Politics
Arkansas lawmaker who asked transgender woman if she had a penis calls backlash ‘all a show’
The Arkansas state senator who recently asked a transgender pharmacist if she had a penis during a committee hearing claimed the outrage over his now-infamous question is “all a show.”
State Sen. Matt McKee, a Republican, received international attention last week after a video of Dr. Gwendolyn Herzig went viral. Herzig was testifying against a proposed law to ban transition drugs and procedures for minors.
“I was trying to point out the fact that, as a grown man, he had not yet taken the step that he was advocating to be available for small children,” McKee told Fox News Digital of his question, which prompted jeers from those in the room and an accusation of Republican transphobia from the Democratic Party of Arkansas.
“Unfortunately, I was never able to get to the end of my line of questioning, but my goal was just to point out that there may be a reason why he hasn’t done it, and I wanted the committee to be able to understand that,” said McKee said, who referred to Herzig with both masculine and feminine pronouns.
ARKANSAS STATE SENATOR ASKS TRANSGENDER PHARMACIST IF SHE HAS PENIS AT COMMITTEE HEARING
McKee claimed the exchange has been unfairly represented by some news outlets, saying the viral footage has circulated outside the context “of where we were going with the committee meeting.”
His question came during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill introduced in the Arkansas State Senate that would prohibit physicians in the state from performing transgender surgeries or prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors.
The legislation, which has moved to a House committee after the Arkansas Senate passed it Tuesday, would also provide Arkansans who have received such medical care a 15-year window to sue practitioners who provided it.
RACHEL LEVINE’S CLAIM ALL AGREE ON ‘GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE’ IS SLAMMED BY DOCTORS IN HIDING
McKee said while he has taken heat for his question from other parts of the country, many in Arkansas have expressed support.
“A lot of Arkansans have watched for the last several years as this [transgender] movement — in our opinion — has tried to wage war on our families and our kids,” said McKee, who is the father of four daughters.
Republican Arkansas state Sen. Matt McKee drew audible gasps during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when he asked a transgender pharmacist about genitalia. (Arkansas State Senate)
“And there’s a lot of frustration, there’s a lot of anger and there’s a lot of people who are just so frustrated that it seems like nobody is standing up and asking the tough questions,” he said, claiming many have thanked him for asking his question so bluntly.
“It seems like there’s so much censorship with regard to the language that we’re allowed to use with regard to the questions we are allowed to ask,” said the lawmaker, who argues a woke mentality of college campuses has seeped into the broader culture.
NPR DEFENDS SEX-CHANGE SURGERIES FOR CHILDREN, FEATURES 13-YEAR-OLD ON ‘PUBERTY BLOCKERS’
Herzig condemned McKee’s question as “horrible” during the hearing, but the senator noted that the pharmacist did not shy away from genital-related topics during an interview less than two weeks before the committee meeting.
During an interview on “The Transgender Show,” Herzig went into detail regarding her desire for gender reconstructive surgery, according to the Daily Mail.
Pharmacist Gwendolyn Herzig said a question from state Sen. Matt McKee asking if she has a penis was “horrible.” (Arkansas State Senate)
“For me, personally, [gender reconstructive surgery] is the biggest one I want,” Herzig said of her desired changes, which included “the full package” of hormone replacement therapy and “every surgery that there is to know.”
“I think it’s all a show,” McKee said of the outrage in response to his question. “I think they will use whatever opportunity they can to ostracize individuals who would point out inconsistencies in their arguments and positions.”
The lawmaker said he believes those on board with transgender ideology do not want to be challenged regarding “irreversible sex change surgeries on minors or adults, their lack of consistency and their lack of willingness to look at the actual medical evidence.”
“They can’t allow that to be in public,” he added.
Herzig did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Republican Arkansas state Sen. Matt McKee, a father of four girls, told Fox News Digital he believes the transgender movement “has tried to wage war on our families and our kids.” (Arkansas State Senate)
McKee said he believed that transgender movement is beginning to crumble. Some European countries are already restricting transgender procedures for minors, and the U.S. will likely follow, he said.
“They’re realizing the error of their ways. They’re closing these gender clinics, and they’re trying to go back to realistic therapies and treatments for what were considered mental disorders in the United States up until only a few years ago,” he said.
McKee said he remains hopeful such trends will continue as more evidence emerges and more individuals step forward expressing pain and regret that they have effectively “become lifelong patients to these doctors and pharmacists.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
“I believe these doctors and pharmacists have a financial interest, and it’s clouding their thinking,” McKee added.
Politics
House Republicans accuse NIH of ‘stonewalling’ on ‘supercharged monkeypox experiment’
House Republicans are pressing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for answers after the agency funded research experiments they say could result in a “supercharged” monkeypox virus.
