Jesse Watters Presses Abdul El-Sayed on Trans Athletes — The Senate Candidate Pushes Back Jesse Watters: Do you support sex changes for minors? Abdul El-Sayed: I remember having great conversations with my conservative friends about right-to-try legislation and the idea that the government shouldn’t tell you what kind of healthcare you should have. I just think the government shouldn’t make those decisions for you. Jesse Watters: So, Abdul, you’re a doctor, right? Abdul El-Sayed: I am. Jesse Watters: So you think it’s okay for a parent to cut off their child’s genitals? Do you really want to have this conversation? Are you circumcised? Abdul El-Sayed: Yeah, but that’s a personal question. You probably should want to move on. Is circumcision different from castration? Jesse Watters: I think it’s a problem that you believe the government shouldn’t get to decide what happens between a parent, a doctor, and a patient. Circumcision is surgery on a child, too. I think you’re being selective about how you talk about these things. Boys playing in girls’ sports. Michigan isn’t going for that. That is sick stuff. Abdul El-Sayed: I’m not advocating anything. I’m just saying, Jesse, you haven’t asked me once about the issues people actually care about in Michigan. You don’t want to talk about gas prices, groceries, healthcare, or this trade war that’s about to destroy Michigan jobs. Jesse Watters: We spent the whole interview talking about those things. You don’t seem to want to talk about any of them. You want to bring up all this culture-war stuff. I’m not here to fight a culture war. I’m here to fight for healthcare. Abdul El-Sayed: We talked about the war, gas prices, and the Green New Deal. You told me we were going to have a conversation, but now you’re doing the greatest hits. You can keep doing that if you want, but I just want to understand what you’re getting at. Jesse Watters: I’m getting at whether you think men should play in women’s sports as the next U.S. senator from Michigan. Abdul El-Sayed: I’m interested in getting money out of politics, putting money in your pocket, and passing Medicare for All. Jesse Watters: You’re filibustering, Abdul, because you don’t care about what sports kids play. It’s a big issue, and I want to talk about the issues your viewers deserve to hear about. Should men play women’s sports? You have daughters, right? Abdul El-Sayed: I played sports my whole life. Sports were an important part of my life, and I’m grateful for the opportunity. At the end of the day, the decision about who gets to play which sports ought to be made by the people who govern sports. I’m running for the U.S. Senate, Jesse. I’m trying to take on the healthcare crisis and Big Pharma, and you’re asking me who gets to play which sports? It’s silly. People can’t seriously say this is the most important issue. Jesse Watters: It’s kind of a big thing.

Michael Knowles Hears a “Trans Widow” Describe the Heartbreak Her Children Experienced After Their Father Transitioned Michael Knowles: You talk about the term “trans widow.” People lose parents, and it’s painful, but there’s a finality to it. Wives lose their husbands, and they can grieve that loss. But in this case, the person is still there; they just deny who they are. You get all the pain without the comfort of closure. Even with infidelity, as terrible as it is, you can grieve what happened. This seems particularly insidious because the person he’s having an affair with is a version of himself. It’s so much darker. Tracy Shannon: Right. There’s this ambiguous grief that the children and the wife have to process. You lose the person you’ve known for years and the only father your children have ever known. My oldest son bought my ex-husband a book when he was 10. It was called The Dangerous Book for Boys. It had all kinds of activities for fathers and sons to do together. They did one activity, making paper airplanes, and after that, the book just sat on a shelf collecting dust. My son had written a lovely note inside about all the things he wanted to do with his father. But his father lost interest in those activities. Who was my son supposed to do those father-son things with after that? People don’t hear about the heartbreaking reality or the nights my children cried themselves to sleep because they missed their father. They still saw him dressed as a woman, but it wasn’t the same. There was no funeral to say goodbye to their father, and there was no sympathy for me as a trans widow. When I told people that my husband’s transition had led to the end of our marriage, they would say, “Well, at least she can be happy now.” But nobody asked how it affected me or our children. We’re told to feel sorry for the person transitioning, but nobody talks about what the children are missing or what happens to the women left behind. My ex had a good six-figure salary when he left, and it’s even better now. Contrary to what people say, these individuals aren’t all poor. Michael Knowles: Yes. I was supposed to debate a professor who identifies as a woman. This person is an economist with multiple degrees from Harvard and is very successful and affluent by all measures. We’re supposed to feel sorry for them because they supposedly struggle with their careers due to bigoted Americans, but that isn’t always the case. Tracy Shannon: Right. My ex has a good career, too. Many of his friends testified during our divorce that he was a great parent, even though they had spent very little time around our family. I think you recognize that Deirdre McCloskey is not poor.