‘What Is a Two Spirit Individual?!’ Josh Hawley Fumes as He Demands Biden Official Explain ‘Gobbledegook’ Term

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) got into a heated verbal spat with a former Biden official after the congressman demanded to know what a “two spirit individual” is on Tuesday, among other “gobbledegook” phrases.

The term came up when Hawley pressed Gregory Jackson Jr. — who recently served as the deputy director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention — on his new organization’s “playbook” for reducing shootings during a Senate Judiciary Meeting.

Community Justice Action Fund, the organization Jackson now runs, is in favor of defunding police departments, and its playbook called for financing “safe space initiatives led by lesbian, gay, bisexual, two spirit, trans and gender non-forming people.” These groups, CJAF said, “are left out of many violence prevention efforts but at the highest risk of being harmed.”

This is where things went sideways.

Hawley read that aforementioned passage aloud to Jackson and asked him “What’s two spirit?”

“You guys are pulling some interesting quotes here,” Jackson responded, while chuckling.

“This is from your report,” Hawley told him.

The senator kept pushing for an answer, saying “I just want to know. I have no idea what that is.”

“Well, honestly, I’m not completely aware of the language or spirit of how that was written,” Jackson said.

Hawley shot back: “You wrote the report!”

The situation continued to escalate from there.

Jackson said: “I feel like I’m looking at a two-faced individual, because you talk about reducing violence —”

Hawley then jumped in: “Oh no, sir. you are looking at someone who is reading you your own words and I’d like to hear an answer.”

He did not get that answer he was looking for.

Tuesday’s hearing, according to the Senate Judiciary’s website, was titled “Blue City Chaos and Tragedy: How the Trump Administration is Addressing the Human Cost of Soft on Crime Policies.”

Jackson led the Office of Gun Violence Prevention from 2023 until earlier this year, when the office was dismantled by President Donald Trump’s administration.

You can watch him and Hawley go at it, courtesy of the C-SPAN video above.

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