there's just a lot of responsibility, so the people, the professionals that are in these 18 intelligence agencies want to have confidence that the person who sits on top of them and that person, by law, is the

president's principal intelligence adviser is going to be carrying out the duties in a qualified way, but also in an a political, objective fashion and there are serious questions that have been raised about miss gabbard's ability to do that based on her lack of experience as well as her questionable comments that she has made and statements in conspiracy theories. >> the questionable comments and being applauded is a red flag. talk to our audience, i should say, about her role and what information gets to the president because she oversees as you just outlined how important and vital is a part of that job. >> the director of national intelligence is putting together the daily president's daily brief, the pdb. this is the document brought to the president and all of the senior officials of the national security establishment about what the threats are to u.s. national security interests around the world. so that person, that director has the responsibility to make

sure that that daily document is going to accurately reflect the challenges and the risks and the dangers that are out there, and so that person right now with the director of intelligence deeply, deeply experienced with national security and intelligence matters and over the past four years, she has been the one working with bill burns and the cia and others throughout the community that they're going to bring to bear to the president of the united states all of the intelligence, all of the information that he needs in order to ensure that this country is kept safe and strong. so if you have someone who doesn't have that experience, doesn't have the background, doesn't have those credentials, i think it will be quite challenging especially in an administration where you have a donald trump who has had these very negative views about the intelligence community overall, and then also, i think, there's real concern that tulsi gabbard has talked about the deep state and that she'll go in there and excise all of these individuals who are working to undermine

donald trump. no. they're professionals. the women and men of the intelligence agencies work tirelessly around the globe and around the clock to carry out their duties and responsibilities, and so the person who is going to become the director of national intelligence, i want that person to succeed because our country's future really depends on the ability of that person to carry out those duties. >> i'll ask you about one other piece because you've sat in a foreign capital and you're sitting with your counterparts around the world with the partners and others. how does someone like her and her background and kind of affection, i'll characterize it with adversaries and more of allies at times impact that and the willingness of others to share intelligence. is that something you're concerned about. i think there are already questions about whether or not donald trump will handle intelligence material and secrets and classified documents, responsibly given what we've seen had happen at

mar-a-lago and so having individuals in the senior level positions that don't have that background and experience and also have been apologists for vladimir putin are the closest partners and allies who rely on the intelligence operation of the united states are going to think twice and three times about how much they want to share with us. so they're watching very carefully what's going on here in washington because their national security also depends heavily on whether or not they have the confidence that the leadership of the u.s. national security apparatus are really going to be able to carry out the responsibilities and have a two-way sharing relationship with these countries that rely so heavily on u.s. intelligence. >> director brennan, protecting their secrets is part of the role of intelligence community here, too, which i'm sure is on the minds of some. thank you very much for joining me and helping to explain this important role. >> still ahead, donald trump attacks rfk jr. to run the department of health and human services and yes, it's as bad as

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♪♪ ♪♪ rfk jr. says a lot of things about a lot of thing, and some of them actually kind of sound pretty good, dare i say. getting rid of red food dye, sure, that's poplar. cutting red tape, sounds good on paper and we can agree there is too much highly processed junk food in america, judging by his choice, he doesn't seem too worrying about what he preaches and there he is with mcdonald's and seems happy. to some he might seem like a disruptor bringing long needed change as secretary of health and human services, but under make america healthy again, there are dangerous consequences. we know rfk jr. has pushed anti-vaccination, blaming autism

and connecting it to the holocaust. they can baselessly challenge the safety of approved vaccines and we've seen where this leads. in 2019 he worked with an anti-vaccine group months before a measles epidemic killed 83 people there, most of them children and rfk jr. has specific ideas about what he wants to do in this job, like remove chloride from drinking water ignoring that it would harm low-income families and even though if he doesn't implement his agenda, having a secretary who undermines public confidence vaccines and health measures could do real damage over the course of a couple of years. don't take my word for it. a full two months before the administration is set to take office the city of winter haven florida, voted to remove fluoride from its drinking water citing concerns from rfk, jr., that shows his influence already, dare i say. joining me is kathleen sebelius,

director of health and human services under president obama. it's good to see you. you are the perfect person to help understand what the department does. you say people could be killed as a result of this with rfk, jr., being in this role and the impact of his inaccurate information on vaccines and what it's led to. explain how dangerous it could be knowing the department as you know it for rfk jr. to be leading the department. >> well, jen, it's good to see you, too. i -- people need to understand the department of health and human services is a huge department, and you want it to be huge if you're an american is the zen citizen because it hand concerns from the time people are born until the tomb ime thee and the insurance program and

the national institutes of health, medicare payments and children and family programs and it really touches americans each and every day and it is the biggest department in partnership with the state, sends more money to states than all of the other domestic agencies combined. so somebody who gets the title of secretary of health and human services is given some gravitas to speak about health issues. i was fortunate to work with some incredibly bright and talented people and listened carefully and learned something every day, but i kind of look at this world through the eyes of my youngest grandson who is 11 months old. so he doesn't qualify yet for measles vaccine. he's too young, and he needs a series of them. measles is incredibly infectious and contagious, and the outbreaks of measles across the globe including the united states have gone up 20% in the last year because of vaccine

