Potential Democratic presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel has publicly split from his party’s progressive views on transgender rights.
The former Chicago mayor told conservative pundit Megyn Kelly that he didn’t believe transition is literally possible.
“Can a man become a woman?” Kelly asked Emanuel, who was Joe Biden’s ambassador to Japan.
“Can a man become a woman? No,” the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama replied.
“Thank you,” Kelly said, adding that Emanuel’s answer was “so easy.”
“Why don’t more people in your party say that?” she asked.
“Because we’re—I’m now going to go into a witness protection plan," he joked.
Kelly also grilled Emanuel with a rapid-fire “round robin” of questions.
“Do you believe that boys should be able to play in girls’ sports?”
“No,” Emanuel answered immediately.
“Do you believe that kids under the age of 18 should be able to be put on puberty blockers and cross sex hormones?”
“I think that parents have to make that decision themselves,” he said. “I think that child is too young at 18 to make that decision, it has to be made with a family.”
“Should we be putting men in female prisons? Men claiming they’re women.”
“No,” he said.
Republicans capitalized on the slogan “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” during the 2024 election, rolling out major ad campaigns that aimed to sway swing voters. Now, with the midterms nearing and 2028 on the horizon, Democrats are increasingly fracturing over transgender rights. Emanuel, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and even Pete Buttigieg have seemingly begun to shift away from publicly embracing the trans community.
In March, California Gov. Newsom made surprising comments on the first episode of his podcast, asserting that it was “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports.
“I think it’s an issue of fairness,” he said in a conversation with right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk. “I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair.”
Even Pete Buttigieg, another 2028 contender who’s openly gay, has removed his pronouns from his X profile in recent months.
Emanuel’s opinions have reflected a new divide for the Democratic party, with some quietly agreeing and others empathically reinforcing their support for transgender rights.
He echoed a GOP talking point in March when he expressed frustration about pronouns in an interview with Axios.
“Some kids in the classroom are debating which pronouns apply, and the rest of the class doesn’t know what a pronoun is,“ he said at the time. ”That’s a crisis.”
