Karoline Leavitt Comes to Defense of Indiana Fever Player Amid Backlash for Comments on Trans Athletes

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt came to the defense of Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham following her comments on trans athletes.

In a Tuesday profile from ESPN, Cunningham weighed in on the nationwide debate regarding trans athletes competing in women’s sports. The report read:

You say she’s a “MAGA Barbie,” as some corners of the internet have taken to calling her? Projection, she says, because of what she looks like and where she’s from. She’ll weigh in on how to “protect women’s sports,” she says, because she’s in that world and feels qualified to speak to that world. “I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,'” she says. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

Those comments prompted a wave of social media backlash, with many accusing Cunningham of being transphobic.

During Thursday’s White House briefing, Leavitt was asked if President Donald Trump had reached out to Cunningham as a show of support. Leavitt said that he hadn’t, but he was following the situation.

She added:

As you know, this is something the president feels strongly about, as well — and the American people do, too — that men should not be playing in women’s sports. It’s completely ludicrous that anyone could support that. It’s even more ludicrous that you do have Sophie Cunningham, a female athlete herself, very accomplished in her own right, coming forth and speaking that truth that men shouldn’t play in women’s sports. We want to protect women and girls, and the backlash she is receiving from Democrats and left-wing figures across the country is astonishing. They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue which, again, is an 80-20 issue. It’s common sense. It’s rooted in basic biological fact that men should not be competing against women on playing fields across the country.

Watch above via CNN.

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