California gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner supports providing a pathway to citizenship for the state’s roughly two million illegal aliens. The former Olympic athlete turned transgender activist announced the policy position during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, which is set to air Monday night.
BASH: California’s labor force includes 1.75 million undocumented immigrants. Should they have a path to citizenship?
JENNER: I would hope so. I am for legal immigration, okay. What’s been happening on the border was honestly one of the reasons I decided to run for governor. I was watching people dying come across the river, kids in cages – whatever you want to call them.
BASH: They should have a chance at citizenship?
JENNER: Absolutely. Yeah, they should.
To me, personally, there’s a lot of people, but personally, I have met some of the most wonderful people who are immigrants, who have come to this country and they are just model citizens. They are just great people and I would fight for them to be, you know, U.S. citizens. I think it would be the greatest day of their life.
BASH: What about deportation?
JENNER: The bad ones have to leave.
BASH: What do you consider a bad one?
JENNER: Criminal records, um, MS-13, the list goes on. There’s a lot of bad people trying to cross our border illegally. I don’t want those people in our country.
Jenner is hoping to oust Governor Gavin Newsom (D) in a recall election likely scheduled later this year. The Republican candidate slammed Newsom’s leadership, particularly during the COVID pandemic, as The Daily Wire reported:
“This isn’t the California we know. This is Gavin Newsom’s California, where he orders us to stay home but goes out to dinner with his lobbyist friends,” said Jenner, referencing Newsom getting caught dining with friends indoors without masks at The French Laundry, an opulent Napa Valley restaurant that charges $1,200 per person for a white truffle and caviar dinner.
Jenner shocked many over comments about transgender athletes participating in girls’ sports.
“This is a question of fairness,” Jenner said, according to a report from The Daily Wire sourcing TMZ. “That’s why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports in school.”
“It just isn’t fair and we have to protect girls’ sports in our schools,” the gubernatorial candidate said.
The celebrity’s decision to run as a Republican upset LGBT activists. The Daily Wire reported:
“Caitlyn Jenner is a deeply unqualified hack who doesn’t care about anyone but herself,” trans activist Charlotte Clymer tweeted. “Her views are terrible. She is a horrible candidate.”
“Caitlyn Jenner has no real support. I don’t care about her candidacy. I do care about the ways in which her asinine views will be weaponized against trans people and the ways in which transphobia will go unchecked. This is purely a vanity campaign, and it’s incredibly selfish,” Clymer said. “Caitlyn Jenner’s only real political position is doing whatever it takes to boost Caitlyn Jenner, and she doesn’t care who gets hurt along the way. I wish this didn’t need to be said, but undoubtedly it does: whatever you may think of Caitlyn Jenner–and I do NOT think kindly of her–please remember there are numerous valid critiques of her without turning to transphobia. Please think before you post. Please.”
MSNBC’s Joy Reid also took issue with the gubernatorial candidate. “Caitlyn Jenner is a strange figure, because she was for Donald Trump and he was, you know, directly an anti-trans president,” Reid said on her show Tuesday. “And now she is running for governor and has now decided she, too, is against trans girls playing sports.”
California’s recall is scheduled for later this year, although a definitive date has yet to be selected.