Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready.
$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for joining us. You're really going to like this because Riley Gaines is going to join us. Now, Riley's gone through a lot. Look, she's one of the best swimmers in the world. The girl is fast. She can swim fast.
And, but she's gone through a lot. And you've got to hear her story. I heard it in person and we're going to sit down, we're going to go through it. And everything that she went through and tried to deal with this, this,
that really did need to happen. I don't want to spoil it. I don't want to get into it. I'm just saying, stay tuned. We're going to hit a few highlights in the news. We're going to highlight the stupid because, you know, there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere, and then we'll get right after it with Riley Gaines, who's going to sit down with me, and we're going to go through this, and I think you're going to be amazed by this story and the details. Maybe you've seen a clip here and there, but when you actually hear start to finish what happened,
I think you're going to be amazed. So, again, I want to start with some things in the news. I cannot – I know you've heard me say this before, but the impact of all of this illegal immigration is having on so many different factors. Yes, there are people on the terrorist watch list. Yes, there are people that have committed horrific crimes in the past. They get caught committing crimes in our country now.
But the sheer volume of people, the millions, millions of people that have come here illegally now tacitly being invited by Joe Biden with these open border policies, changing policy from the Trump administration, not completing the wall, catch and release once they come here, getting rid of, you know, allowing Title 42 to expire.
basically giving people this green light not to come through the port of entry like they're supposed to that's the legal lawful way to claim asylum is go to the port of entry claim it there no i'm talking about people who come in between the ports
And some are bringing drugs, some are bringing themselves. We have 85,000 unaccompanied minors that the government has no idea where they are. That is just an absolute stunning number. And again, the millions of people that are here that need housing, food, education, health care, among other things. You think that isn't affecting the price of goods? That isn't affecting the price of rent? No.
You look at a lot of these states and suddenly their demand on housing has gone up. Guess what? That drives the cost of housing to go up. When too many people are chasing too few goods, guess what happens? Prices rise. It's just basic economics. This impact will continue. It's why after we've seen now a couple of elections and they interview voters, they
what is their top one or two issue? The economy and immigration or immigration and the economy. And that is going to continue on because everybody can see it and feel it. And you know what? Minority communities feel it even more because a lot of these people gravitate to those areas.
And, you know, I'm tired of hearing these sanctuary cities and these sanctuary states complain about it, but not give up and fess up to the idea that their sanctuary policies are failing and they're bankrupting these cities. Don't think the federal government should come in and just bail these cities and states out. That is not what should happen here. We've got to actually do what we're supposed to do, and that is...
enforce the current law. Democrats keep saying, oh, well, what we need to do is, you know, we need all this comprehensive immigration. No, we don't. Just enforce the current law, no additional money, and they can get it done. All right. I've talked about that before. I'll continue to talk about it. And the other thing I wanted to mention is hats off to Steve Garvey. Now, Steve Garvey is
Back in, you know, when I was a kid, Steve Garvey was an exceptional player for the Los Angeles Dodgers. First baseman, really good baseball player. Now he's running for the United States Senate. And one of the other candidates for the United States Senate in California is none other than Adam Schiff.
And hats off to Steve Garvey because he called him out on all this Russia propaganda that Adam Schiff lied to the American people. And he highlighted it by saying, you lied to 300 million people. And you can't just take that back now. But Adam Schiff gave this lame answer in the debate saying, oh, well, you know, I will always go after somebody, you know, who's a danger to the United States or whatever verbiage he used there.
He didn't address it head on. He lied, lied, lied to the American people. He misled people. He used the cover of being on the Intelligence Committee and had access to classified information and then misrepresented it. I think Congress has been wrong in not stripping him of his access to classified information given his position.
documented abuse of his access to that classified information. Nevertheless, they're running in the Senate and I hope Californians will actually heed that call and understand what he did and how he did it because this guy in the United States Senate, Adam Schiff, would be a real problem. But Steve Garvey, I think he's impressing a lot of people. All right, now it's time to bring on the stupid because you know what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere.
I have two candidates here. We start in New Jersey. Governor Phil Murphy, they were excited because they put one of the strongest mandates in place in the country saying, you know, you can't have a single plastic bag, you know, to carry your groceries. So they moved to this new plan where they had to get all these, you know, reusable bags and all this new delivery system. And guess what the consequence was, according to an article I read in FoxNews.com?
