‘Morning Joe’ continues fixation on trans issues in post-election blame game without talking to trans people

Since Vice President Kamala Harris lost last week’s election, MSNBC’sMorning Joe has focused heavily on the idea that the Democratic Party’s support for transgender rights and other progressive positions may have driven away key voters. In a week-long series of discussions, hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, along with panelists, have repeatedly raised issues such as trans athletes, “cancel culture,” and so-called far-left messaging on identity. Despite dedicating significant airtime to these critiques, the show has yet to feature any transgender voices in the conversation, sparking criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates and allies.

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On Monday’s episode, although neither Harris nor Democrats ran on a trans rights platform, Scarborough focused on a now-familiar conservative talking point, referencing an Ivy League swimmer who transitioned and began competing in women’s events. “We were very critical about a man who was a swimmer in the Ivy League who transitioned and swam against [women],” Scarborough said, framing the case as an issue of lost fairness for female athletes and accusing progressives of “abandoning girls” out of “fear of being canceled.” Citing a poll he says shows “85 percent of Americans agree with me,” Scarborough argued that Democrats ignore these concerns at their peril. Three weeks ago, Morning Joe participated in GLAAD’s Spirit Day, where people wore purple to stand against bullying of LGBTQ+ young people.

According to Gallup’s 2023 Values and Beliefs survey, 69 percent of Americans now believe that transgender athletes should only compete on teams corresponding to their birth gender, an increase from 62 percent in 2021. Support for allowing trans athletes to play on teams that align with their gender identity has dropped to 26 percent, down from 34 percent in 2021.

Policies around trans athletes remain a significant flashpoint in state legislatures and the federal government. At least 20 states have laws banning transgender women from competing on women’s teams.

“It’s so fascinating,” he said, “that all of these people who have been championing women all of these years sort of abandoned girls who had been waking up, and their parents have been driving them to go swimming or running track and field from the time they were five years old—at five o’clock in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays—and suddenly they abandoned them and won’t say a word because they’re afraid they’re going to be canceled. It’s insanity.”

Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist, supported Scarborough’s position, claiming that “fear of being canceled” prevents many from voicing legitimate concerns. She also criticized the progressive use of terms like “Latinx”—a gender-neutral term used by some to be inclusive of Latino and Latina people—as alienating to Latino voters. “No Latino person uses the word Latinx,” she argued, describing it as another example of the supposed disconnect between progressives and mainstream Americans. Although Beddoes acknowledged that “important civil rights issues” remain in the U.S., she suggested that some progressive policies have “gone overboard.”

Scarborough also highlighted an anti-trans ad that aired widely during the campaign, framing it as a critical point Democrats ignored. “The trans ad, which, of course, we talked about time and again—Rick Wilson came on and showed an opposing ad. That [ad aired] 30,000 times on the NFL, showing Kamala Harris saying she would support the funding of transition surgeries in prison and that taxpayers would pay for it. And it, of course, was the law at the time during the Trump administration. But they refused [to address it] despite Bill Clinton and everybody else saying, ‘You’ve got to respond to this ad. It’s impacting Black men, Hispanic men, white working-class men. You need to respond to this ad.’ They just didn’t do it. Willie [Geist] said after the election, even his mother said, ‘Wait, this is weird. What’s up with the Democrats?’”

Last week, Morning Joe’s coverage of trans issues and “far-left” messaging culminated in panelist Mike Barnicle mocking the Democratic Party for what he described as its disconnect from everyday Americans. In a discussion about cultural politics, Barnicle claimed Democrats had spent the past decade imposing progressive language and norms around identity on regular families, describing it as “hectoring.” Barnicle remarked, “The Democratic Party, and a small clique of the Democrats who call themselves progressive, have spent the last decade hectoring those people telling them, ‘No, you have to say they. No, you have to do this. You have to live this way. There are a lot of transgender people; we must respect them.’” He added dismissively, “No one wants to harm transgenders, but how many of them are there? Seriously?” According to the Williams Institute, more than 1.8 million Americans identify as transgender.

Representatives for MSNBC did not respond to The Advocate’s requests for comment on whether Morning Joe would invite a transgender person on the show to discuss these issues.

GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis criticized Morning Joe’s narrow framing of trans issues, calling out the media’s role in amplifying “freakouts and false narratives” about trans rights. “Support for the safety and equality of all citizens, including trans people, is basic human decency and the bare minimum requirement for elected officials,” Ellis said in a statement to The Advocate. She emphasized that Democrats’ support for trans rights is both morally correct and electorally viable, pointing to the recent election of trans candidates as a sign of public support. “The same extremists attacking transgender people in the name of ‘protecting women’ stripped women and girls of reproductive freedoms, which is demonstrably unsafe, even deadly, behavior,” she added, underscoring the hypocrisy in arguments that portray trans rights as a threat to women’s rights.

Ellis also criticized the portrayal of trans youth in sports, describing it as an exaggerated narrative meant to stigmatize the entire community. “The ongoing freakouts and false narratives about trans youth playing sports must include the fact that bans on their participation vastly outnumber the number of known trans students playing sports,” Ellis said, noting that such bans often lead to broader policies restricting transgender rights, including healthcare access and bathroom use. “We need media to focus less on provably false narratives while reflecting on the election and more on these facts,” Ellis continued, urging journalists to shift focus away from divisive rhetoric toward factual reporting. “Supporting transgender people is simply the right thing to do,” she concluded, “and it can and has won elections.”

Delaware Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride, who last week became the first out transgender person elected to Congress, offered her perspective as well. Speaking to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Monday, McBride said, “The party that was focused on trans people was the Republican Party,” adding that her campaign addressed economic issues like job security and healthcare rather than social controversies. “What I was hearing… was the need to build an economy that works for everyone… to guarantee affordable healthcare, housing, and childcare,” McBride noted, pointing to her record-breaking vote share as evidence that trans identity does not alienate voters.

NBC’s Late Night host Seth Meyers also joined the conversation, delivering a satirical but pointed rebuttal during his “A Closer Look” segment. “Anyone suggesting Democrats could win elections by throwing trans people under the bus, let me just say f**k off,” Meyers quipped, advising critics to focus on what he sees as the real reason Trump won rather than scapegoating vulnerable communities.

“If you’re choosing this moment to scapegoat and demonize vulnerable people, rather than aim your criticism at the powerful elites and moneyed interests who paved the way for the return of Trump and stand to benefit from a second term, you’re way off,” he said.

Meyers compared the logic to a football team blaming their losses on a distant fan’s unrelated comments, calling it absurd to hold trans issues responsible for election results.

Early exit polls indicate that voters were primarily concerned with inflation, job security, and healthcare—concerns far removed from the culture war topics Morning Joe has claimed impacted Democratic turnout.