White House press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is not saying whether President Joe Biden believes it is fair for transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
Fox News’ Hillary Vaughn noted during a press briefing on Tuesday that 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has labeled the issue of “biological boys” competing in female sports the “women’s issue of our time.”
“Does the president agree that this is a women’s rights issue?” Vaughn.
Jean-Pierre began, “It’s a complicated issue. And there are a wide range of views on this. The Department of Education proposed a rule, as you know, that gives schools the flexibility to establish their own athletic policies while establishing guardrails to prevent discrimination against transgender kids.”
Watch the video below:
.@Hillary__Vaughn: Biden "has granddaughters. Does he care…girls are allowed to compete in sports w/o fear of injury? Does he think it's fair for girls to have to compete against biological males?"
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 29, 2023
KJP: "I just answered…It is a complicated issue…with a wide-range of views" pic.twitter.com/IkRMsvIxC1
Vaughn then noted the president has granddaughters and asked, “Does he care that girls are allowed to compete in sports without fear of injury? Does he think it’s fair for girls to have to compete against biological males?”
“I just answered the question. It is a complicated issue. It is truly a complicated issue with a wide range of views… there is no yes or no answer to this. It is complicated,” Jean-Pierre responded.
Her comments referred to a proposed Education Department rule that would prevent blanket bans of transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams.
However, it would allow high schools or colleges to implement restrictions.
During an appearance on Fox News after Jean-Pierre’s comment, Haley said, “The Biden administration is wrong to say this is a complicated issue.”
.@NikkiHaley reacts to KJP's answers to @Hillary__Vaughn on transgender sports: The Biden WH "is wrong to say this is a complicated issue. It is not…[W]e are not going to have to make our daughters get used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms" pic.twitter.com/g2OXJl1A30
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 29, 2023
“It is not complicated. And we’re not going to have to make our daughters get used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms. We’re not going to have our daughters work their entire life to excel at a sport and have a biological boy… jump into it and change their entire careers,” she added.
Haley argued it is “not complicated,” and said the issue is “actually pretty simple.”
“Biological boys play in boys’ sports. Biological girls play in girls’ sports,” she added.