People in New Jersey are using three times the amount of plastic. So congratulations, Greenies. You decided that you wanted to implement martial law on plastic bags and do all these new Band-Aids. And guess what? You went from 53 million pounds of plastic being used in these bags to now 151 million pounds. You tripled the use of plastic in baggage because of your green new plastic bags.
mandates that you put that is just downright stupid come on folks stop mandating things people can take care of themselves they will take care of the environment they want to do the right and responsible thing you put this mandate things and guess why you tripled it stupid stupid policy
All right, the other one that I have to highlight is a... And this has no reflection on the airline. I hesitate to even bring up the airline, American Airlines, but ultimately I think they did the right thing. Evidently, back on January 14th, according to People Magazine, and you know how trustworthy they are, a passenger got on and was...
how should we say, very aggressive in his flatulence and the smell was just unbelievable. Not only was the smell just like unbelievable in the body of that airplane, but he was very, my words, aggressive and letting people know that he was doing it and yelling at people. Again, maybe I'm extrapolating, but that's what I read in this article about
And you know what? Hats off to the pilot and the crew who unfortunately had to deal with this stuff.
and say, you know, we need to solve a problem before it becomes unruly in the air. Because this flight was just a short flight, you know, going, I think, Phoenix to Austin or vice versa. But they took care of the problem. They corded the passenger off of the airplane and problem solved. But, oh my goodness, what a scene that must have been. Come on, man.
It's one thing to have a little, you know, little gas, but to be aggressive with your flatulence, maybe not such a good idea. Glad they moved him off the plane and solved the problem before it got in the air.
All right, time to bring on our next guest and do something a little bit more productive because I've heard her speak. She's inspirational. This is not a situation she sought. It's not something she thought she would ever be doing, but she's also one of the best athletes in our country, and her ability to speak and articulate on a difficult, controversial subject, you know, it shouldn't even be difficult, but she's
But she is a voice of a generation and makes a lot of sense. So let's dial up and bring in Riley Gaines. Hello.
Riley Gaines, this is Jason Chaffetz. Hi, Jason. How you doing? I'm so glad to chat with you again. You know, I was just, I met you in person. I was with my wife, Julie. We're down in Georgia speaking at this Heritage event, and I got to chat with you for a little bit, and I really appreciate you joining us on the podcast.
Well, I'm so excited to join you. It's pretty funny because I am walking through the lobby and I say I see Representative Comer and being a Kentucky athlete myself. I so appreciate Representative Comer. So to just be able to spend time with all of you, including your wife, was a big blessing for me. So, of course, I'm very glad to be on. It was it was a good chat. And I know you've crossed paths with James Comer a lot, but I
We went into this event and I've heard your story. I've seen you on Fox and different things. You got this great podcast, Gains on Girls podcast on Outkick. And I know you're doing a lot, but I never really heard your full story. And first of all, you're a great speaker. I don't know where that came from, but you're a really good speaker. And you're very passionate about what you speak about. And I just loved it.
Well, I don't know where it came from either, because truthfully, this whole stance that I've taken, goodness gracious, how is it a stance you could prepare for or that you could really ever want at that? I graduated last year and was set to be a dentist, actually, to go to dental school to become a dentist.
So by no means was I prepared to be speaking in front of people, especially on a topic that that I really believe is so entry level. Yet, of course, our press secretary says it's complex. It really is so common sense. I can't imagine we have to spend our time speaking about it.
it. But here we are. And of course, you know, I, for the longest time, I waited for other people to speak up for me. Truthfully, I cowered because I thought someone else would. And finally, I realized that
What a silly thing to wait for people to do the right thing. We'll be waiting forever if we wait for that. So that's ultimately really what thrusted me over the edge into now taking the stance that I have, which is, of course, again, a very simple one, a stance that says men and women are different in a way that makes males on average advantageous when it comes to anything that requires sheer strength or athleticism. What a novel idea, right? Groundbreaking.
I, you know, the idea that my wife and I were talking, you know, after your speech and you're saying like the idea that we even have to have this discussion in this country is just like stunning to us, but nevertheless, okay, let's go back to little Riley. Cause I want to hear your story. Like I was born in and just kind of walk us through how we got to this point where, you know, sometimes I, I cross paths with people and I think, oh my goodness, think of all the things that had to happen in the world before,
for us to kind of cross paths and have this discussion and get where we are today. So start with, I was born in and let's brothers, sisters, what was life like growing up? Let's go wait, go to the way back machine. So I was born in 2000, meaning I'm one of those pesky Gen Z-ers, but I come from a family of athletes. So my dad, he was an SEC football player. Uh,
Uh, my mom, she played softball. Uh, my dad went on to then play in the NFL. Uh, I have three other siblings. Wait, wait, what position was your dad playing? And who did he play for? My dad played for Vanderbilt, uh, then went on to play with the Eagles. Um, all of my dad's brothers played, you know, 10 plus years, uh, with the Seahawks and the Chargers and the Rams and all over. Uh, so very big sports family. We love sports. Um,
Oldest sister went to Ole Miss. She was a softball player. My brother's in college right now and he plays football. My youngest sister, she's probably the best athlete of us all. And I would never tell her that. But she's a gymnast and she will certainly go somewhere to pursue gymnastics, God willing. So come from a family of sports. So I've always played sports, all the different sports, right? Soccer, basketball, softball, basketball.