skepticism. bobby kennedy has said unequivocally there is no safe and effective vaccine. i can't tell you how dangerous that is. you talked about samoa where there was already vaccine hesitancy as we see in various parts of the world. he amplifieded that with his anti-vax group and the result of the population unvaccinated was a massive outbreak, 83 deaths and many of them children and they conducted an emergency vaccination campaign to try to shut it out, but my grandson would be very vulnerable to people wandering around the united states right now who are not vaccinated. you carry measles contagion, so something somebody at health and human services who says every day, don't take the vaccine. it's not safe and effective will give you information and you can make up your own minds, and i can tell you there are hundreds

of documented studies and clinical trials, comparative issues and what bobby kennedy is promoting has been debunked over and over and over again, but that doesn't stop them from saying it. >> let me ask you before i let you go, because you referenced this. the partnership between state and local communities, and we already saw. i referenced this one florida city that announced plans to remove fluoride from his drinking water and they cited him and he hasn't gone through confirmation yet. how does he have power to pressure less receptive state and local officials to go along with these reforms? is this a place where you have concern in terms of the impact that he could have in this role? >> you bet. a lot of what is done in public health is voluntary. let's start there. the centers for disease control and prevention has employees throughout the united states who

work closely with local health officials. they put out a voluntary recommendation about what childhood vaccinations are recommended. what about fluoride in water and cities and states adopt their own menu of those recommendations. so again, sitting over cdc, correcting or trying to actually harness the communications from cdc make them in correspondence with what he believes is putting up fake science against real science and saying to people just make up your own minds could lead to disaster. public health, a major tenet is clear and factual communication over and over and over again. we saw during covid, jen, what happens when the president, donald trump, would contradict science from the podium,

undercut vaccine enthusiasm, say that maybe drinking bleach or various kinds of remedies that were used in veterinary animals should be used in human beings. none of which was backed up by science, but it created an atmosphere of mistrust and distrust. that could be a daily function and be very serious undercutting public health for the good of all of us because part of public health is if somebody else is really sick and doesn't take care of themselves then they are exposed to lots of people, some of whom are vulnerable, cancer survivors or infants and young children who cannot protect themselves. >> kathleen sebelius, thank you so much. so much to talk about. i really appreciate it. coming up, thoughts about democratic soul searching and where it might be going wrong in my view. we'll be right back.

there's obviously a lot of soul-searching right now going on within the democratic party, and that's a good thing, but what i worry about is that in the course of all of that soul-searching some democrats might reach the wrong sweeping conclusions and there are a lot of issues that fall into that bucket, but one in particular that stuck out to me is transgender rights. republicans spend hundreds of millions on anti-trans ads this election cycle including one which shows vice president harris talking about government funding for gender-reaffirming care for prisoners and

detainees. if that sounds like a particularly obscure issue it is because it applies to a tiny group of people and it's a policy that was in place during the first trump presidency. another one of the lines that ran over and over again in the ad and throughout right-wing media is that america is faced with a crisis of boys playing in girls' sports. this created the perception that the issue of boys playing girls' sports of dominating the country which was extremely false. some people got pulled into the argument. the congressman said that democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone. i have two little girls and i don't want them getting run over by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a democrat i'm supposed to be afraid to say that and the congresswoman came on this network to discuss those comments. >> i was speaking authentically

as a dad about one of the many issues where i think we're just out of touch with the majority of voters, and i stand by my 'tget the words exactly right, but the point is that the point that we can't even have these discussions as a party. >> look, reflection is good, but if that were actually an issue at thousands of schools across the country it would be worthy of a debate, but there are incredibly few examples of transgender girls playing in youth sports, and when we see those examples there is an evidence that these kids are a threat to safety and fairness. when i say few examples, i mean if you were to account the examples of transgender girls playing youth sports in any single state the number often rounds to zero. take utah. when a transgender athlete ban was passed in 2022 there was a grand total of one, one transgender girl playing in youth sports. when south dakota passed a man, only one transgender girl had

competed in high school sports since 2013. in fact, when these bans were making their way in 2021, legislators could not cite a single instance in their own state or region where a transgender athlete competing was a problem and yet the noise on this issue has been constant and according to donald trump that is on purpose. >> it's amazing how strongly people feel about that. you see, i'm talking about cutting taxes and people go like that. i talk about transgender and everyone goes crazy. who would have thought five years ago you wouldn't know what the hell it was. >> see, donald trump and the republicans have managed to amplify their bad faith attacks to the point that people do have concerns as misguided and misinformed those concerns may be and this is a good time for democrats to self-reflect about what went wrong and what to do better moving forward, and of course, it absolutely is, but during that process it's important not to yield to manufactured panic, and to align with the actual facts before

making sweeping claims. echoing and adopting the panic from the other side is not leading. it's not meeting people where they are. it's simply falling prey to right-wing propaganda before checking the facts first. we'll be right back. f acts f

that does it for me today, but stay right where you are, because there's much more news coming