Vice President JD Vance encouraged a Texas mother to talk to his staff about getting the Department of Justice to investigate an alleged letter sent to her 11-year-old daughter about transitioning genders without her parents’ knowledge.
Rebekah Smith of Fort Worth, Texas, brought up the letter in a question she posed to the vice president during a town hall that aired Thursday night on Fox News. Vance gave his honest response, calling the person who wrote and sent the letter a “pervert.”
“I don’t know who sent that letter to your child,” he said, “but I think the person who sends a letter to an 11-year-old about gender transition, what I call that in my family is a pervert, and that person ought to go to prison.”
In his response, Vance connected the anecdote to Texas Democrat James Talarico, who has faced scrutiny over his stance on gender transitions during his Senate campaign.
“He’ll probably defend the right of the person sending the letter,” Vance said of Talarico, “not the right of the parent who is rightfully creeped out by this.”
“James Talarico, who does have a weird fascination with trans kids, when he says that he wants to support trans kids, what he’s actually saying is that he wants to make it impossible for you to protect your children,” he said. “James Talarico has actually called it abusive when parents try to prevent their children from transitioning.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s also running for the same Senate seat, has launched extensive attacks against Talarico over transgenderism while the Democratic candidate has been accused of flip-flopping on his position. Talarico has distanced himself from past comments he made about transgender issues, but his legislative record shows past opposition to state restrictions.
Talarico, serving in 2023 as a Texas state representative, voted against a bill that prohibited certain gender transition surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormone treatments for minors. The measure ultimately passed and took effect in September 2023.
If elected to the Senate, Talarico said he will support a federal ban on transgender surgeries for minors. He argued that the state ban was “overly broad” and threatened to take away hormone treatments for nontransgender patients, which is why he voted against it three years ago.
The Texas Democrat also walked back his previous comments on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, saying it shouldn’t come at the cost of “safety or fairness.”
Meanwhile, Vance is one of many Republicans making the case that Talarico “has fought hard to protect” people pushing gender ideology, while Paxton has prosecuted individuals and institutions providing or promoting so-called gender-affirming care.
“Why are you going around and trying to convince children to transition their gender? That is sick and disgusting,” Vance said. “None of us signed up for it, and we’ve got to fight back.”
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The vice president advocated for the Republican state attorney general in the sit-down interview five days before the election.
Before Vance mentioned a possible DOJ investigation in relation to the letter, Fox News host Jesse Watters said the conservative news outlet would lead a journalistic investigation into the “perverted letter.”
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