uh, swimming. I started swimming when I was four years old. Um, fast forward, of course, to middle school, high school, you know, you're practicing before school, you go to school from school, you go back to practice, you come home, you eat your dinner, you do your homework, you ice your shoulder, you go to bed, you wake up, you do it all again the next day. And so junior year of high school comes around and I start being recruited. And truth be told,
Um, I, I really could have gone anywhere in the country that I wanted to swim. But like I said, uh, I'm biased and I think the sec is actually, I'm certain that the sec is the best conference. And so I knew I wanted to stay in the sec, started taking my trips, uh,
I wanted nothing to do with the University of Kentucky. Truthfully, the only thing I thought came from Kentucky was meth and Mountain Dew, neither of which I was interested in. They're not one and the same, are they? No. So I wasn't interested in Kentucky. I thought I was going to be a Florida Gator. But I took a trip to Kentucky just kind of on a whim. And truthfully, I fell in love. And there really couldn't have been a better place for me. And so I committed there.
College was nothing short of crazy anyways, given the fact that during my sophomore and junior year, we were dealing with COVID, which was pretty miserable, to say the least, in terms of the social distancing and the masking and the vaccine mandates. Could you still swim then at that point? Well, it's so funny because have you ever seen anyone swim with a mask on? There's probably some idiot that did, but yes. They certainly tried. But no.
They certainly tried. Um, but I was team captain of the team. And so when they were telling me that I had to get this vaccine, it didn't sit right with me. Um,
For several reasons, of course, you know, no, I mean, I'm not some sort of anti-vax person, but, you know, I'm young, I'm healthy. Why do I have to get something that that I already had COVID as well? So I already had the antibodies, which I thought was the best kind of natural immunity. Why do I have to get the vaccine? And I say that to say that this is the first time that I learned to stand up for myself to authority figures. And I said, no, I'm not getting that vaccine. Yeah.
And that ensued a whole lot of trouble and drama. But I'm proud and, of course, looking back now, very glad that I stood my ground and did not end up getting the vaccine. But I say that to say it helped me my senior year learn to stand up for myself because, of course, my senior year, we were faced with a different challenge. So wait, I want to stop there. Were your teammates in the same boat, so to speak? Or were you like...
Oh, all my other teammates got one. Or did you all kind of stand together and say, no, we're not doing this? Or was it a mixed bag? So, I mean, it was a mixed bag for sure. But I would say, truthfully, that the majority of us felt how I did. Being team captain, again, I made sure to facilitate these conversations. And majority of my team felt how I did. And it's that we're young and healthy. Why do we have to do this? But
it was a convenience thing. Uh, they told us if we don't get it, uh, you'll have to stay out of the water longer. If your contact traces, you know, you'll, you'll have to be out for 14 days. Whereas if someone has the vaccine, they only have to be out of the water five days and you know, 14 days will ruin your season right out of the water that long. They told me specifically, if you don't get the vaccine, uh,
uh, you won't be able to travel. I remember it perfectly to university of Alabama for your dual meet, uh, being one of the best swimmers on the team. I said, okay. And of course I didn't get the vaccine. And of course I got to go to university of Alabama. Um, but they tried all these different tactics again, which are very similar to the same tactics they used to keep us quiet, really, um, to silence us my senior year. They even went as far as to tell me, look, Riley, you're a leader. Uh,
if you don't do this, you'll be hurting your team. You're going to be hurting other people. If you don't get the vaccine, uh, to which again, I still sit in my ground. Um, but so I ended up, of course, that was at the end of my sophomore year took place dealing with all the theatrics of COVID all through my junior year. But I ended up finishing my junior year, uh, placing ultimately seventh in the country, which I was proud of, you know, it's a pretty high honor. You're an all American top eight in the nation, a pretty big deal, but
I knew I was capable of more. And so it was right then and there that I placed seventh, that I knew my senior year, I wanted to win a national title, which would of course mean becoming the fastest woman in the country. What stroke were you, were you, or what, what events were you participating in? So I swam mostly freestyle and butterfly. So the 200 free, 200 fly, I'm actually still the sec record holder in the 200 butterfly, making me one of the fastest Americans of all time. Um,
I hold the school record in the 200 free, 100 free, 100 fly, 200 fly at Kentucky. Wow. Butterfly and freestyle. I mean, I swam at Brookside when I was a little kid in California. I don't think I have any records. I just swam the breaststroke and freestyle. But, yeah, you're clearly one of the fastest humans, fastest women in the world, really. All right. Sorry. Keep going. So you wanted to come back.