In a letter to acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and two subcommittee chairmen are demanding that the agency turn over documents and information regarding a government-funded experiment that reportedly involves swapping monkepox genes with a deadlier version of the virus. The lawmakers want to know whether this project was approved by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) review board tasked with oversight of research involving enhanced pathogens that could potentially cause a pandemic.
This letter is a follow-up to an October 31, 2022, letter to which Republicans say the NIH never responded. GOP lawmakers accused NIH of “stonewalling” in a press release.
“Based on the available information, it appears the project is reasonably anticipated to yield a lab-generated monkeypox virus that is 1,000 times more lethal in mice than the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans and that transmits as efficiently as the monkeypox virus currently circulating in humans. The risk-benefit ratio indicates potentially serious risks without clear civilian practical applications,” the Republicans wrote.
This image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) shows a colorized transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox particles (red) found within an infected cell (blue), cultured in the laboratory that was captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. (NIAID via AP, File)
“Accordingly, this experiment would seem to involve risks reasonably anticipated to create, transfer, or use [potential pandemic pathogens] resulting from the enhancement of a pathogen’s transmissibility or virulence in humans. Thus, under the circumstances, we are interested in learning whether this experiment was reviewed under the HHS P3CO framework used to review research proposals posing significant biosafety or biosecurity risks.”
The project leader is Dr. Bernard Moss, a veteran poxvirus researcher at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. An article in Science magazine described his efforts to learn the differences between two variants of monkeypox virus: clade 2, the West African variant that caused a global outbreak last year, and clade 1, which is believed to be deadlier and has caused outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo for decades.
Moss’ research involves swapping the genes of the two variants, one at a time, to discover whether a specific gene in the clade 1 virus makes it deadlier. The Republicans want to know whether these lab experiments could artificially enhance the clade 2 variant.
AFRICA’S CDC HOPES MPOX VACCINES WILL ARRIVE IN ‘ANOTHER TWO WEEKS,’ AFTER MONTHS OF SEEKING DOSES
This 1997 image provided by the CDC during an investigation into an outbreak of monkeypox, which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, depicts the dorsal surfaces of the hands of a monkeypox case patient, who was displaying the appearance of the characteristic rash during its recuperative stage. (CDC via AP, File)
Such research, known as “gain-of-function,” is highly controversial, because it involves extracting viruses from animals to artificially engineer in a laboratory to make them more transmissible and deadly to humans. Proponents say these experiments can help scientists understand the nature of viruses and develop new treatments and vaccines. Skeptics warn that gain-of-function experiments are one lab accident away from causing another global pandemic.
Moss did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
FOX NEWS POLL: MAJORITY SAYS BIDEN TRYING TO COVER UP ORIGINS OF COVID-19
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led a letter to acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak demanding answers on a government-funded project involving a manipulated monkeypox virus. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“Human disease associated with clade 2 or West African monkeypox virus infection is less severe and is associated with less than one percent mortality, whereas clade 1 or Congo Basin monkeypox infection has a 10 percent case fatality rate in unvaccinated persons,” the Republicans wrote. “Because of its significantly greater lethality, clade 1 or Congo Basin clade monkeypox viruses are regulated as select agents by the Federal Select Agents Program. Entities that possess, use, or transfer this agent must comply with the HHS Select Agent and Toxin Regulations unless there is an applicable exemption or exclusion.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Thus,” the letter continues, “under these regulations, it would appear the clade 1 monkeypox virus experiment is a restricted experiment that must be reviewed by the Federal Select Agent Program, and may be further reviewed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s (CDC’s) Intragovernmental Select Agents and Toxins Technical Advisory Committee (ISATTAC).”
The Republicans want NIH officials and employees to testify about Moss’ project and other related matters. They gave NIH an April 13, 2023, deadline to respond to their inquiry.
Politics
DeSantis targets Biden in swing state Pennsylvania, says Democratic Party ‘dead’ in Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took multiple jabs at President Biden on Saturday during a stump speech in Pennsylvania.
DeSantis, speaking at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference 2023, called Biden a “floundering leader” and said the president’s poor performance contributed to Republican gains.
“We are in the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican candidate for governor has ever received in the history of the state of Florida,” DeSantis told the audience. “We were able to flip Democrat counties or urban counties like Miami-Dade County. And not only did we flip it, we won it by double digits.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference. (Screenshot/)
“It’s been a massive defeat for the Democratic Party,” the Florida governor said. “They did not want to see Florida go red. They threw everything but the kitchen sink to stop us. And yet, we have left the Democratic Party for dead in the state of Florida.”
The Florida governor has been walking a political tightrope for months as he refuses to officially declare his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
At the same time, he has butted heads with both the Biden administration and former President Donald Trump’s campaign — both of whom view him as a rival for the presidency.
