Transgender discussion brought heat to the Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday as the party tries to navigate its way through a topic that some of its voters view as a moral crisis.
While former President Donald Trump, who holds an enormous lead over the rest of the field, has been clear about his intention to pursue federal laws banning transgender surgeries and interventions for minors, other candidates have been less clear.
HOUSE VOTES TO REPEAL BIDEN'S INCOME-DRIVEN REPAYMENT REGULATION
Trump was not present at the debate.
In Wednesday's debate, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) accused former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley of opposing a Florida bill he signed "banning the mutilation of minors," adding, "she said the law shouldn't get involved with it."
The comment from DeSantis comes as his super PAC, Never Back Down, ran ads leading up to the debate slamming Haley on the topic, referring to the former South Carolina governor as "Nikki Haley (she/her)" in a comment to the Washington Examiner.
Haley rejected the accusation during the debate, and her campaign rebuked the insinuation in the pro-DeSantis ads, pointing to an interview with ABC News in which she said, "You shouldn’t allow a child to have a gender-changing procedure until the age of 18 when they are an adult and they can make that decision."
The Palmetto State Republican was also accused of being too lenient on transgender bathroom issues when she was governor, as she, at the time, did not want the government to get involved in the issue.
"Ten years ago, when the bathroom situation came up, we had maybe a handful of kids that were dealing with an issue, and I said we don't need to bring government into this," she said. "But boys go into boys' bathrooms, girls go into girls' bathrooms, and if anyone else has an issue, they use a private bathroom."
However, when the matter was before her in 2016, she did indeed say she did not want the state government to get involved. But she also suggested local leaders should have a say.
"We have always been proud of the fact that we handle issues such as this one in our school districts, and I trust South Carolinians to decide this issue, community by community, at the school district level," she said at the time, according to Greenville News.
Her stance also came at a time when the Obama administration was attempting to force schools to allow girls and boys to use opposite-sex restrooms that corresponded with their claimed gender identities.
Haley fired back at DeSantis on the debate stage, saying, "This shows how hypocritical Ron continues to be. When he was running for governor, and they asked him about that, he said he didn’t think bathroom bills were a good use of his time."
A 2018 clip showed then-candidate DeSantis responding to a question about passing restrictions on bathroom use for transgender-identifying children, and at the time, he was caught saying, “I would not pass a law. I would leave it as it is and stay out of that."
“Obviously I’d have to read the bill, but I think getting into the bathroom wars — I don’t think that’s a good use of our time," he added in the 2018 exchange.
Since that time, however, DeSantis has signed several pieces of legislation, both requiring children to use the bathroom aligned with their biological sex and banning medical interventions for children seeking to transition genders, among others.
The Sunshine State Republican has not committed to pursuing federal legislation to do the same if he were elected president.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) also entered the transgender discussion on Wednesday, taking the kind of small-government stance that has lost adherents among some conservatives in recent years.
"Kids who go from puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones are at a much greater likelihood of winding up sterile," debate moderator Megyn Kelly said to Christie. "How is it that you think a parent should be able to okay these surgeries, never mind the sterilization of a child, and aren't you way too out of step on this issue to be the Republican nominee?"
"Republicans believe in less government, not more and less involvement with government, not more government involvement in people's lives," Christie replied. "I trust parents, and we're out there saying that we should empower parents in education. We should empower parents to make more decisions about where their kids go to school. I agree. We should empower parents to be teaching the values that they believe in in their homes without the government telling them what those values should be. And yet we want to take other parental rights away."
The Garden State Republican's perspective has fallen out of favor with much of the GOP base, with many coming around to the idea that the government can and should be used to stop allowing children to transition medically.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
As the Washington Examiner reported in July, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who at the time was chairing a Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the "Dangers and Due Process Violations of 'Gender-Affirming Care' for Children," said, "Even a parent has no right to sexually transition a young child."
Calling for a federal ban on the interventions and citing a need to protect children "from abuse and physical harm," Johnson likened the laws to other common-sense laws like the requirement to wear a seat belt that is outside the general libertarian nature of American politics.