But you wanted to be number one, not number seven. Right, exactly. And so midway through my senior year, I'm right on pace to achieve that. I was ranked third in the nation behind one swimmer who I knew very well, of course, like in most sports, your top tier athletes know each other, regardless of where you compete, because you've grown up competing against each other. So I knew the girl in second very well, trailing her by a few one hundredths of a second. But the person who was leading the nation...
by body links was a name that none of us had ever heard of before, which as I said, that just doesn't happen. And this is the first time we became aware of a swimmer named Leah Thomas. And so just looking again, not having seen a picture of this person or anything like that, just looking at the paper in front of us,
we were all so confused my coaches my teammates who is this you know they're a senior from university of pennsylvania which is not a school that historically produces fast swimmers again leading the nation by body lengths and events ranging from the hundred freestyle all the way through the mile uh so so excelling uh significantly in sprint events and long distance it doesn't happen um
And we kind of continued to stay in the dark until an article was posted disclosing that Leah Thomas is actually Will Thomas and swam three years on the men's team at University of Pennsylvania before deciding to switch to the women's team his senior year. And so when I read this...
I mean, I just never anticipated this would even remotely have ever been an issue, especially at this level, the highest level, really. We're going to have to worry about competing against men, not just men, men who swim three years on a D1, on a men's team at a D1 university, really? No one saw the problem with this, and the NCAA didn't. They saw nothing wrong with it, and so...
They released a statement saying that Thomas's participation in the women's category was a non-negotiable, meaning there was nothing we could do. There was no questions we could ask or concerns we could raise as female athletes. We were told we had to accept this with a smile on our face. And so that first day of competition was the 500 freestyle, to which, of course, to literally no one's surprise, Thomas swam to a national title, beating out
Olympians, I mean, these aren't scrubs. They're the most impressive female swimmers in the world, again, by body lengths. That was the first day. The second day,
Was the 200 freestyle, which is the event that Thomas and I raced in, which ultimately resulted almost impossibly enough, really in a tie. Meaning, of course, we had gone the exact same time down to the hundredth of a second, which is pretty rare when you're racing for, you know, a minute and 40 seconds and not even one one hundredth of a second separated us. Wow. But really what thrusted me over the edge was.
and to no longer being willing to lie or to smile and step aside and allow this man our opportunities. We get out of the water. We go behind the awards podium after tying, and the NCAA official looks at both Thomas and myself. Thomas, who is towering over me at a whopping six foot four, Goliath of a man. And this official says, great job, you two. But
You tied. And we only have one trophy, so we're going to give it to Leah. Sorry, Riley, you don't get one. And of course, when I...
heard this my adrenaline was high my heart rate was high uh having just raced and so the first thing that i thought ended up being the first thing that i said and that thought and the thing that i said was isn't this everything that title nine was passed to prevent from happening happening you know what do you mean he has to have the trophy uh i continued to press and ultimately they admitted
that they had been advised, the NCAA had been advised that when photos were being taken, it was crucial that Leah was holding the trophy.
Of course, reducing it all down to a photo op, reducing, as you said, everything we had worked our entire lives, not just our four collegiate years, really our entire lives since I was four years old. They reduced that down to a photo op to validate the feelings and the identity of a man at the expense of our own as women. So that's ultimately on top of, again, the silencing efforts from our universities, not to mention the locker room aspect of it all.
of having, again, a 6'4", 22-year-old man fully intact with and exposing male genitalia in our locker room. All of those things stacked on top of each other. Really, I felt guilty. I felt compelled and responsible to
for not speaking out sooner, uh, for kind of going along with the charade and participating and swimming against this man. I felt, I felt kind of sick to my stomach that I, that I participated in the farce only really furthering it. Um, and so, yeah, that's, that's, I guess. So in retrospect, would you, are you suggesting that if he's going to get in the pool, Hey, we're just not going to get in the pool is, do you think that would have been the right answer? Um,
Or was it best to participate, race, and say, no, you didn't beat me?
Well, I think looking back, of course, everything happens for a reason. And truthfully, I believe I wouldn't, you know, have the platform and the impact that's been had had we not raced. So I, of course, believe it happened for a reason. But I will say if it were to happen to me again, I would not race. And I didn't always think this. I'll tell you.
I thought for the longest time, women shouldn't have to compromise. We shouldn't have to give up our spots. We work for this. We train for this. You know, we need other people who are willing to kind of stand up for us to do something to get these men out of our locker rooms and out of our sports. But when my mind changed, and you'll appreciate this, is when this bill, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, was introduced in the U.S. House by Representative Greg Stubbe.
