Ted Cruz keeps dodging on whether he agrees with his former podcast co-host's call to eradicate 'transgenderism'

• Conservative personality Michael Knowles called for the eradication of "transgenderism" in a CPAC speech.

• Knowles previously co-hosted a podcast with Ted Cruz for nearly two years.

• Cruz repeatedly refused to say whether he agrees with that idea, calling it "silly politics."

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas repeatedly refused to say whether he agrees with his former podcast co-host that "transgenderism" must be "eradicated."

"I think the extreme left's ideology has been very harmful," Cruz initially told Insider on Tuesday before boarding an elevator in the Capitol building.

Minutes later, Insider posed the same question to Cruz again, prompting him to dismiss the question as "silly politics."

"I get that you have a story you want to write," Cruz told Insider. "But let me tell you this: when you write a story about the young children who have their genitals mutilated, and they're rendered permanently sterile from radicals who removed their reproductive organs in the interest of radical ideology, then I'm happy to answer your other questions."

"But until you write that story, it's just silly politics that you're playing," he added.

In a Saturday speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, conservative media personality Michael Knowles — who previously co-hosted a podcast with Cruz for nearly two years — called for the eradication of what he describes as "transgenderism," arguing that it "isn't true."

"There can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism — it's all or nothing," said Knowles, who co-hosted "Verdict with Ted Cruz" from the show's inception in January 2020 until it was purchased by iHeartMedia in October 2022. "For the good of society, and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely."

"Transgenderism" is itself a largely derogatory term mostly used by opponents of transgender rights to dehumanize transgender people.

An influential figure on the right and a competitive presidential candidate in 2016, Cruz is typically willing to directly answer questions from reporters and offer his positions on all manner of issues.

But the senator has repeatedly declined to answer reporters' questions about Knowles' comments, opting instead to criticize the media for the way the comments were portrayed. Following Knowles' CPAC speech, critics accused him of making genocidal comments, arguing that he had essentially called for the elimination of transgender people.

Knowles has since argued that he was instead referring simply to the phenomenon of people undergoing gender transitions.

"Quite clearly, I'm saying I don't want to kill these people, I want to help them," said Knowles, who went to argue that transgender people must be required to identify by their sex on official government documents and be prohibited from using the bathroom of their preferred gender.

Knowles has since accused several media outlets of libelous behavior for saying he had called for the eradication of transgender people, prompting Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah to publicly back him up.

"The press is being silly and deliberately taking him out of context," Cruz told Insider when first asked about the issue on Tuesday.

But even so, Knowles' comments go well beyond what most Republican lawmakers have articulated.

While the GOP has put forward legislation at both the federal and state level to ban transgender people from participating in sports, prevent them from using the bathroom of their choice, or block minors from receiving gender-affirming care, there's been relatively little sign of a broader effort to prevent people from transitioning altogether.

However, former President Donald Trump has pledged to sign an executive order instructing federal agencies to "cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age."

Read the original article on Business Insider