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Former college swimmer Riley Gaines is slamming Democrats for their framing on the issue of including transgender women in women's sports.
Gaines, who is one of the most prominent advocates for banning trans women from competing with cisgender women, recently spoke to Fox Business anchor Stu Varney about the issue.
In her interview, Gaines insinuated that the Democratic Party wasn't being honest about the number of people within their ranks who are opposed to trans women competing.
'This is an issue that has, unfortunately, become totally partisan - at least in terms of elected representation and certainly how the media represents this,' Gaines said.
She continued: 'The way they frame this, it's very 50/50. Again, very polarizing. That's just simply not the case, even amongst the Democratic Party or their voters.
'They say, the media says this is an 80/20 issue [overall]. I would argue it's even more drastic than that, I believe that even 80 percent of the Democratic Party... does not support the insane, ridiculous, harmful, destructive idea that men can become women or that men can get pregnant or that tampons belong in boys' bathrooms or that women need prostate exams or that men should be in women's sports.'
Riley Gaines has suggested that '80 percent of Democrats' believe trans women should be kept out of women's sports - asserting the Party is not being truthful in its framing of the issue
However, recent polling does not agree with the numbers Gaines threw out for Democrats
While Gaines threw out the number of '80 percent' of Democrats being against trans athletes in sports, some of the most recent polling on the issue does not agree with that assertion.
A Gallup poll published in June found that 69 percent of Americans believe that transgender athletes should only be allowed to play on sports teams which match their birth gender.
When split along party lines, 90 percent of Republicans agree with that statement - while only 41 percent of Democrats polled agree.
So, while it's not an insignificant number, 41 percent is still well short of the 80 percent that Gaines has touted.
Moreover, on the issue of transitioning in general, that same Gallup poll showed that 71 percent of Democrats believe that it is 'morally acceptable' to do so compared to nine percent of Republicans.
Since leaving swimming, Gaines has made a second career out of being one of the biggest anti-trans activists in the US - especially when it comes to trans people participating in women's sports, based on her experiences sharing a locker room with former Penn swimmer Lia Thomas.
She is a regular contributor to Fox News and has her own show on the conservative sports media site Outkick.
Gaines built a second career campaigning for trans athletes to be banned from sports
Recently, journalist Pablo Torre published a six-month investigation into Riley Gaines
Recently, former ESPN journalist and current podcast host Pablo Torre published an investigation into Gaines' activism career - suggesting that she has embarked on a 'grift' and questioning why she has not been publicly speaking about other issues women in sports face.
In particular, Torre notes that Gaines has not been outspoken against her former swim coach at the University of Kentucky, Lars Jorgensen.
Last month, the US Center for SafeSport ruled Jorgensen is 'permanently ineligible' from coaching due to sexual violence. His misconduct allegedly includes sexual harassment and sexual misconduct.
Gaines called it a 'baseless hit piece,' claiming: '[A] six-month "investigation" for that? To find out I have a job that pays me? Ground-breaking discovery, truly.
