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WATCH: Director of Anti-LGBT Group Just Can’t – or Won’t – Say Which Restroom Trans Woman Should Use

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During Seven Minute Interview Family Research Council Legal and Policy Issues Director Cannot Bring Himself to Say ‘Women’s Room’ or ‘Men’s Room’

Travis Weber cannot or will not say which public restroom Jennifer Finney Boylan should use. Professor Boylan is a transgender woman who on “Hardball” Friday night said her birth certificate identifies her as a man. Weber, the Director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, sat before MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and repeatedly refused to state specifically which restroom he thinks Boylan should use when out in public.

“Travis, tell Jenny what bathroom she should use?,” Matthews asked.

“Yeah, well, you know, I’m not sure…,” Weber responded. Weber is an attorney. He “focuses on all manner of legal and policy issues pertaining to religious freedom,” and has litigated federal civil rights cases, according to his FRC bio.

“Well, just answer that question,” Matthews requested.

“I think people –,” Weber continued, until Matthews interrupted.

“She said she would not be comfortable, or, could cause some problem if she walked into a men’s room,” Matthews noted. “Should she walk into a men’s room?”

“I think we can do things the way we’ve done them for decades, and people can use bathrooms according to biological sex, with specific accommodation made for people who have a genuine issue,” Weber said, not answering the question.

Matthews again, interrupting, asks specifically, “What should a transgender person who identifies as a woman do, what bathroom should they go to? Just keep it simple,” Matthews again requests.

“They can use the bathroom of their biological sex except when there’s a genuine issue and an accommodation can be made.”

“What does that mean?,” Matthews asked.

Mentioning gender dysphoria, Weber then launched into a claim that “the law allows for people to show up and say, ‘My gender expression is the opposite sex.’ This allows for abuse and all of a sudden you have a lot of problems.”

Weber then incorrectly claimed, “a boy who says I’m expressing myself as a girl – locker room’s open to them, under the Obama decree today.”

He went on to insist that “boys around the country” will be saying, “I’m a girl today.”

Asked when it’s ever happened, Weber first claimed “it’s happening in school districts out in the mid-West.” He then described a lawsuit in the Chicago area where girls and their families are suing because actual transgender students – not boys who say, “I’m a girl today” – are using the restrooms of their gender identity.

Asked where a boy has abused the rights of transgender dignity, Weber ultimately pointed to a gender neutral policy in the University of Toronto, in Canada, where “a guy was in there filming the girls.” 

Which, again, has nothing to do with transgender people or policies.

Boylan chastised him for having to go outside the country to try to find a legitimate example of a problem, which he was unable to do even then.

“This is a solution in search of a problem,” Boylan said, of laws like North Carolina’s HB2, which bans trangender people from using public restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

After Boylan asked Weber and others to “open your hearts,” and offer “the respect and dignity that we all deserve as citizens of this country,” Matthews again asked Weber the question he cannot and will not answer.

“What should Jenny do if she’s visiting North Carolina? Should she go to the men’s room?”

“Well,” Weber begins, as he is literally squirming.

“You’re dodging the toughest question,” Matthews observes. “What do you want people to behave like? What should she do? She should go to the men’s room?”

After Matthews’ repeated asking, Weber says, “She can use an accommodation bathroom that’s a single-use bathroom that would protect the privacy interests…”

“That’s gobbledegook,” Boylan responds. “That means nothing.” She says because she has an “M” on her birth certificate, forcing her to use the men’s room makes her unsafe.

“Transgender people do not deserve to be made more unsafe,” she continued, saying that transgender people are a “small but unfairly maligned group of people. We wish to be left alone. We wish to be treated like anybody else. And that’s what the Obama administration’s policy does.”

Weber said he agrees with Boylan about being treated with love and respect, but by the end of the interview, he still would not say – or could not say – which restroom she she use.

It should be noted that Weber’s employer, the Family Research Council, is a certified anti-gay hate group. On Friday, FRC president Tony Perkins called for President Barack Obama to be impeached for directing all public schools to allow transgender students to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

Watch above.

Kathy Griffin weighed in after the show:

More responses via Twitter:

 

 

Image: Screenshot via MSNBC

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‘Supremely Disappointed’: Republicans Furious Over Latest Trump Endorsement

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President Donald Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement in the Texas GOP primary went to far-right Attorney General Ken Paxton over establishment Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn, dealing an severe blow to the lawmaker’s chances, angering some prominent GOP lawmakers, and likely boosting the chances of underdog Democrat James Talarico winning the seat in the red Lone Star State.

“Ton of concern among GOP [senators] about Trump’s endorsement of Paxton,” CNN’s Manu Raju reported. “Fear it will cost them a lot more money to save a seat in a red state.”

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said that Trump’s Paxton endorsement “puts that seat in jeopardy” and asked, “how does that help strengthen the president’s hand when we lose a state like Texas?”

“Supremely disappointed,” is how she characterized her reaction.

U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) declared Paxton is “an ethically challenged individual,” reports Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett.

“John Cornyn is an outstanding senator and deserved, in my judgment, the president’s support,” she said. “Obviously, it’s the president’s call, but I’m disappointed that he did it.”

