"The Daily Show" has called out Megyn Kelly and other conservative voices in media who have taken swings at a new target in the culture war over gender: Algerian boxer Imane Khelif.
Even before her debut at the Olympic Games in Paris, the boxer faced a barrage of unsubstantiated claims about her gender identity, including that she is either a man or transgender. Amid ongoing conservative pushback surrounding transgender athletes in sports, this falsity has been perpetuated by outspoken figures such as Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling and former President Donald Trump.
"The Daily Show" tackled the controversy on Monday as Michael Kosta, filling in for Jon Stewart in the anchor chair, called out Kelly, as well as her former Fox News colleagues, for their role in perpetuating misinformation about Khelif.
Kosta introduced the topic by playing a clip of International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams, who stated last week that "the Algerian boxer was born a female, was registered a female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport. This is not a transgender case."
In response, Kosta asked, "Seems pretty open and shut to me, right? She was born a woman, lives as a woman and boxes other women. So what is the argument against that?"
He then played a clip of Kelly discussing Khelif on her SiriusXM show. "This is such an outrage," Kelly said. "Look at this: This is a man. This is a man who is competing in the boxing tournament for women."
"No, she’s not, she’s a woman," Kosta argued. "She’s a woman like you, Megyn Kelly, a woman at the peak of her career, unlike Megyn Kelly, but she still is a woman."
Khelif, who is a cisgender woman, is neither transgender nor intersex. The controversy surrounding her gender began last year when she and another boxer, Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, were disqualified from the World Championships by the organizer after reportedly failing a gender eligibility test.
The Russian-led International Boxing Association that administered the tests, however, does not oversee Olympic qualifications. Furthermore, as Poynter points out, the body was "stripped of its Olympic recognition in 2023, because of a dispute involving its management, its finances and its judging integrity."
Up next was a clip of "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade dissecting Khelif's gender. "You can only fight and compete in the gender in which you were born," Kilmeade said. "Those are just the rules."
To that claim, Kosta responded, "Those rules would still let her box with women because, again, she’s a woman. She’s fought as a woman her whole life and even lost to other female boxers nine times. What more proof do you want? Does Fox News need the ghost of Roger Ailes to sexually harass her first? She’s a woman."
He begged, "Can we stop this before America turns it into a presidential campaign issue?"
Next, a clip of Trump's vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at a rally was played. "The far left wants to allow biological males to beat the living crap out of women in boxing," the senator said.
Kosta rebutted the Republican candidate by asking, "Is this really what this race is going to be about? JD Vance is going to be out on the campaign trail like, 'You know when I was growing up in the holler, the one thing we cared about was international women's boxing regulations.'"
The comedian then turned the conservative narrative on its head by pointing a finger at the group's record on American women's rights. "If conservatives are so concerned with women's safety, maybe consider caring about it outside of sports? There are women in America who are like, 'Help me, I'm having an ectopic pregnancy,' and conservatives are like, 'Shut up, we're trying to protect women over here,'" he said.
"Look guys, I'm sorry this elite athlete does not look the way you think a woman should look, but a woman is allowed to be dominating and powerful at a sport without you questioning her gender," he concluded. "Don't forget, these guys dragged her, an Algerian female boxer, into their American conservative culture war. And if they're going to use her as a metaphorical punching bag, the least they can do is step into the ring and let her use them as a literal punching bag. I bet they wouldn't even last a round."
"The Daily Show" airs Monday through Thursday at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central and streams on Paramount+.
