Megyn Kelly owes Taylor Swift an apology
As the critical 2024 election draws closer, Popular Information is producing in-depth investigations and reporting that you will not find anywhere else. Here are just a few examples of the work we've produced over the last two weeks: You can support this work — and help spread it far and wide — by upgrading to a paid subscription. Paid subscribers also get access to exclusive events, like our real-time fact-checking and analysis of the upcoming Vice Presidential debate. If the cost of a paid subscription ($6/month or $50/year) would create a financial burden, please stay on this free list. That's why this newsletter does not have a paywall. But if you can afford it, please consider supporting independent accountability journalism. Megyn Kelly, formerly of NBC and Fox News, is enraged that Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president. The global superstar endorsed Harris in an Instagram post on September 10, immediately after the debate between Harris and Donald Trump. Kelly was particularly incensed at the section of the endorsement where Swift praises Harris' selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) as her running mate. Swift wrote:
Kelly responded to Swift's endorsement that evening on YouTube, highlighting Swift's praise for Walz's endorsement of LGBTQ rights:
Kelly reprised the rant during an appearance on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson's live tour on September 13. "Screw you, Taylor Swift," Kelly said. "That is how I want to begin." Kelly then described the purported impact of Tim Walz's LGBTQ policy:
If this was accurate, it would be alarming. But while Swift has done her research, Kelly has not. Everything Kelly said about the LGBTQ legislation signed by Walz in 2023 is a lie. Minnesota's law does not terminate parental rights — it protects parental rightsThe lynchpin of Kelly's argument is that the Minnesota law signed by Walz allows for the termination of parental rights. The law, however, does the opposite. The law protects the rights of parents in Minnesota if another state terminates custody rights for helping their child receive gender-affirming care. This is typically a situation where there is a dispute between two parents about how to care for a child. The law states that court orders “for the removal of a child issued in another state because the child’s parent or guardian assisted the child in receiving gender-affirming care in this state must not be enforced in this state.” The law was enacted around the same time that many nearby states, including North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa, adopted laws limiting access to gender-affirming care. There is no provision of the law that allows Minnesota courts to terminate parental rights based on a parent's refusal to provide gender-affirming care. Minnesota's law does not allow the state to take custody of childrenThere is also nothing in the law that allows the state to take custody of a child or provide gender-affirming care over the objection of a child's parents. Rather, the law allows for Minnesota courts to exercise “temporary emergency jurisdiction” over a custody dispute that crosses state lines. This means that courts have “the ability to resolve conflicts when parents disagree on whether their child should receive gender-affirming care,” but “it does not remove custody from parents who decline such care,” Kat Rohn, executive director of LGBTQ rights advocacy group OutFront, told the Washington Post. The law allows the court to hear these cases, but this does not mean that courts will rule in favor of the parent seeking to help the child obtain gender-affirming care. Instead, the courts will decide based on "evidence about what is in children’s best interests." There is no scenario under the law in which Minnesota can provide gender-affirming care to a minor over the objection of both parents. The truth about gender-affirming care for trans childrenKelly is outraged about something that almost never happens: surgery for trans children. Gender-affirming surgeries for minors almost never occur, and “many health care providers do not offer them to minors.” A study done by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that “gender-affirming surgeries are rarely performed for transgender minors.” The study found no cases of surgeries for children 12 and younger in 2019. Among teens, 97% of gender-affirming breast reduction surgeries involved cisgender males. Kelly's misinformation spreads to Trump and VanceKelly has been spreading lies about Walz’s transgender rights policies since the day Harris selected him to be her running mate. “Tim Walz signed a bill that lets the State take away ur kids if you d/n/agree to sterilize them & chop off their body parts in the name of ‘gender affirming care.’ So if your 14-yr-old is sad but thinks it’s gender confusion & u object to castrating him, the St takes custody,” Kelly posted on X on August 6. Shortly after her original post, Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance (R-OH), began amplifying Kelly’s falsehoods. At a campaign event in Montana on August 9, Trump said that Walz signed a law that lets “the state kidnap children to change their gender so that they go home.” On August 7, at a campaign event in Wisconsin, Vance said, “I think it’s pretty weird to try to take children away from their parents if the parents don’t want to consent to sex changes. That’s something that Tim Walz did.” Vance repeated the claims in an interview with ABC News on August 11, calling the policy “kidnapping.” Note: Due to spam issues, replies to this newsletter are not monitored. You can reach Judd Legum by creating a new email and sending it directly to judd@popularinformation.substack.com. |
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The attack on the legitimacy of the 2024 presidential election has begun
Monday, September 16, 2024
There are 49 days until Election Day in the United States. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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The moment
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Popular Information's debate coverage has started. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Trump teams up with pickup artist for new crypto scheme
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Donald Trump is not just running for president; he's also launching a new crypto company. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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