And it fell entirely, it passed, but it fell entirely on party lines, meaning 219 Republicans voted in favor of protecting women and girls in sports and all 203, every single last one of them, mothers and fathers of their own young daughters, all 203 Democrats vote in opposition of protecting women and girls in sports. And what was their argument? What was their argument? Like what?
I mean, if we're just going to have a sport, just say swimming and come all, come one, you know. I mean, the whole idea, there's no recognition that men and women are different. No. Their argument time and time again, and we see it at the federal level, we see it at the state level. It's, of course, a very poor argument. What they say is, well, this isn't really happening. You know, there's only...
Two trans athletes in the state of Nebraska. Who really cares? Which what a terrible thing, because you're you're basically admitting, you know, it could be a problem, but it's just it's just not that pressing right now. And so I guess my question is, you know, how many girls have to lose out? How many girls have to be exploited in the locker rooms? How many girls have to be injured in their sports? You know, is there a magic number?
what does that look like for them? You know, they say this is an anti-trans bill that further discriminates against trans individuals and bans them from participating in athletics, which again is disingenuous and actually a total lie because first of all,
No one is being banned from playing sports. I encourage every single person to play sports, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, any of that. Sports are the one place where you come, where you leave all of those identities behind. And you don't look at that. So everyone should play. You just play where it's fair and where it's safe. And to say this bill is anti-trans is the most...
really misogynistic thing you could say because it's pro-woman it's pro-fairness it's pro-reality pro-truth um not anti anything we're standing for something rather than against anything so this guy when he was competing uh he was like what'd you say 422nd in the world in the in the united states when he was competing in the men's category
That's right. And that's, of course, at best ranking in the 400s, 500s. I don't know how many male swimmers there are, but that can't be near the top of the food chain. That's for sure. No way. And I don't mean to get too graphic here, but...
The idea that they would be in the same locker room. Now, I've been in quite a few. I played a little football. I was a place kicker, if you can call that playing football. But I've been in a lot of different locker rooms. The idea that we would have men and women in the same locker room, those lockers are not necessarily big with big private spaces in them.
No. In a swimming locker room at that, you know, there's, of course, a lot of undressing. You come to the pool in your clothes, but you have to get out of your clothes into your practice suit or your warm-up suit, and then you go warm up, and then you have to come back and put your race suit on, which it's the skin-tight suit, which takes about 15 minutes to really poke and prod yourself into, which is, of course, 15 minutes. You're fully exposed.
exposed. And then after that, you have to, after you race, you know, you put your practice suit back on and then from your practice suit, you get back into your clothes. So there's just a lot of fully undressing. And I think we can all agree, you know, a locker room isn't a comfortable place for anyone, even sharing it with the same sex. But growing up a swimmer, you learn to almost be comfortable being vulnerable in this environment. But to add a man to
into that mix uh first of all when we weren't even forewarned about it uh so so just for visual purposes here because i mean if i had to see it you at least have to hear about it uh first of all we weren't like i said we weren't forewarned so imagine we're in the locker room undressing putting our clothes on or our suits on and all of a sudden you hear man's voice uh
It's feelings of, I mean, it was innate for every girl in that locker room to cover themselves, whether that be with their hands or their towels or their clothes or, or whatever. Of course it's awkward. It's embarrassing. It's uncomfortable, but I think the best way to describe a man walking in again, a six foot four man taking off his women's swimsuit, stripping down being entirely undressed, exposing male parts and,
It's really it felt like betrayal and it felt, of course, it's violating. And I think the best way to describe it is traumatic and not even necessarily traumatic because of what we were forced to see or how we were forcibly exploited.
It was traumatic for me to know just how easy it was for these people who created these policies to totally dismiss our rights to privacy without even a second thought, without even, again, bare minimum telling us that this would be the arrangement. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Riley Gaines right after this.
This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all-new Prologue EV, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the class-leading passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com slash EV to see offers.
So the combination of that and the actual event itself, what are your teammates thinking, saying, doing, and what about your coach and athletic director? And where are they in this equation? I mean, they're supposed to be the quote unquote adults in the room, if you will. They, you know, they've got some seniority there. They're, they're helping to lead the, where are they in this whole equation? Well, speaking to my teammates, uh,
Of a team of 40 girls at Kentucky, 38 of us felt the exact same way. And that's the way that I'm sharing. My coaches, gosh, my coach at University of Kentucky is one of the good ones. He's truthfully still to this day one of my best friends. I just love him to death.
