‘Just Wild!’ CNN’s Jake Tapper Rips ‘Deranged’ Trump Claims On Transgender Care Amid Supreme Court Case

CNN anchor Jake Tapper tore into the “deranged” anti-trans rants President-elect Donald Trump made on the campaign trail on Tuesday as he interviewed ACLU attorney Chase Strangio about trying a landmark Supreme Court case.

Strangio became the first openly transgender attorney to argue before the Supreme Court on Wednesday when oral arguments began in United States v. Skrmetti, a case about whether Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors violates the U.S. Constitution.

The case comes after Trump leveraged a series of carpet-bombed attack ads on transgender rights and focused on the issue at rallies — often with false or misleading claims.

On Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper ripped those “wild” and “deranged” claims as he asked Strangio if Trump’s rhetoric has an impact on the case:

TAPPER: You heard some of the more deranged things that Donald Trump said on the campaign trail about kids going off to school and the school changes the gender of the kid, you know, at school that day, parent’s don’t — I mean, just wild claims. He — he has also more directly, well, let’s just play some of what he said to get your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP: I will revoke Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called gender affirming care.

I will sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age. I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures and pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Is this case that you are going to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court involving Tennessee relevant to what President Trump — President-elect Trump says he wants to do there?

STRANGIO: Yeah, he obviously says a lot of things and is causing people a lot of panic for — for good reason. And it is relevant, and here’s why because Tennessee’s arguments about why the law that they passed doesn’t in classify or discriminate based on, on sex is not limited to a state law, and its not limited to a law that is banning this care for minors.

So if Tennessee is successful, if the Supreme Court in essence, sides with the government of Tennessee, I think that will open the door to the types of federal bans on this care not only for minors, but for adults, too.

TAPPER: For adults, do you think?

STRANGIO: I do — I do, and I think that’s one of the things we should be really concerned about. We’re hearing a lot about young people can’t consent to this care, but it is their parents consenting to this care. And at the end of the day, we have adults who live as transgender people — people like myself who have families, who are part of communities, who are part of this society.

And if the — if the incoming administration bans our health care, that is essentially excising us from this country.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.