House hearings lay groundwork for top issues in the 2024 campaign

WASHINGTON (TND) — Riley Gaines has become a leading advocate to keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports and shared those views at a speech last month at San Francisco State, where she said she was assaulted by a violent mob and held against her will.

Gaines testified about her experience on Capitol Hill this week in a hearing focused on so-called "left wing violence."

“The mob screamed vengeful racist violent awful things at both myself and the officers they said my appearance on campus was so traumatic that they were owed something."

She shared why she got involved in what she calls an effort to protect women's equal opportunity in sports.

It started at a swim meet last year, when Gainestied for 5th place with transgender athlete Lia Thomas, who ultimately got the award.

Gaines said afterward she and others felt uncomfortable in the locker room.

"A six-foot four male walks in disrobes and is fully in tact with male genitalia while we’re simultaneously undressing and 18-22 year old girls and we could do nothing about it," she told lawmakers.

The hearing was called by House Republicans now in the majority, hoping to call more attention to both issues of what they see as unfairness in sports as well as attacks on conservatives.

They appear to be laying out a framework of issues rising to the top of the political priority list for Republicans ahead of the 2024 campaign.

Rep. Glenn Ivey, D, Maryland used visual aids to show the majority of incidents and killings are committed by right wing extremists.

Other Democrats say there's a reason Republicans are constantly trying to provoke outrage through culture wars

In an interview with MSNBC's "Inside with Jen Psaki," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D, New York, said, "The reason Republicans are so focused on these culture wars and they’re so fixated on trans-Americans and LGBT Americans and they are fixated on what women do with their bodies is because they do not have a plan to improve the lives of working people across the country," she said.