Uh, and he was very much supportive of, you know, the stance that I've taken now, uh, but was, was scared to publicly say that. Um, he, we talked about it amongst our team and different things, but I think on a larger scale, he was scared. Um, and understandably so, because now since, you know, supporting me, he has been fired from Kentucky. Um,
He coached there for 10 plus years and now he's had to move out. And I won't get into the weeds of it, but what this really looked like is that Kentucky we had during all of this, which was an added layer of pressure and stress for me, for sure, was one of my assistant coaches began to transition during all of this.
Um, and suddenly didn't go by Bridget anymore. And now her name, uh, she goes by Briggs and started using they, them pronouns and cut her hair off and all of this different stuff. And so that was an added layer of pressure. Um, and she went back to the university and reported, um, my coach for violating, um, title nine and discriminating against her for being trans, which is so silly. He hired her anyways. Uh, my athletic director at university of Kentucky, uh,
He's, I would say, one of the largest proponents of why I spoke out because I called him. Mitch Barnhart is his name. He's been the AD for 20 plus years, an incredible Christian guy. I called him before speaking out and told him, look, you know, this is what has happened and this is how we feel. How do you feel if I take a public stance and acknowledging how this is harmful to women? And he just said, Riley, no.
please speak your heart, stay true to your convictions. Don't worry about painting this university in a bad light because we're behind you. I support you and I love you. And if I wouldn't have had that, I don't know what would have happened. I would like to think I'd still have spoken out, but to have that support, it really was huge. Now you, you told the story when I heard you speak about,
The NC2A and their organization and their great leadership that they've got going on. And this event that they were having with sponsors and all kinds of people. Remind me what that one was and what happened there. So it was actually a year ago today, and I am here in...
Phoenix, Arizona right now to do the exact same thing today, but a year ago I sure am. So maybe I'll have to come back on to let you know how it goes, but
A year ago today, I was in San Antonio where the NCAA has their big annual convention. They go over rules and regulations and guidelines and different things. But also what's unique about this convention, it's every year where they announce their NCAA Woman of the Year, to which last year I was nominated for. I was University of Kentucky's nominee for this award, which is the most prestigious award.
elite award for female athletes, collegiate female athletes. And so being nominated, I was so excited. It's something that encompasses your, your academics and your service. And of course your athletic achievements and your leadership. It just really showcases who's a well-rounded individual. And so being nominated, I was super excited until a full list of nominees was released for NCAA woman of the year. And it was not,
exclusive to just women, because Leah Thomas was the University of Pennsylvania's nominee. So immediately, this nomination, this award was devalued and meaningless to me. But I figured I'll also go to the awards banquet. But I'm not going to go there and support. I'm going to go there and let them know exactly how I feel. I don't know how I was going to do it. But they have this big convention hall where
companies and organizations could buy booths and sell their product or whatever it might be to these athletic directors and presidents and chancellors who would walk by. And so I figured what better way to talk to these people than to just put myself in front of them. They can't keep ignoring me if I'm standing there in front of them. So to buy a booth, um, using my name, of course, denied applied again, using my name. What was the justification for denying you? I mean,
You're nominated as one of the people that they're going to recognize as the woman of the year, and they won't let you buy a booth?
Exactly. And so but then I came up with an alias. And they're like, of course, we'll take your $2,000. Come on, have a move. And of course, I had nothing to sell. I didn't have anything to promote other than the importance of Title IX. And so that's exactly what I did. I made these little bracelets and I stood there and to every athletic director who walked by, I said,
I shared what we went through and every single one of them, every single one said, thank you for doing what you're doing. Keep going, keep fighting. And you know, this was great the first 60 or so, but then I began to feel frustrated. I'm like, okay, if we're all on the same page,
Where is the discrepancy? What's why are we allowing this if we all agree? And I began asking. And finally, people said, you know, well, I can't put my name to this. I don't want lawsuits. I have family to feed. You know, I can't lose my job. Sorry, but but you keep going.
Even the president of the NCAA himself, who publicly said he unequivocally said his decision to allow Leah Thomas to swim with the women because he claims it was based in evolving science. I see him at this this conference and he comes up to me and says, thank you for doing what you're doing. Keep going. Keep fighting is what he said, which the audacity for him for him to tell me to keep fighting when he literally is the one that I'm fighting.
Wow. Yeah. Profiles encourage here, folks. They can't really stand up for women. This is, and again, I hesitate to be so graphic, but this Leah Thomas is not fully transitioned. It's, it's fully intact as a male and, and just decides that, Hey, I'm going to get in the pool and swim. It's just unbelievable that you've had to go through all of this. Um, and, and, but you've been such a strong voice. You know, I, I,
I don't not everything happens by accident, spontaneous combustion and somehow some way with your personal strength to be in this position to make this case, I think, is inspirational to a lot of people. Well, I that's, of course, the objective. And that's what we've seen since since kind of what we went through as as swimmers at that meet.
