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FIRST ON FOX: Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley says the Democrats “have lost their minds” after his tense exchange with a progressive pro-choice California law professor went viral.
Hawley torched the Democrats in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, calling the party “extremists” and saying the Democrats’ descent into madness is on display for the whole country.
“The Democrats have become such extremists. Now their official line is men can get pregnant — and if you disagree, you’re violent,” Hawley said on Tuesday after the exchange went viral online. “They have lost their minds and the whole country can see it.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the Democrats have become “extremists” and “have lost their minds” in front of the country.
(Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS)
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the impact of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the subject of abortion back to be decided at the state level.
The University of California at Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges, a pro-choice witness on a panel before the Senate, accused Hawley of endangering transgender Americans by asking if only women can get pregnant.
Conservative Twitter users praised Hawley’s questioning while slamming Bridges over the exchange.
During the hearing, Hawley asked Bridges about her use of the phrase “people with the capacity for pregnancy” and if she meant “women” by it.
In response, Bridges tore off her mask and said that many “cis-women have the capacity for pregnancy” and that “many cis-women” are not able to get pregnant.
“There are also trans-men who are capable of pregnancy as well as non-binary people who are capable of pregnancy,” Bridges continued.
“So this isn’t really a women’s rights issue, it’s a what?” Hawley retorted. Bridges responded that people can “recognize this impacts women while also recognizing that it impacts other groups.”
“So, your view is that the core of this right then is about what?” Hawley asked.
Bridges called Hawley’s questions “transphobic” and claimed, without evidence, that his questions “open up trans people to violence by not recognizing them.”
“Wow, you’re saying that I’m opening up people to violence by asking whether or not women are the folks who can have pregnancies?” Hawley responded.
The UC Berkley law professor did not answer Hawley’s question, instead pointing to a suicide attempt statistic for transgender Americans and claiming the senator was “denying trans people exist.”
“I’m denying trans people exist by asking you if you’re talking about women having pregnancies?” Hawley asked as Bridges barked “are you” over his question.
“Do you believe that men can get pregnant?” Bridges asked the senator.
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 29: Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-MO) speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to examine Texas’s abortion law on Capitol Hill on September 29, 2021 in Washington, DC.
( (Photo by Tom Williams-Pool/Getty Images))
Hawley said no, prompting Bridges to claim the Missouri senator was “denying trans people exist.”
“And that leads to violence? Is this how you run your classroom?” Hawley responded, asking if Bridges’ students were allowed to question her in class.
“Or are they also treated like this?” Hawley asked, motioning between the two of them. “Where they’re told that they are opening up people to violence by questioning?”
“Oh we have a good time in my class, you should join,” Bridges retorted, with Hawley quipping he bets it’s a good time and that he would “learn a lot.”
The pair’s exchange came after Bridges responded to Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn’s questions on Black babies being aborted with multiple references to “people with the capacity for pregnancy.”
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Bridges said that she loves “Black people with the capacity for pregnancy” but would not say if she believed an unborn child has value.
In fact, the law professor dodged Cornyn’s question on whether an unborn child has value by talking about abortion access for “people with the capacity for pregnancy” and, when called out by the senator on it, Bridges said that she was “answering a question that is more interesting to me.”
