WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined “The Megyn Kelly Show” to discuss the need for the Senate to quickly bring his Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, or S.9, to the floor for a vote. The U.S. House of Representatives passed similar legislation on a bipartisan basis in January.
Senator Tuberville’s interview comes ahead of National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Wednesday, February 5.
Excerpts from Senator Tuberville’s interview can be found below, and his full interview can be viewed here.
KELLY: “Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has been on the frontlines working to pass the legislation and he has been working for years—I went back and looked at the number of times he’s tried to bring this up when nobody wanted to hear from him, when it appeared to have no chance of passing, he brought it up, he brought it up again, he brought it up again. He has been like a dog with a bone on this—a true ally to women and girls everywhere, and there’s a reason, I think. He’s got a historic background in the sports world as a former head coach for several college football teams, Senator Tuberville—Coach Tuberville—welcome to the show.”
TUBERVILLE: “Thank you, Megyn. Thanks for having me on. And what a great subject we’re going to talk about.”
KELLY: “I’m your huge fan at like the number of times you have tried to push this boulder up the hill really makes me respect you, even though you knew there was no way a Democrats-controlled Senate was going to give you a vote. But then, GOP wins control of the Senate—and what we’ve seen since you guys got control of the House and the Senate is the House passed it, and it got massaged a bit, they passed it again and said ‘Yeah, okay here we go, back to you guys in the Senate’ and we’ve been waiting—I’ve been waiting to see a vote by the GOP-controlled Senate on this thing because it’s much better—notwithstanding Trump’s executive orders—if it can become law. Law that can’t just be undone by an executive order four years from now. So why aren’t we seeing a vote?”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, exactly right, Megyn. A lot of people don’t realize that an executive order, which President Trump signed almost a couple of weeks ago defining gender, by the way, and he even come out and said, ‘Listen, we have to have a bill within thirty days,’ because if you don’t know this, executive orders only last as long as that president’s there. So, we got some work to do. This is the third time—third time’s the charm. […] 79% of the people in this country—Republican and Democrat—say it is wrong for men or boys to participate in women’s sports. We’ve got the majority on our side. As you said—we’ve got to get it to the floor. John Thune told me he’s going to get it to the floor. He hasn’t done it. Now, it’s time to put up or shut up. We’ve got to get it on the floor so people can see. If it’s not going to pass, we’ll do it again, but we’ve got to get people on the record because this is something that’s very dear to the heart of all parents across the country and it’s dead wrong.”
KELLY: “Would John Thune not want it to come to the floor—he certainly wouldn’t want to protect Democrats—he must know of Republicans who are not ready to vote for this thing.”
TUBERVILLE: “Well, leadership is actually co-sponsors of this, and I think at the end of the day, John Thune’s been overwhelmed. Obviously, you’ve got President Trump breathing down his neck, you’ve got the […] House pushing things over—we’re trying to do reconciliation. The Laken Riley Act needed to be passed because it was so important with the border being under attack and we’re losing so many young men and women to fentanyl and all those things. But now is the time to act on this. We can’t wait any longer. 50 years of Title IX—it has been decimated by Biden and the Democrats and all the far-left progressives. I grew up in this business of coaching. I saw what it did for young girls, older girls—it’s created leaders across this country.” […]
KELLY: “Is there some belief that this can’t pass, and they only want wins right now? They only want to put legislation on the floor that can get through?”
TUBERVILLE: “Yeah, and put yourself in John Thune’s position and the leadership of the Senate. They’re looking at things ‘Hey, let’s win early. Let’s get on the scoreboard early.’ But the problem with this is we’ve already won because President Trump pushed this out there. Now’s the time to put pressure on the Democrats. Time and time again, 4 or 5 times if we have to, even before the next election—get them on [record on] the vote that they’re going to vote against girls and women [by] having them participate against men and boys. It’s devastating to sports. It’s devastating to the lives of young people—there has been rapes in dressing rooms and showers. […] It’s going to become a common thing if you don’t stop this now. You let this landslide keep going—we’re going to have huge problems getting it stopped. So, it’s important that we stop it now, President Trump’s hot on the trail on this with his Executive Order. […] 50 years ago was the first time we ever said, ‘Okay, let’s give women […] an opportunity.’ […] And it’s the best thing that ever passed out of this place we call ‘the Swamp’ here in Washington, D.C. But again, we’re going to keep fighting for it…I’m going to continue to push leadership—John Thune, John Barrasso—they’re on my side on this, but again, you might have hit the nail on the head a while ago when you said, ‘They might just want to win.’ Well, we’ve had two losses in the last two votes that weren’t Laken Riley. So hey, let’s not worry about winning or losing on this—let’s get it out there where people can see what’s going on.’”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP, and Aging Committees.
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