Gosh, I'm realizing it's not unique by any means. It continues to happen. Every sport, every level, every division, every state, men are infiltrating their way into women's sports. And it's not happening the other way. Okay, you don't have women infiltrating into men's sports, of course not. But just trying to encourage others, whether that be young or old or parents or coaches or female athletes, whoever it may be, encouraging others to
to unapologetically speak the truth. Um, it has never been on the wrong side of history to stand with women. Um, yet here we are where, uh, I mean, we have a sitting Supreme court justice who can't even define what a woman is. I mean, we're just living in really these upside down times. Uh, so to be of some sort of encouragement or inspire someone else, um, to share, you know, their story or what they have gone through or continue to go through, uh,
That's exactly what this is about. Yeah. You shouldn't have to deal with this and certainly shouldn't have to share a locker room and, and be denied a trophy and all the things that you've gone through, I think are the extreme. Unfortunately, there's just more and more prevalent. There are just more and more stories and examples of this and it's kind of disgusting. So, um,
Riley, I've got some other questions I need to ask you because I don't care how many laps in the pool you've swum. I don't know how many gains on girls podcasts you've done over on Outkick. You're not going to be properly prepared for these questions, but everybody has to go through this gauntlet, but I think you're going to get through it just fine because I know you're a fighter and you're an athlete and a competitor. I think you're going to be just fine. You ready? Yeah.
I'm ready. Bring it on. All right. What was the first concert you attended? Oh, the first concert I attended. I think it was...
You're going to laugh. I think it was One Direction, actually. One Direction. I got to go with her. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. That's good. You know, it's so funny because I've done like 150, 60 podcasts. I've never had the same answer to this question. Everybody has a different answer to this question. One Direction is not one that we've ever had so far. So, agreed. What was your high school mascot?
A bison. The bison. Well, that's legit. Bison's like one of my favorite, most patriotic American animals. Between the bald eagle and the American bison, those are legit. That like symbolizes America to me. So you'd be amazed how goofy some of these mascots are. Oh, I bet.
Um, what was your first job? Like growing up, you guys played an awful lot of athletics. I can imagine that every aspect of your life, everybody's like a pro collegiate all-star and everything. But what's the first job you had where it wasn't from mom or dad? It wasn't, Hey, go take out the garbage, right? It was like, I got a check from somebody else. What was your first one?
So my first job was actually coaching. In high school, I coached our little summer swim team, which was so fun and incredibly rewarding. You'd be a great coach. Yeah. Well, I do. I love it. And now even I'm the...
state of Tennessee special Olympics swim coach, which is a very big passion of mine is, um, you know, doing all the special Olympics and different things, uh, very involved in that way. Uh, and so I do, I, I really love coaching. It's, um,
A fun way to stay involved without actually having to get wet and your hair wet and swim. That's amazing. So good for you. All right. What's your superpower? And I'm not talking swimming because you're obviously really good at swimming, but everybody I believe has a superpower. Like I'm really pretty good at this.
uh, better than most. And I, I, you know, you, you're pretty humble person too, but what's that superpower? What can you do that? Yeah, I can do this better than a lot of other people. And I'm not just talking about swimming in the pool. Ooh, my superpower. Um, I'll say one thing that, um, I believe I've grown to be really good at, which, um, I think is kind of necessary and probably a good thing to be good at, um,
um, is shooting. I have a, um, I built a shooting range up the back of my house. Uh, so that's become something now that, you know, we, we, my husband and I, uh, which is funny because he's from England. And so they don't have guns over there. What do they have? Like batons or something or knives, bows and arrows, I think. Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. So we've gotten into hunting and it's become a big passion for the both of us now. I think with his newfound love of guns and all things Second Amendment that they're not. So that's good. So that's something that I think you're a Deadeye. That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you have a pet growing up?
I did. I had three horses. I've got, I've always had dogs. I've got two dogs now, which are my best friends. Gosh, I love those dogs. Two Springer Spaniels. And so... They're full of energy. Yeah.
Oh, they sure are. And eventually I am going to breed them sometime soon. So. Oh, very good. No, that's fine. That's good. We we did that. We had Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and we actually did a couple seasons of breeding them and the whole circle of life and with our kids. And it was it was awesome. It was really good.
All right, if you could meet somebody, dead or alive, anybody in history, you'd call up your husband and say, guess what, honey? We got somebody special coming over for dinner. Who would that be? Who would you want to have come break bread with Riley Gaines and husband?
Well, to not give a political answer here or some sort of political figure, Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson. I love Michael Jackson. I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan. I am so curious about Michael Jackson. It would be Michael Jackson for sure. Okay, so you know that first question I asked you, first concert you attended? That was my first concert was Michael Jackson. No way. Yes. Denver's Mile High Stadium. Before you were even born, I was in high school and...
