Democratic senators abandon Judiciary Committee hearing on protecting women's sports

Every Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee either skipped or walked out of a hearing on protecting women's sports, and only one of their ten offices bothered to explain why.

The committee convened Wednesday in Washington to examine whether biological males should compete in women's athletics, an issue that polls consistently above 70 percent support among American voters. Republicans called witnesses. Democrats called none. And within the first hour, the only two Democrats who showed up at all, ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, were gone.

Klobuchar never said a word. Durbin delivered an opening statement dismissing the hearing as a "vendetta against a small number of people in the trans community," announced he would not ask a single question, and left. The remaining eight Democratic members never appeared. Fox News Digital reported that its reporters reached out to all ten Democratic offices for comment. One responded, Durbin's, and the answer was a single sentence pointing back to his opening remarks.

Durbin called the hearing a 'vendetta,' then walked out

Durbin's brief appearance set the tone for the Democratic side of the dais. He cited a Trevor Project study claiming young LGBTQ+ people face higher risk of suicide, then framed the entire proceeding as an attack on transgender Americans. In his words:

"We can all agree that we want to be fair and safe in women's athletics, but this vendetta against a small number of people in the trans community affects everyone, including cisgender girls, who can be subject to inappropriate gender verification checks."

He then announced he would "refuse to treat this hearing like a responsible exercise of this committee," would not ask questions, and had not called any witnesses. After that, he left.

Durbin's office has pushed this line before. In a March 2025 press release, his staff claimed that measures to protect women's sports would "subject women and girls to physical inspection by an adult if someone from an opposing team accused them of being transgender." Democrats raised similar concerns about invasive gender tests ahead of last year's vote on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.

Those claims drew strong backlash, including from within their own base, because, as Fox News Digital noted, they were never substantiated by any language within the bill or by any examples of such examinations being used elsewhere. The argument amounted to a scare tactic about a procedure nobody had proposed.

The pattern of Democratic obstruction in the Senate extends well beyond this hearing. Just recently, a single Senate Democrat blocked a bipartisan energy bill that passed the House 417, 3, illustrating how the minority party has made strategic absence and procedural maneuvering a regular tactic.

Sen. Blumenthal ducked the hearing, and the question

Fox News Digital tracked down Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut in person. He said he skipped the hearing because he had a classified briefing on the Iran situation. When pressed on his overall stance on protecting women's sports, Blumenthal shut the conversation down.

"I'm not going to talk about it in the hallway here."

A senator who had time to stop and chat in a hallway did not have time to sit for a hearing that directly affects female athletes across the country. And he did not want to say where he stands on the issue, a telling silence from a member of the committee responsible for examining it.

Blumenthal's reference to Iran is notable given the broader Senate environment. Senate Republicans recently blocked Democrats' thirteenth attempt to force troop withdrawal related to Iran, a fight that has consumed significant floor time and partisan energy.

Republican senators called out the empty chairs

With no Democrats left in the room, Republicans questioned witnesses one after another, a visual that told its own story. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina noted the absence directly.

"I'm also disappointed our Democratic colleagues left the room, because I think the risk of physical harm is real and has already happened."

Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana struck a similar note, calling the walkout a matter of choice rather than necessity.

"I'm a little disappointed that my Democratic colleagues left. It's their right, but I'm disappointed."

But the sharpest criticism came from Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida, who addressed the witnesses directly and drew attention to the fact that not a single female Democratic senator had stayed to hear from women involved in women's sports.

"The reason why it is going now from one Republican senator to another Republican senator is because there's not one Democratic senator here to ask those that are actually involved as females in female sports about the dangers and missed opportunities and challenges for what's been happening across our nation for our young women and girls."

Moody continued, pointing out the gap between Democratic rhetoric about women's rights and their refusal to engage with women who had come to testify about the real-world consequences of allowing biological males into their competitions.

"Shockingly, not one female Democratic senator has engaged in this hearing or asked you any questions about your experiences, your concerns, your fears based on your backgrounds, [or] what you predict may happen in the future if we don't, as you said, lead."

Twenty-three states still lack rules protecting female athletes

The hearing took place against a backdrop of ongoing policy battles. President Trump signed an executive order last February directing federal agencies to protect women's sports, a move that triggered legal challenges from California, Maine, and Minnesota. Twenty-three states still have no rules prohibiting biological males from competing in women's athletics.

Polls from the New York Times, Quinnipiac, and Pew Research Center have all found that more than 70 percent of Americans believe women's sports should not permit biological males to compete. That level of public consensus on any social issue is rare. And yet the party that claims to champion women could not produce a single senator willing to sit through a hearing on the subject.

The broader Senate has been consumed by contentious party-line votes on everything from intelligence appointments to judicial nominees, making bipartisan engagement on even popular issues increasingly difficult.

Democrats called zero witnesses. They asked zero questions. Nine of ten offices offered zero explanation. The one senator who did speak used his time to reframe the hearing as an attack on transgender youth, then walked out before anyone could respond.

This was not a scheduling conflict. It was a coordinated decision to avoid a conversation that Democrats know they are losing with the public. The broader dysfunction in Congress has many authors, but on this particular day, the empty chairs belonged entirely to one party.

When more than seven in ten Americans agree on something and the people elected to represent them refuse to even show up for the discussion, the problem is not the issue. The problem is the politicians.