Tucker Carlson grills GOP candidate Asa Hutchinson about child gender transitions

Former Arkansas governor and 2024 presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson got a rough ride at an Iowa forum Friday while trying to defend his veto of a ban on gender procedures for minors, at one point asking forum moderator Tucker Carlson to change the subject.

The former Fox News host questioned Hutchinson during the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines about his 2021 rejection of a bill that barred hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgeries for minors, which state lawmakers immediately overrode.

“What I believe in is that parents ought to raise their children. I believe that parents ought to be in control. And I also believe in the Constitution,” Hutchinson told Carlson. “I believe that God created two genders, and that there should not be any confusion on your gender. But if there is confusion, then parents ought to be the one that guides the children. That to me is an important fundamental principle.”

“Now obviously, you could take it too far,” the former governor went on. “And if there would have been a bill that said, ‘You should not ever have transgender surgery as a minor,’ I would sign that … because no parent should be able to consent to that permanent change.”

Carlson pointed out that the governor “drew the line at castration or physical altercation of the child’s body because it’s permanent” but hadn’t discussed the lasting effects of puberty blockers and the use of cross-sex hormones.

“In the subsequent two years, I think we’ve learned that hormone therapy for prepubescent children is permanent,” Carlson said. “It changes the bone structure. It changes the brain of the child. A lot of people believe, including me, that it destroys the child’s life. But it is permanent. It’s not reversible.”

“So given that and that standard you just articulated, do you have different feelings? I mean, this is a permanent change we’re making to a child. Why would we allow that if we allow surgery?” he asked.

Hutchinson replied that “hormonal treatment” was a separate issue from surgery and that Arkansas lawmakers should have protected the practice by writing a grandfather clause into their bill.

The Republican-led legislature overturned Hutchinson’s veto the day after it was announced on April 5, 2021, pushing through its Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act and becoming the 20th US state to ban the controversial gender procedures.

But in a ruling last month, US District Judge James Moody Jr., an appointee of former President Barack Obama, struck down the law, saying it discriminated against transgender citizens and was unconstitutional.

“Again, I respect legislators that have a different view,” Hutchinson said. “But 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.”

“But how was that treatment?” Carlson pressed.

“If you have a child who says, ‘I’m 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 process of adolescence? How is that treatment? It seems not like treatment. It seems like something else,” the conservative personality went on, causing the audience to break into applause.

“Tucker, I hope that we’ll be able to talk about some issues,” a visibly irritated Hutchinson began before being cut off.

“Well, this is one of the biggest issues in the country,” Carlson went on to further applause. “This is one of the biggest issues in the country, and I think every person in this room would agree that it is a central issue, because these are children who are being altered permanently.

“You can defend that alteration, that change, if you like, but there’s really no debate about 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, polite way –why you would support that,” Carlson asked.

“Well, I didn’t say what I supported,” Hutchinson responded. “I said what I vetoed, and whenever you look at children and what they’re challenged with in life, I think it’s important that in the most sensitive issues that parents are able to guide them through that challenge.

“And so I don’t like the schools pushing transgenderism,” he added. “For example, when President Obama issued the order from the Department of Education that you ought to have bathrooms in the schools that the children can choose what their gender is and go to which bathroom they think they are that day — I said that is not consistent with the law.”

“But you said that children should be able to choose their gender, and their parents should be able to affirm that, and the state has no role in getting involved, so how is that different?” Carlson probed. “You’re saying that a child shouldn’t be able to choose a bathroom, but he can choose his sex. I don’t understand.”

“The government should not be pushing an agenda in our schools. And that’s what I oppose,” Hutchinson said, adding that parents should decide if hormonal treatment options are needed to delay puberty.

“You have repeatedly described delaying a child’s natural progression from childhood to adulthood through adolescence, you’ve described that as ‘treatment,’” Tucker pointed out again. “You believe, I suppose, that people can change their sex. Because if you don’t believe that, you wouldn’t call it treatment, would you?”

“I don’t support that. I wouldn’t make that decision in my family about changing genders. And I don’t believe that taxpayers’ funds should be used for transgender surgery or treatment through Medicaid or Medicare or in our military,” Hutchinson said. “I’m saying one simple fundamental thing: that we have to have a debate as to what is the limited role of government.”