It’s been said that elections have consequences. Actions candidates have taken in the past also have consequences.
That was demonstrated Friday when Tucker Carlson took Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson to task for his 2021 veto of a bill prohibiting transgender procedures on minors.
The normally affable former governor of Arkansas was uncomfortable and clearly irritated when Carlson — himself demonstrating courtesy and restraint — continually pushed through Hutchinson’s politico-speak responses to ask why he had refused to stop the use of harmful procedures on children.
The key word in the Carlson-Hutchinson exchange at the presidential forum of Blaze Media’s Summit was “treatment,” with Hutchinson saying he vetoed the bill because it did not allow ongoing treatment of children already undergoing transgender procedures.
“Whenever you look at the bill I vetoed, there was not any grandfather clause in there. … I think, independently, I think of the parents, I think of the Constitution, and actually the court — if you read the decision of the federal judge that struck it down as unconstitutional — really sided with parents as well,” Hutchinson said.
“But how is it treatment? How is it treatment?” Carlson interjected. “I guess that’s my question.”
He continued: “If you have a child who says — who’s born a boy — ‘I want to become a girl.’ He hasn’t gone through puberty yet. He’s, say, 10. Is it treatment to prevent him from going through the natural processes of adolescence?”
To audience applause, Carlson said: “It seems not like treatment. It seems like something else.”
Hutchinson immediately switched to the time-honored politician’s tactic of deflection.
“Tucker,” he said, “I hope that we’ll be able to talk about some issues, I know that –”
“Well, this is one of the biggest issues in the country, and I think every person in this room would agree,” Carlson said to more applause and cheers, “that it is [an] essential issue because these are children who are being altered permanently.
“And you can defend that alteration, that change, if you like. But there’s really no debate on whether or not it’s permanent.
“And so I think it’s fair to ask you in a calm, rational and, I very much hope, in a polite way, why you would support that.”
Hutchinson countered that he was not describing what he was supporting but what he had vetoed. He said issues of health should be between parents and children and that there should not be interference from schools.
The former governor said he was critical of the Obama administration’s mandate that schools must let children decide which bathroom to use and of schools not informing parents of transgender issues children might bring up in school.
“And then they [parents] make the decision,” Hutchinson said. “They can go to the doctor if the child is suicidal, if the child is struggling. … They discuss hormonal treatment that would delay puberty.
“I don’t think the government should come in and tell the parents: ‘You can’t give the child a vaccine’ or ‘You must give a child a vaccine’ or ‘You can’t give them a treatment that you think is important.’”
Carlson responded by saying he was not questioning Hutchinson’s motives, but he again brought up the GOP candidate’s use of the word “treatment” to describe delaying the natural development of a child.
“You believe it’s treatment,” he said. “You believe — I suppose — that people can change their sex. ’Cause if you don’t believe that, you wouldn’t call it treatment, would you?”
Hutchinson responded by saying that God created two genders, that he does not believe in transgenderism and that he would not advocate for a transgender change in his own family, nor would he want any kind of government funding for such procedures.
Government funding should not be involved because, like abortion, transgenderism has religious opposition, he said.
Noting that Arkansas was one of the first states to pass legislation on restricting transgenderism (with the governor’s veto overridden by the legislature before being jettisoned by the federal judge), Hutchinson said that while he had not read all the bills of other states, there has been some provision for grandfathering transgender treatment.
Whatever the case, it didn’t seem like the audience was in step with the former governor’s stance.
Trending Politics co-owner Collin Rugg shared the exchange on Twitter, saying, “Tucker is putting everyone on blast.”
NEW: Tucker Carlson calls out RINO Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson to his face for supporting gender transitioning children.
Tucker is putting everyone on blast 🔥
“These are children who are being altered permanently and you can defend that change if you’d… pic.twitter.com/T5HB0e549V
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 14, 2023
“How many conservative journalists do you know have the balls to call out RINOs to their faces?” he said. “Very few.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
