Seth Moulton Says Dems Proving His Point After Backlash to Trans Comments

Representative Seth Moulton told Newsweek that the backlash he has faced following his comments about transgender athletes is indicative of how divided the Democratic Party is.
Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat, has faced heat since the election for saying that Democrats are out of touch with the majority of the country’s views on issues such as allowing transgender female students to compete in women’s sports.
In a New York Times article last week, Moulton said Democrats “spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face.” Leaders from the Democratic Party have now said Moulton is “playing politics.”
“No one issue lost us this election, but there is exit polling that shows that cultural issues played an outsized role,” Moulton told Newsweek. “We lost, in part, because we shame and belittle too many opinions held by too many voters and that needs to stop.”
Following Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss in the 2024 election to President-elect Donald Trump, Moulton said his party is leaning too heavily on identity politics rather than embracing the issues everyday Americans care about.
Moulton told MSNBC that he was “just speaking authentically as a dad” when he told The New York Times that he doesn’t want his two daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”
Massachusetts Democratic Party chair Steve Kerrigan told The Boston Globe that Moulton’s comments “do not represent the broad view of our party.” On Tuesday, Governor Maura Healey told reporters that Moulton is just “playing politics” and that “it’s important in this moment that we not pick on particularly vulnerable children.”
Though she did not mention Moulton by name, his fellow Massachusetts representative, Democrat Ayanna Pressley, posted to social media that she would stand with the LGBTQ+ community.
“I will always stand with trans people and the entire LGBTQ+ community,” Pressley posted to X, formerly Twitter. “This Congresswoman sees you and loves you.”
Moulton’s office had said that Tufts University’s political science department chair “consulted with his colleagues” and that they would no longer facilitate internships with Moulton.
Tufts wrote on X, “We have reached out to Congressman Moulton’s office to clarify that we have not–and will not–limit internship opportunities with his office.”
Newsweek reached out to Tufts University for comment earlier this week but did not hear back.
Moulton told Newsweek that he will “of course” continue to accept interns from Tufts.
“This has nothing to do with the Tufts students, and it’s unfortunate that we even had this episode to begin with,” he said.
On Tuesday, he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that it’s “just everything that’s wrong with this cancel culture.”
Now, with just two months before Trump’s inauguration, Moulton is calling for his party to reassess and commit to a plan for the 2026 primaries and the 2028 presidential election.
“We have to determine a new strategy for our party since our existing one failed and then unite to oppose the Trump agenda where it imperils American values,” Moulton said. “This timing is difficult for some people who are terribly upset about the election last week and its implications for their lives, but this is likely to get worse, not better, over the next four years.”
Moulton has said he will fight for the “rights and safety of all citizens,” including those who are transgender, because the “two ideas are not mutually exclusive.”
“it’s Democrats who are going to be on the front lines and stand up for the rights of every American. But we have to win again first to do that successfully,” Moulton said. “So we need to start course correcting now. 2026 will be here quickly, and that’s what we should be working toward.”