On a recent clip from HBO’s Real Time, the audience erupted as Bill Maher and Piers Morgan cornered Rep. Katie Porter over her dismissive attack on Riley Gaines, the former NCAA swimmer who has been speaking out for fairness in women’s sports. The exchange exposed how out-of-touch some Democrats are with the concerns of real women and real athletes, and it was satisfying to see two prominent voices call that out on national television.
Porter’s flippant line — suggesting Gaines was only seeking “likes and clicks” — was a disgraceful bit of character assassination from an elected official who should know better, and it landed exactly as the room’s reaction implied: poorly thought out and tone-deaf. Conservatives have long warned about the weaponization of social media against dissenting voices, but here a congresswoman weaponized condescension against a woman who was literally silenced and threatened for speaking.
Piers Morgan rightly pressed Porter for specifics and defended Gaines as speaking up for female athletes who are losing opportunities and records to biological males competing in women’s categories. Morgan pointed to the obvious unfairness seen in competitions involving Lia Thomas and others, a point too many on the left still refuse to acknowledge for fear of upsetting an activist narrative. Americans who care about fairness and women’s sports should be grateful someone on the air is willing to say what needs to be said.
Let’s not forget why Riley Gaines’ voice matters: she was physically harassed and trapped in a safe room after speaking at San Francisco State, an episode that should have been condemned across the political spectrum but instead became another battleground for lefty apologetics. Colleges that once claimed to champion free expression instead let mobs bully and intimidate a young woman for defending sex-based protections, and that pattern must be called out and reversed.
The clip also underscores a deeper rot on the Left, where identity politics has become a blunt instrument used to silence inconvenient facts and bulldoze women’s rights. Instead of engaging in honest debate about biology, fairness, and the future of women’s athletics, too many progressives reflexively attack the messenger and accuse her of seeking attention — the very tactic Porter used on Maher’s show. This is not debate; it is censorship dressed up as moral superiority.
Conservatives should applaud Maher and Morgan for refusing to bow to the performative outrage machine and for standing up for girls and women who want to compete on a level playing field. It’s long past time that elected officials stopped hiding behind vague admonitions like “let sporting bodies decide” when those bodies are being pressured by ideology instead of science and fairness. Voters deserve representatives who protect rights, not smear those who defend them.
Dave Rubin’s decision to highlight the clip is a reminder that these cultural fights resonate beyond the usual media echo chambers, and they matter to millions of Americans who are tired of being lectured by elites. If conservatives want to win these debates, we must keep elevating the stories of brave Americans like Riley Gaines, demand accountability from our campuses, and refuse to let the left rewrite the rules of sport and common sense. The American people are watching, and they will remember who stood for fairness.
