Karine Jean-Pierre says DeSantis targeting trans kids is actually ‘hate’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has criticized “extremist” Republicans, especially Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for his anti-woke agenda targeting transgender Americans, which she said Friday is ” despicable” and actually “hate”.

Jean-Pierre was asked at the briefing to react to DeSantis’ first appearance in Iowa on Friday, as the Republican ponders a 2024 presidential bid.

‘It’s wrong to tell a second grader that he was born in the wrong body. It’s wrong for gender ideology to be imposed in our schools, and in Florida we don’t let that happen,” DeSantis said in Davenport, Iowa, to applause. ‘We have fought the fight and we are going to do more. Just let our children be children, stop using an agenda,’ he said.

Jean-Pierre said DeSantis’ talk was not about “protecting liberties” or “having a good faith conversation about how we can move the country forward.”

“This is about attacking, we are talking about young children and their parents. Because of how they see themselves. Because of how they see themselves. For how they want to live. The children and their parents,’ said Jean-Pierre.

‘It’s wrong to tell a second grader that he was born in the wrong body. It is wrong for gender ideology to be imposed in our schools, and in Florida we don’t allow that to happen,” DeSantis said in Davenport, Iowa.

‘What does that have to do with something about being awake?’ she asked. ‘It’s just hate. And it’s embarrassing, it’s embarrassing.

More generally, Jean-Pierre said that when ‘extreme republicans’ and ‘MAGA republicans’ disagree with something, they just label it ‘woke’.

“But that’s not really a policy, what it turns into is hate, which turns into despicable politics, and that’s not the way we’re going to move forward,” he said.

At the top of the briefing, Jean-Pierre, who is gay, made a statement in response to what he called “shameful, painful and dangerous attacks we’ve been seeing in the LGBTQI community.”

He pointed to comments by a speaker at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference, saying he called for the “eradication” of transgender people.

Right-wing commentator Michael Knowles responded to criticism that followed his speech in which he said “transgenderism must be completely eradicated from public life”, threatening to go after news sites that reported that he wanted to kill people. trans.

However, critics have pointed out that if he calls for the eradication of Judaism or homosexuality, “no one would mistake the murderous intent of such a message,” one opinion writer. for the Los Angeles Times argued.

“Look, it started with a speaker at a conservative conference calling for the eradication of transgender people, language that not a single national Republican leader has condemned,” Jean Pierre said.

‘In Iowa, in Tennessee, Republicans are now calling for legislation to attack gay marriage and the protection of same-sex couples.

“In Florida, in Florida alone, Republicans have introduced 20 bills, 20 bills in one day, to roll back the rights of the LGBTQ community,” he continued. “One of those bills would give the state the right to separate children from their parents just because that child was transgender.”

He asked the reporters in the room to think of a child in this community who would think of these comments.

“These kids are sitting at home having to listen to the people who are supposed to protect them and their freedom, saying these horrible, ugly, despicable things,” he said.

Overall, Jean-Pierre noted that more than 450 anti-LGBTQI bills have been introduced in state legislatures since the start of the year, making it a record number.

“Guys, today is the 70th. It’s the 70th of 2023,” Jean-Pierre commented.

Knowles shared Jean-Pierre’s comments on Twitter Friday saying they were “more misleading than Daily Beast and Rolling Stone,” outlets that equated his anti-trans comments with genocide.