‘Backlash’: Dem congressman who blasted party over trans athletes says he’ll likely ‘be primaried’ for failing ‘liberal litmus tests’

Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts said Tuesday he expects to face a primary challenge for criticizing his party’s stance on transgender athletes competing in female sports, thus failing what he called the “liberal litmus tests.”

Moulton initially called out Democrats on the issue in a Nov. 7 New York Times article, saying it cost Democrats the 2024 presidential election. Moulton told “CNN News Central” co-host John Berman that people who didn’t meet the “litmus tests” are “not even allowed” to share opinions in the Democratic Party.

“We seem to have a set of liberal litmus tests, and if you don’t meet those litmus tests, then you’re not even allowed to share your opinion,” Moulton told Berman. “I mean, this is the attitude that a lot of Americans feel the Democratic Party takes to the entire country. If you don’t agree with us, then not only are you wrong, but you’re a bad person and these things are not up for debate.”

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“So, I gave this example of transgender women in sports as just, as one of many issues where we’re not even allowed to have a debate and many Americans are turned off by that,” Moulton continued. “They say, ‘Why would I want to be a part of a party where my views aren’t valid, they’re not even up for discussion?’”

The Trump campaign ran ads featuring Harris discussing how she pushed “behind the scenes” for transgender prisoners to receive sex changes, while former President Donald Trump said he supported banning biological men from competing in women’s sports during an Oct. 16 town hall moderated by Fox News host Harris Faulkner. Moulton said Democrats were using “every excuse in the book” to avoid confronting the reasons for their defeat.

“Trump, despite his, sort of, twisted morals and unconscionable beliefs in many cases, is able to tap into Americans’ real fears and concerns. He’s able to give voice to them,” Moulton said. “And when we deny those fears, for example, when we just said, oh, there’s no problem at the border, or don’t worry about inflation, it’s going to go away, when we just deny those fears, then people are not going to trust us.”

Moulton came under fire for his op-ed and media appearances, even though he voted against legislation that would have blocked biological men from competing in women’s sports. Moulton expressed concern about his daughters “getting run over” while competing against a biological male in the Nov. 7 article.

“I probably will be primaried, and that’s — that just proves my point, is that you can’t speak a sentence that’s out of line and not get backlash from the left, but that’s okay,” Moulton said. “This is a democracy. I’m going to speak my mind, I’m going to give voice to the concerns that I hear from the constituents that I represent and I’m going to keep doing that.”

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