Things got tense between Andy Cohen and Meghan McCain this week after the pair traded jabs on X over the Trump Administration’s controversial executive order to bar female trans athletes in sports.
The argument between the two began when McCain, a longtime Republican critical of President Donald Trump and a self-proclaimed LGBTQ+ ally, responded to a post on X from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt regarding Payton McNabb, a 19-year-old who says she suffered a traumatic brain injury after a transgender woman spiked a volleyball into her face during a match in high school. McNabb was a guest during Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday evening.
“I have had the pleasure of meeting Payton—she is incredibly smart, strong and brave. Both she and her family have been through the unthinkable,“ McCain wrote. “Democrats defending young women suffering from traumatic brain injuries as a result of trans athletes is why they will continue losing every election.”
Cohen replied to McCain’s post, “Surprised you’re buying into the vilification of the trans community given the real problems happening in this country, your previous ally-ship of the lgbtq community, and the fact that this non-issue affects about four people in this country.”
“Surprised you’re okay with violence against female athletes,” McCain responded. “You have my cell, always happy to talk privately or publicly on either of our shows because these conversations are reductive to hash out on social media.”
McCain declined to comment further on the spat, Entertainment Weekly reported, but did state to the publication that she would elaborate on her opinions and the incident with Cohen on her personal and professional channels.
Cohen, the first openly gay male host of a late-night talk show, later shared an article by sports journalist Jemele Hill, critiquing the administration’s ban. He captioned the post, “Protect women’s sports.”
Following the executive order, the NCAA has announced it will restrict “competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only,” the organization wrote in a statement.
“The policy permits student-athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women’s teams and receive benefits such as medical care while practicing,” the statement read.
The Human Rights Campaign has called the executive order “a cruel effort by anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom to further stigmatize and discriminate against LGBTQ+ people across the country.”
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