Fox News host Piers Morgan pressed GOP presidential primary candidate Chris Christie about his stance on issues relating to transgender youth.
Calling the former New Jersey governor the most “progressive” of the GOP presidential primary candidates on transgender issues, Morgan asked Christie whether the government should intervene when parents wish to provide gender-affirming health care to children.
“We’re having a big argument in our country too about parents being excluded from educational choices for their kids, and we as a Republican Party and conservatives say parents should decide their children’s educational choices,” Christie responded.
“Well, I don’t think the government has any business getting in between a parent and their child in any one of these instances,” he added.
Morgan pressed the Republican further, telling him that he may not be a conservative on transgender issues “by the modern yardstick.”
“No no no,” Christie shot back. “That’s like saying that now a biological woman isn’t a woman by a modern yardstick. So don’t use the modern yardstick one way and then want to change it a different way, OK?”
“What is very clear to me is that conservatives don’t want big government in their lives. They don’t want big government interfering in their lives, especially in their personal lives. They don’t want the government saying what books their children can read,” he continued “They don’t want the government saying, you know, what their education should be. They want parents to be involved in the middle of that. Well gee whiz, Piers, shouldn’t they be in the middle of making those decisions?”
The Republican’s comments mirror statements he has made on the campaign trail knocking transgender health care bans implemented by Republicans across the country in recent months.