AOC laments state of party after Democrats vote to ban trans athletes: ‘We’re not in good shape’
The predicament for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., worsened Tuesday as she watched members of her party vote in favor of a bill she attacked widespread mockery.
Ocasio-Cortez’s viral rant against the Women and Girls in Sports Protection Act was not enough to convince Democratic allies Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both of Texas, to vote against the bill. Cuellar and Gonzalez joined 218 House Republicans who voted for the bill which seeks to prevent federally funded educational institutions from allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s and girls’ sports.
For Ocasio-Cortez, the notion of Democratic congressmen voting for Republican-backed legislation before President-elect Trump even returns to office suggests her party is “not in good shape.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS REPORTS ON FOXNEWS.COM
“We can’t be crazy about this,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent on Tuesday. “It’s still early days. Trump isn’t even sworn in yet, and if a little sports bill gets the Dems to defect, we’re not in good shape.”
Ocasio-Cortez advised Democrats not to be “ninies” on the same day she delivered a widely-derided tirade that included multiple unsubstantiated claims and unfinished sentences. Her rant prompted a number of responses on social media labeling her as the “dumbest person in Congress.”
For Ocasio-Cortez, it marks a bad start to 2025 after a rough 2024. Despite re-election to a New York House seat, Ocasio-Cortez has watched members of her coalition, the “squad,” lose their seats, including Jamaala Bowman in New York and Cora Bush in Missouri.
Ocasio-Cortez also lost her bid to become the first female Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, passed over by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.
Moreover, Ocasio-Cortez has often been the subject of ridicule on social media, often for her steadfast stance on transgender inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports.
HOW TRANSGENDERITY IN SPORTS MOVED THE 2024 ELECTIONS AND IGNITED A NATIONAL COUNTERCULTURE
In November Ocasio-Cortez shared again a video of Green Party vice-presidential candidate Butch Ware speaking out against the inclusion of transgender people in women’s sports with the headline saying: “This card is predatory and people deserve better.” The announcement caused fierce reactions on social networks.
“The AOC says it’s predatory not wanting men to compete in women’s sports. To the AOC, acknowledging biological reality is ‘predatory’. You know what’s really predatory? Sexualizing children and normalizing pedophilia,” conservative influencer and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines wrote on Xu posting a Fox News Digital article about Ocasio-Cortez’s comments.
The mockery of Ocasio-Cortez began weeks after the election when X users discovered that she was no longer including the pronouns “she/her” in her bio.
Ocasio-Cortez is one of many prominent Democrats who remain staunchly supportive of transgender inclusion in women’s sports, even though the issue has proven to be a hot spot for Democrats in the November election.
Many of the Democrats who spoke out against the bill on Tuesday did not support the premise that transgender athletes should be allowed to participate in women’s and women’s sports. Instead, they argued that measures preventing the inclusion of transgender people would subject girls to genital examinations and sexual predators despite there being no text in the bill to suggest genital examinations for girls in sports.
Ocasio-Cortez included that baseless claim in her speech on Tuesday, but gave a shout-out to transgender athletes when she shouted “Trans girls are girls!” on the floor of the House of Representatives.
In this April 10, 2019 file photo, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., listens during a House Financial Services Committee hearing with big bank executives on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Ocasio-Cortez previously co-sponsored the Equality Act, which was proposed in 2019 and had revisions that would “force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on women’s sports teams.” In March 2023, Democrats, including Ocasio-Cortez, proposed resolution “recognizing that it is the duty of the federal government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.”
Unlike Ocasio-Cortez, other House Democrats have publicly withdrawn their support for transgender inclusion, including Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; Tail. Colin Allred, D-Texas; and the tail. Tom Suozzi, DN.Y. Yet each of those Democrats voted against the bill on Tuesday.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Tail. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Tom Williams/CQ Prozivka/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
AND national exit poll conducted by the legislative action committee Concerned Women for America found that 70% of moderate voters consider “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing women’s and women’s sports and transgender boys and men using women’s and women’s bathrooms important.” And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”
In June poll conducted NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to assess whether transgender athletes of both sexes should be allowed to participate in sports leagues that match their preferred gender identity instead of their biological sex.
In that poll, 65% answered that it should never or rarely be allowed. When respondents were specifically asked about adult transgender athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% opposed it.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports broadcast on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
