Thread by @jbendery

Good morning. ☕️

Senate Republicans turned a judicial nominee's hearing yesterday into a transphobic spectacle, making unverified and offensive claims about "a male wearing a skirt" involved in a Virginia sexual assault case. huffpost.com/entry/republic…

This hearing was supposed to be about Holly Thomas, Biden’s pick for a lifetime seat on a U.S. appeals court.

But Republicans used it to spout transphobic garbage about girls being unsafe in trans-inclusive bathrooms. It was all very 2016 tbh.

Nearly every Republican on the committee wanted to talk about a May incident involving a teenage boy sexually assaulting a teenage girl at a high school in Loudoun County, Va.

This was a hearing for a nominee to a California-based U.S. court seat. Hmm. What's going on here.

Conservative media outlets have been blowing up the story about the May assault after the parents of the victim claimed the attacker was “gender fluid” and was wearing a skirt during the attack.

Authorities have not confirmed either of those details.

Equality Loudoun has weighed in, saying it stands with the victims and also noting that claims that the perpetrator is transgender or gender fluid are not verified.

"A grave disservice" to shift blame for this attack to any group or policy. loudounnow.com/2021/10/18/equ…

But that's just what Republicans in the committee did. Again and again.

Chuck Grassley asked Taylor, in light of Loudoun County, if she still agreed with a 2016 legal brief she filed claiming that concerns about the safety of girls in trans-inclusive bathrooms were unfounded.

So did Josh Hawley.

“Do you stand by your comments in these [2016] briefs that there is no evidence of violence or crime in restrooms by allowing biological males to use biological females’ restrooms?”

And Marsha Blackburn.

“It should not be lost on you how unsettled that Tennesseans that I represent are by your nomination because of what you have said about the transgender rights and the assault that happened in Loudoun County."

(I am not convinced that Tennesseans are closely following a judicial nomination to a California-based seat on a U.S. appeals court.)

Mike Lee also wanted to keep talking about girls' safety in trans-inclusive bathrooms, citing the Loudoun County incident and Thomas' previous legal briefs about bathrooms.

“I want to get back briefly to what Sen. Hawley was talking about."

A couple of weird things going on with this hearing.

Thomas -- again, a nominee to a California-based seat on a U.S. appeals court -- didn't even know about the Virginia incident. She said so at the start of the hearing. But every Republican used their time to talk about it.

Chuck Grassley even acknowledged from the start of the hearing that Thomas didn't know about the Loudoun County incident.

But curiously, he said he was going to ask her about it anyway, because...

“It’s really to get the news out here."

This is when it became clear that Republicans in the committee had already decided they were going to spotlight the Loudoun County incident in this hearing -- and fuel transphobia around it -- despite the nominee at the center of the hearing not even knowing about it.

So why would they do this?

Why would Republicans spend so much time talking about a Virginia sexual assault incident that happened in May, during a Senate confirmation hearing for a judicial nominee for a U.S. appeals court seat in California?

This thread by @ggreeneva offers a *very* interesting possible explanation.

https://twitter.com/ggreeneva/status/1450570609369493507

A reason that connects all the dots is that the Virginia governor’s race is in a dead heat, less than two weeks out from the election.

Ginning up GOP voters by stoking transphobia is one way to get them out to the polls and tip the election.

It’s hard to see it as coincidence that national conservative media outlets are amplifying an inaccurate, transphobic narrative about the Virginia assault at the same time that GOP senators weirdly made it the focus of a hearing for a nominee for a California-based court seat.

Here's a recent Media Matters piece that highlights how right-wing media have been blaming the Loudoun County school's trans-inclusive bathroom policy for this May assault -- even tho the policy wasn’t even in place at the time. mediamatters.org/daily-wire/rig…

Here's a breakdown of how this all went down in yesterday's Senate hearing, which was pretty disgusting and cynical but didn't get much media attention. huffpost.com/entry/republic…

In case it needs to be stated:

The myth that trans-inclusive bathrooms allow predators to attack women has been repeatedly debunked.

There are already laws protecting people from assault and harassment in public restrooms.

Well what a coincidence.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) just asked AG Merrick Garland about the Loudoun County incident (and spread the same transphobic misinformation about what happened.)

https://twitter.com/mmcauliff/status/1451214934046556164

It's almost like Republican lawmakers are coordinating to keep getting this incident more press attention -- misinformation and transphobia be damned -- ahead of the very tight Virginia governor's election on Nov. 2.

Well what a coincidence again.

Here's a new press release from Glenn Youngkin trying to tie Terry McAuliffe to the Loudoun County incident.