TRUMP ALLIES STEP UP ATTACKS ON DESANTIS AHEAD OF 2024: ‘HE’S NOT READY TO BE PRESIDENT’
In speeches this year, the governor has pitched his numerous conservative policy victories in Florida as a roadmap for the entire nation.
Sources in DeSantis’ wider orbit have said that any presidential campaign launch would come in the late spring or early summer, after the end of Florida’s current legislative session.
However, the governor’s recent stops in the early-voting states of Iowa and Nevada and a trip next month to New Hampshire are sparking more 2024 speculation.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
President Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis touring an area impacted by Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, in October 2022. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
DeSantis said earlier this week that his state “will not assist” in any extradition request by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg amid what he called “questionable circumstances” while slamming the charges against Trump as “un-American” and a “weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda.”
The former president and 2024 Republican presidential candidate was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday after a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
Politics
Biden visits University of Pennsylvania campus for the first time since classified documents controversy
President Biden on Saturday visited the campus of the University of Pennsylvania for the first time since a controversy over the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in Washington D.C.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden stopped by the university to visit Maisy Biden’s senior art show at a university gallery. It marks the first time Biden has visited the campus since the emergence in November of documents with classified markings at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C.
Those documents were said to be from the Obama-Biden administration and were discovered “unexpectedly” by Biden’s personal attorneys. The emergence of the documents was followed by assessments by the FBI and Department of Justice.
BIDEN HAS ‘NO COMMENT’ ON TRUMP INDICTMENT
President Biden talks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington Friday, March 31, 2023, before boarding Marine One. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
In January, the Department of Justice announced it was investigating the discovery of the documents, and Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was appointing Robert Hur as special counsel.
Attorneys also found batches of documents at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. Four batches of classified materials have been found in Biden’s possession in total, dating from both his time as vice president and as a senator from Delaware.
DOJ SEARCHES BIDEN DELAWARE BEACH HOME AMID CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT INVESTIGATION
In February, FBI agents searched Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, for three and a half hours but did not find additional classified documents. The search was carried out on Hur’s first day on the job as special counsel.
Biden has addressed the controversy, saying his team is cooperating fully with the DOJ and suggested that his staff was to blame for not finding the documents when he left office in 2017.
WHITE HOUSE STONEWALLS FOX NEWS’ PETER DOOCY ON BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS: ‘WHY DID HE DO IT?’
President Biden delivers remarks during a meeting with Democratic congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House Jan. 24, 2023. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“But one of the things that happened is that what was not done well is as they packed up my offices to move them, they didn’t do the kind of job that should have been done to go thoroughly through every single piece of literature that’s there,” Biden said. “But I’ll just let the investigation, you know, decide what’s going on, and we’ll see what happens.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
House Republicans have promised to investigate Biden’s handling of classified materials, with Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., telling Fox News that “nothing that Joe Biden’s done with respect to mishandling these classified documents is normal.”
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo and Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.
House Republicans accuse NIH of ‘stonewalling’ on ‘supercharged monkeypox experiment’
DeSantis targets Biden in swing state Pennsylvania, says Democratic Party ‘dead’ in Florida
Biden visits University of Pennsylvania campus for the first time since classified documents controversy
Kamala Harris issues dire climate change warning in Africa: ‘Existential threat to the entire planet’
Disney thwarts DeSantis’ oversight board takeover using bizarre legal tie to King Charles III of England
Federal judge strikes down Minnesota law banning 18-20-year-olds from obtaining gun permits
Airline outrage: Passenger reportedly tells mom in first class she shouldn’t be there with a child
CNN lays off hundreds of staffers after business review − read the memo
Crypto.com CEO has history of red flags including bankruptcy and quick exits
Facebook owner Meta to sack 11,000 workers after revenue collapse
Cowboys star LB Parsons stokes Eagles rivalry a week early
Leaked video: Mark Zuckerberg addresses Meta employees after mass layoff
-
Lifestyle4 months agoAirline outrage: Passenger reportedly tells mom in first class she shouldn’t be there with a child
-
Tech4 months agoCNN lays off hundreds of staffers after business review − read the memo
-
Tech4 months agoCrypto.com CEO has history of red flags including bankruptcy and quick exits
-
Sports4 months ago
Cowboys star LB Parsons stokes Eagles rivalry a week early
-
Business5 months agoFacebook owner Meta to sack 11,000 workers after revenue collapse
-
Tech5 months agoLeaked video: Mark Zuckerberg addresses Meta employees after mass layoff
-
Sports4 months agoMets’ Cohen, dubbed MLB’s new `Goliath,′ gets Nimmo to stay
-
Tech5 months agoTwitter early investor Chris Sacca says Elon Musk is ‘alone right now and winging this’