Yeah, that was my first concert. So that would be an interesting conversation. I really would. Yeah, right. I would be so curious. A big one. A big one on the Jason in the House podcast. Pineapple on pizza. Yes or no? That's a yes for me. Yes. You're on a roll. I know you're on a roll. You got that one wrong. Judges do not like this answer. That's so funny. I love a good Hawaiian pizza.
No. Well, you're wrong on that one, and I will convince you. You'll learn. You'll learn. You're young. You'll learn. You'll get there. Just a couple more. Best advice you ever got?
So something I think about often, again, coming from a family of athletes, my parents were never one to, I'll say, provide me with much sympathy in the most loving kind of way. Right. They never I was never allowed to throw a pity party for myself. Now, being in kind of this position, I'm really grateful they didn't let me do that. Right.
My dad always told me, you know, put up or shut up kind of thing. You can complain all you want. But unless you're willing to do something about it, then it's simply just complaining. And no one wants to be around someone who's whining all the time. So put up or shut up.
And I think I really do. I think about that a lot now when I feel frustrated or when I feel like something isn't going the way that it should be going on whatever scale it is. It's like, OK, well, I can take to Twitter and complain like we have a lot of conservative talking heads that do that.
Or we can be on the ground doing something about it, which is, again, what I've dedicated so much of my time to being here in Arizona now. No one's paying. It's not like this is a paid thing to be here. No, I see a problem with the NCAA. I see no one doing anything about it. I'm on the ground. I'm here. I'll do something. Traveling to Ohio.
Recently, what's going on with Governor DeWine vetoing HB 68, which is the safe act, which would prevent children from getting these irreversible surgeries and it would keep men out of women's sports.
I went to Ohio to testify. I'm going to Utah next week to testify on a bill that we've been working on. So enough with the – and again, I think there's plenty of conservatives talking heads and public figures who do this, who just complain or take to their social media. But do you know how powerful we would be if we –
would all spend our time usefully rather than even attacking one another, which there's a lot of infighting right now, so it seems in the Republican Party. How effective we could be if we could all get on the same page and be on the ground doing what we can do to actually make impact. We would be so powerful. It's what the Democrats actually, I think we could take a page from their book. It's what they do very well.
So, yeah, put up or shut up, I would say that's something I think about pretty often. No, you've taken that to the nth degree and more power to you because I think you're inspirational to a lot of people. And you maybe were forced into this advocacy type of role, but hats off to you for doing it, running with it and making sense and taking the argument right to them and saying,
I love it. That's what America is all about. That's, I think, why somehow, some way you got put in this position to do that. And you're making, you're having a huge impact. You really are. And
Maybe it doesn't always feel like that, but I hope you see that and feel that because your ability to communicate what you've been through and the way things ought to be, I think resonates with the overwhelming majority of people in this country. It really does. And they, they need that kind of leadership. So again, I really do appreciate you sharing that, sharing all that with us. I also want to remind everybody, you can check out Riley on her podcast. It's on OutKick.com.
Gains on Girls. Do you do it every week? What's the whole impetus of the show here? Yeah, yeah. It's every week. We talk with policy experts and people who have been affected by this movement. We talk to world-leading scientists. So it's really, really...
cool. It's interesting for me, actually. I've learned so much and it's kind of fun to, of course, be on the other side of it and ask the questions that a lot of people want to know, but don't have the opportunity to ask, you know? So it's been really awesome. Riley Gaines, thanks for joining us on the Jason in the House podcast. Really do appreciate it.
Well, I appreciate you. So thank you for everything and for really just everything you do. It's needed now more than ever. So thank you. See, I told you, Riley Gaines, she's just awesome. I just, I love it. I love that she is making her voice heard and doing it in a productive way, doing it in the right way, doing it in a creative way.
and taking the argument out there and showing the other side of the repercussion of trying to be so tolerant of everybody and everywhere. We don't have to change all of the rules, all the laws, all the things. Common sense at some point needs to prevail. And we want every American, every person to feel comfortable, but that doesn't mean it comes at the expense of others.
And I think that's another part of the point, but I just really appreciate Riley and what she, what she, uh, and her taking the time to kind of join us and, and tell the story personally. So, um, I hope you can rate this podcast. That would be really helpful. Um, and subscribe to it. We'll have another guest. Great, uh,
a good guest coming on next week. I want to remind people you can listen ad-free with a Fox News Podcast Plus subscription on Apple Podcasts and Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app. Again, thanks for listening to the Jason in the House podcast. Rate it, review it,
Go check out the other podcasts from Fox News. And we'll be back with more next week. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.
