Watch Jim Jordan get trolled ‘for caring about what happens in locker rooms’

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell trolled House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan Thursday while discussing a “creepy” piece of anti-trans legislation titled the “Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act.”

Swalwell began by taking a jab at the Republican Jordan’s alleged silence and complicity around the molestation of student athletes at Ohio State University when he was an assistant wrestling coach there. 

“I guess it’s a good thing that some folks on the other side are now interested in what happens in a locker room, and we’re not going to look the other way,” Swalwell snarked. “But this is something that is not a thing.” 

The transphobic bill aims to define gender by using specific biological and physiological markers, so Swalwell proceeded to press the bill’s proponents to explain how they would be “enforcing this on-demand gender check.” 

When GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman, one of the bill’s sponsors, made the vague claim that individual organizations would handle the “inspection,” the California congressman denounced the mealy-mouthed transphobia that right-wing politicians wield as a weapon while doing nothing to promote healthier communities.

They see a small issue that’s happening in a few communities. And they want to extrapolate that across America. And they want you to think it’s a thing. It’s not a thing. There are things: gun violence, fertility bans, government-mandated pregnancies. Those are things. This is not a thing.

Ms. Jackson Lee, who has a bill to address the targeted violence against the transgender community: That’s a thing. That’s something we should be working on. This is not a thing. And so I just invite my Democratic colleagues who have so passionately spoke on this to continue to passionately speak on this, but to just reject this as a thing.

Before Swalwell yielded his time to the committee chair, he added, “And thank you for caring about what happens in locker rooms.”

One of the most under-represented groups in elective office is also one of the least discussed: moms, especially mothers of young children. On this week’s episode of “The Downballot,” we’re talking with Liuba Grechen Shirley, the founder of Vote Mama, an organization devoted to electing progressive moms at all levels of the ballot.

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