Politics

Ric Grenell shared a trans woman’s CPAC experience. Conservatives have been blasting him since then.

Richard Grenell at a press conference
Richard Grenell at a press conference Photo: Screenshot/CSPAN

Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and current Trump-aspiring Twitter troll Richard Grenell constantly complains that “the left” ignores the voices and inclusion of LGBTQ conservatives because they don’t fit into their narrative. In an attempt to prove this, he shared the experience of Gina Roberts, a trans woman that attended CPAC with the Log Cabin Republicans.

Conservatives took notice, and they definitely weren’t as inclusive as Grenell and others tried to claim. In fact, Republicans are now denouncing him for showing support for trans people.

Related: How drag queen story hour & a boatload of money launched Marjorie Taylor Greene’s political career

Grenell has been filling the time before he attempts to launch a run for governor of California or goes back to stumping as a Trump surrogate the only way he knows how: griping on Twitter.

“Sharing some truth from @CPAC that DC reporters won’t acknowledge,” he claimed, tagging Washington Post politics reporter Dave Weigel. The tweet included a screenshot of a Facebook post by Gina Roberts, a trans woman that attending CPAC this past weekend — where former President Donald Trump proudly proclaimed that “those who are biological males….[are] not good for women” and “not good for women’s sports.”

In the Facebook post, Roberts proclaimed, “CPAC 2021 was an incredibly accepting and wonderful experience for this transgender Republican woman.” Roberts explained that she “worked the Log Cabin Republican booth and received nothing but respectful questions about things in the news about transgender people.

“Much better and easy to get along with crowd than any Pride festival I was involved at…”

If Grenell hoped to use Roberts’ singular experience at the conference as proof that the conservative movement is not as intolerant as they are often shown to be, he had another thing coming. His mentions were immediately filled with transphobic outrage from his huge right-wing base.

“I don’t want this in my party,” Joshua Foxworth, a failed Republican candidate for Congress in Texas, proudly wrote twice in a direct reply and quote tweet to Grenell’s. “This is insanity and against everything that I stand for,” he said in his direct reply to Grenell, “and against Christ. If you support this, you are not a conservative.

“If that means that I am not ‘conservative’, then I am not,” he proclaimed in the quote tweet.

“We’re celebrating mental illness now?” questioned Lauren Witzke, spokesperson for the Hold the Line PAC, which was founded after rioters attempted an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and people attending screamed at the mob to “HOLD THE LINE!”

“Transgenderism is demonic, no matter how much $$ your donors give you to convince you it isn’t,” Witzke stated.

 

Other, less prominent conservatives were just as clear in their overwhelming rejection of Grenell’s and Roberts’ claims.

“Conservatism is doomed to fail if we give up the culture by normalizing transgender ideology,” said one tweeter.

“This is COMPLETELY nonsensical and the ‘Conservative Party’ is bowing to people with mental illnesses,” said Shekinah Geist, social media influencer and conservative.

Trying to save face, Grenell said he’ll gladly campaign against Foxworth next time he runs, but first asks him, “Who is running against you?”

Foxworth tells him, “you went from transgenderism to taxes, ‘personal freedom’ and insults. I am reasonably sure that we are not on the same ‘side’.” He also invited people to question his former opponent, current Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) “how he feels” about “transgenderism”.

Grenell bashes Foxworth, telling him that “you won’t ever win. You think you’re being a purist but you aren’t – you are making government bigger and more powerful.”

In response to his promise to campaign against Foxworth, a clearly undaunted Witzke told Grenell, “yeah, do it Richard.”

Others similarly warned Grenell against it.

Grenell then oddly asks Witzke, “are you ok with welcoming gay conservatives into the Republican party?” as if trans conservatives could take comfort in that fact if she did.

“What you really mean is will I sell out on traditional marriage to appease 3% of the population who never votes for us anyway? The answer is no,” she replies.

Grenell tweets back at her, asking, “to be clear, you don’t welcome gay conservatives into the Republican Party?”

“Did I stutter?” Witzke shoots back.

She then moved on to attacking gay and trans conservatives, telling conservative online personality Chad Felix Greene, “10 years ago, conservatives caved on same-sex marriage, now we have drag queen story hour….”

“We lose EVERYTHING standing with you.”

 

For his part, Weigel, the reporter, did share Grenell’s tweet of Roberts’ experience.

“Happy to share this post,” Weigel tweeted. “Grenell objected to my use of ‘anti-trans’ to describe Trump’s riff on ‘biological males’ in women’s sports; here’s the transcript.”

 

 

 

 

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