CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Hammers Dan Crenshaw Over Trump Transgender Ban — Confronts Him With Devastating Clip

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins hammered Rep. Dan Crenshaw over President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban — and confronted him with a devastating clip contradicting Trump’s executive order.

Many observers have credited Trump’s victory in November to a relentless campaign of attacks against transgender issues, and his first days in office continued to push that theme.

In an executive order released Monday, Trump paved the way for transgender people to be banned and removed from the military, using language that trans people consider to be slurs:

It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria.

This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.

…

The Secretary shall promptly issue directives for DoD to end invented and identification-based pronoun usage to best achieve the policy outlined in section 2 of this order.

On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins spent several minutes trying to get Crenshaw to explain his support of Trump’s ban, and to square it with his own previously-stated beliefs.

She confronted Crenshaw with a clip from a 2021 Fox News interview in which he said he believed troops “should be able to serve openly, and tell people what their identity is” — a position Crenshaw insisted was clearly in line with Trump’s ban:

COLLINS: Let me ask you about some of the executive orders that Trump has been signing. Because you have said that any American, who is willing and able to serve in the military should be allowed to do so. Do you oppose Trump’s ban on trans people serving in the military?

CRENSHAW: No, not at all. And I’m not sure where you got that quote. But you could find a lot of other quotes from me that would say that we should never allow anyone in the military to undergo transition surgery, which would make them medically-unqualified to deploy, and therefore reduce the readiness of the military.

So, I’m not sure what President Trump is going to do exactly on this policy. It’s probably going to look a lot like his last administration, which was, you can say that you’re another sex, but you can’t undergo treatments to become another sex, because once you do that, you make yourself unready to deploy. It’s the medical procedures themselves disqualify you.

COLLINS: But there are trans people who serve in the military, right now, who would disagree with that.

CRENSHAW: They can disagree all they want. I’m the one who’s — I know what war is like, and I know what it takes to deploy. I was not allowed to deploy for vision issues.

Now, what if you need to be on a bunch of medications, and your — and your entire body has been — has been changed radically into another gender? It makes it very difficult to deploy you into the places that we need to deploy you.

I had to be medically-retired for my condition. And my condition, arguably, is far less — is far less severe than undergoing a transition to a different gender.

COLLINS: Yes, but people obviously take medical leave from the military all the time, and return.

And you said you didn’t know what quote I was talking about. This is from 2021. This is — this is the quote.

CRENSHAW: Yes, I’m sure — I’m sure I said that. But there’s–

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRENSHAW: I think people should be able to serve openly, and tell people what their identity is. And anybody who can meet those standards should be able to serve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CRENSHAW: And then I probably–

COLLINS: Do you still?

CRENSHAW: And then I — and then I — and then I probably went on to say — if the conversation was about transgenderism in the military, I probably, in that interview, went on to say exactly what I just said. Because I’ve never changed my mind on this.

COLLINS: So, when you say, I think people should be able to serve openly and tell people what their identity is, anyone who can meet those standards. I mean, aren’t you arguing that those people that if someone who is trans is in the military, and they can meet the standards, that they should be able to serve? I don’t — I don’t know that–

CRENSHAW: What I’m saying is by–

COLLINS: Why would you be making that decision, and not a medical professional, or someone who makes those decisions about vision, or whatever issues they evaluate, before deploying somebody?

CRENSHAW: I’m saying, by definition, if you — if you have transitioned into a different gender, you are not meeting our medical standards. There’s — you’re creating–

COLLINS: Right. But that’s your opinion.

CRENSHAW: No, it’s not an opinion. That is — that is a pretty easy — that’s an easy-to-prove fact. It makes it much harder on our units to deploy. Period. Like, full stop. And again, there’s a–

COLLINS: But then how are there trans people serving in the military, right now, Sir?

CRENSHAW: There’s a difference between identifying — like, again, look, you could — you could — Kaitlan, you could show up to your job, the next day, and say that your name is now, Ken. That’s different. You can identify that way. And that was Trump’s old policy, by the way. They would allow you to serve that way.

But there’s a very big difference between doing that, and actually undergoing medical procedures that take you — that take you out of service. And there’s — and, yes, you call it medical leave. But that’s some pretty severe medical leave. So, why would we allow that? And then you — and to say that you’re deployable to austere environments? No way. That’s just not true.

COLLINS: OK. But Congressman, I–

CRENSHAW: And so, I’ve never — I’ve never changed my mind on that.

COLLINS: The executive order is banning all trans people. Period. It’s not making a caveat that you’re making there.

CRENSHAW: I don’t think we’ve seen the text of the — of the order, have we? I don’t have the text.

COLLINS: Are you — this is what was — how it’s been described to us by our sources. Are you telling us that–

CRENSHAW: Yes, but we don’t — but we don’t have the–

COLLINS: –it makes that distinction?

CRENSHAW: I don’t — I don’t have the text. If you’re making any guess on what the text is, I have a feeling it’ll look a lot like the last administration. We don’t know yet.

COLLINS: OK. So, you’re in favor of this, though, regardless?

CRENSHAW: Yes. Yes, my position on this has always been very clear, so.

COLLINS: Congressman Dan Crenshaw, thank you for your time.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.