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a top Trump ally, said, “I think Paxton can win. I think it’d be three times more expensive.”

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson said he was “speechless” and added, “really have no comment.”

Described as “not happy looking,” Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has supported Senator Cornyn, acknowledged it was President Trump’s decision to make.

Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio reported that Thune was “stone-faced” after the endorsement, and appeared “pretty deep” in anger.

“Most GOP senators really want him to endorse Cornyn,” Everett had reported about 90 minutes before the Trump-Paxton endorsement dropped.

U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) had said, “I would like to see him support John Cornyn in Texas. I’ve made that clear.”

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) had said, “I am hopeful that he backs Sen. Cornyn. John has been a steadfast ally of the president and I hope the president sees that.”

Congressional reporter Jamie Dupree described U.S. Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-MS) response as “stone cold silent.”

Professor Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, called Trump’s endorsement of Paxton “Great News for Talarico,” “Bad News for GOP money reserves,” and declared, “If ever there’s a year when a D can win statewide in TX, it’s 2026.”

Talarico responded to the Trump endorsement: “As I said on primary night, it doesn’t matter who wins this runoff. We already know who we’re running against: the billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system.”

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

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Trump: $400 Million White House Ballroom Is ‘My Gift to the United States of America’

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President Donald Trump took time on Tuesday to share with the press pool precise details about the ballroom he is having built where the East Wing of the White House once stood.

Trump “is currently giving the pool an in-depth presentation on the new ballroom construction, down to the location of the AC units and thickness of the glass,” reported Wall Street Journal White House reporter Meridith McGraw.

The ballroom is “going to be something incredible — you see the quality of it,” he said, standing on the construction site. On the ballroom’s roof “we’re going to have the greatest drone empire that you’ve ever seen, and it’s going to protect Washington.”

“They’re building a hospital,” he added. “It’s a military hospital. They’re building all sorts of research facilities, also meeting rooms and rooms that go hand-in-hand for the military.”

“The ballroom is really a shield and protecting all of the things that are built here.” 

He said the construction goes “six stories deep.”

Trump discussed the two facades the building will have, one facing the Washington Monument, the other, the Lincoln Memorial.

He said, “the roof is a barrier. It’s a shield, because it’s made out of the side walls of steel, impenetrable steel, and also impenetrable glass. The glass is approximately four inches thick. And yet, it’s amazing, you can see through it as though it didn’t exist. It’s amazing. And it can stop just about anything. Just about anything.”

“On the other side of the glass,” he continued, “we have steel and concrete. So that the glass is very powerful, what’s holding the glass is equally as powerful.”

“All of these columns, they go directly right to the roof of the building,” he said. “And again, we call it a drone port. It’s set up for unlimited numbers of drones.”

“When this is finished,” he said, “my term ends shortly after that. This is really for other presidents, this is not for me. This is my gift to the United States of America. I’m going to be able to use it very little.”

“This is all my money and donors’ money,” he said. “This is tax free.”

While Trump said that he and other benefactors will be paying the cost of the ballroom, reportedly $400 million, he has been pushing Congress to spend $1 billion for security enhancements apart from the ballroom itself.

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

 

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‘I Won’t Participate’: Greenland’s Prime Minister Gives US the Cold Shoulder

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The Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, says he will not attend Thursday’s opening of the new American consulate in the capital city of Nuuk.

According to a Google translation of a report from the Greenlandic news outlet Sermitsiaq, other members of the government may also refuse to participate.

“We haven’t made a decision in principle, but I won’t participate,” the prime minister told Sermitsiaq.

The consulate has extended a large invitation list, but the news outlet reports that “a significant portion of those invited have chosen to decline.”

The political situation between the U.S. and Greenland has been tense, after President Donald Trump pursued a campaign to take control of the autonomous territory which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Member of parliament Naaja H. Nathanielsen announced she too would not attend.

“I have explained it by saying that the situation between our countries is difficult right now,” Nathanielsen wrote on social media.

On Monday, President Trump’s Special Envoy to Greenland, Republican Governor Jeff Landry, spoke with several Greenlandic children, offering them chocolate chip cookies if they visited the governor’s mansion.

“If you come to Louisiana,” Governor Landry said, “and you come to the governor’s mansion — all the chocolate chip cookies you can eat.”

His remarks landed poorly.

Prime Minister Nielsen on Monday said Greenland would not become part of the U.S., “no matter how many ‘chocolate cookies’ we get,” according to the Times-Picayune.

In January, Trump vowed to do “something” with Greenland, which he has suggested the U.S. could purchase or take over militarily. The vast majority of Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the U.S.

“I would like to make a deal,” Trump said. “You know, the easy way, but if we don’t do it the easy way we’re gonna do it the hard way.”

“I’m a fan of Denmark, too, I have to tell you, and, you know, they’ve been very nice to me,” Trump continued. “I’m a big fan, but, you know, the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land, uh, sure, we had lots of boats go there also.”

“We’re not gonna have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that’s what they’re gonna do if we don’t,” Trump insisted. “So we’re gonna be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.”

 

Image by European Parliament via Wikimedia Commons and a Creative Commons license

 

 

 

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