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there's been a big push nationally
by administration is squarely behind it
to allow
biological males to compete in girls
sports
we've covered it extensively on this
show it's very unpopular with the public
it's particularly unpopular in the state
of south dakota
south dakota is one of the most
republican states in the country
republicans essentially control the
entire state
so republicans in the legislature there
recently passed a bill to prevent this
from happening prevent biological men
from playing on women's sports teams
and the governor of south dakota
christie gnome who you doubtless have
seen
said she was quote excited to sign it
now she has changed her mind
governor noman joins us tonight to
explain why she has governor thanks so
much for coming on i i appreciate it
so here you you have this bill which i
think
all polling shows is popular in your
state i think would be popular
nationally you said you were excited
to sign it big business intercedes ncaa
chamber of commerce and amazon and tell
you not to sign it
and you change your mind if you i think
a lot of our viewers are wondering
your thinking on this and how exactly
this happened
well that's not true tucker and thank
you for inviting me to be on the show
tonight
i could sign the bill the way that it is
today uh
and then also um but it wouldn't solve
the problem and and that's the real
issue as i looked at the bill and
examined it
and have been discussing with legal
scholars for many months on how to
protect women's sports
this bill would only allow the ncaa
to bully south dakota and it would
actually prevent women from being able
to pre to
participate in collegiate sports so what
i've done is i've asked the legislature
through a style uh and reform i'm sorry
but just for our viewers
can you just back up for one second for
our viewers who haven't followed this as
closely
how would this bill prevent women from
playing in south dakota
if you would because what it would do
is it would put a law in the books that
would allow the ncaa to take punitive
action against our state
and we're a small state tucker we've had
to fight hard to get any tournaments to
come to south dakota when they took
punitive action against us
we would have to litigate and legal
scholars that i have been consulting
with
for many many months say that i would
very likely lose those litigation
efforts
and i don't think you're saying hold on
just to be clear it's not the bill
you're saying
many times over and over again but wait
wait wait so you're saying the ncaa
threatened you
and you don't think you can win that
fight they said if you sign this we
won't allow
girls in south dakota to play and you
don't
think you can win in court even though
the public overwhelmingly supports you
nationally
and so you're caving to the ncaa i think
that's what you're saying
no that's not right at all tucker in
fact you're wrong completely i've been
working on this issue for years in fact
several years ago
i fought i fought usda to make sure that
4-h rodeo and that the sport of rodeo
could keep girls events girls events and
boys events boys events
so i've been working on this for many
many years and back since november i've
been consulting with legal scholars and
professors across the country
asking them how do i protect women's
sports
and they've gone through the steps to
how i would legally challenge the ncaa
and keep them from bullying the state of
south dakota and what they've told me to
do
is that i need to build a coalition so
that's why today i launched
defendtitle9now.com
and that's going to allow us to build a
coalition of states that can fight the
ncaa
listen i'm sick and tired of the ncaa
threatening states
challenging us and bullying us and so
we're going to build a coalition of
leaders
athletes and people who want to protect
women's sports and want to make sure
that our women keep title
ix in place to protect their right to be
competitive
and to be rewarded by participating in
these team sports
and make sure this coalition can fight
the ncaa to make sure we're protecting
title ix
but but these standards far predate
title ix and i'm not exactly sure why
title ix
is relevant or even really worth
defending i mean this is
thousands of years of common sense and
tradition girls play
girls sports boys play boy sports why
not instead just say bring it on ncaa
i'm a national figure go ahead and try
and exclude us i will fight you in the
court of public opinion and defend
principle why not just do that
tucker you're preaching my sermon that's
what i did today today i with herschel
walker you vetoed the bill
with nancy lopez we all stood together i
did not veto the bill i did a style
informed revision and asked the
legislator
legislature to change it so that i can
win listen i'm not interested in a
participation
trophy i'm not interested in picking a
fight that we can't win
i am a problem solver i come to the
table and i don't want to have talking
points
and i've been bullied for the last year
by liberals tucker i'm not going to let
anybody
from the ncaa from any big business i'm
not going to even let
conservatives on the right bully me i'm
going to solve the problem i'm going to
make sure that we're building
strength and numbers and we're going
after the ncaa and make sure that we're
keeping
only girls playing in girls sports i've
been doing this for years
and i'm going to solve the problem not
just pick a fight to pick a fight
well but the legislature you're saying
was just picking a fight to pick a fight
i thought that they were trying to
codify what the majority of
your citizens want which is girls sports
for girls and boys sports for boys here
the ncaa comes in and says if you do
that
you're going to lose a court battle and
so you say well the bill can't go
forward you have a democratic process
that
arose from your own citizens they want
this bill and you've stopped it so i
i'm not really sure how this is
defending women's support with respect
to bill
tucker tucker the bill that my
legislature gave me is a trial lawyer's
dream
it creates more and more litigation and
regulation that's impossible to comply
with for families and for school
districts and people going forward
what i'm interested in doing is making
sure we're protecting girls sports
and we're going forward to fight the
ncaa and what we're going to do as well
is if they don't fix this through the
style and form revision
i'm going to ask them to introduce a new
bill if they don't do that i'm going to
immediately bring them back into a
special session
and tell them we're going to protect
girls sports through k-12
and then we're going to go and fight the
ncaa through a coalition to make sure
that we can continue to protect title ix
and defend title ix
very very quickly how would the bill as
written make it harder as you just said
for girls to participate in sports you
said it's hard for them to comply with
the requirements of the bill what do you
mean
for those of us who aren't following it
as closely specifically by that
well did you did you read the bill or
the style form
i did message that i said to the
legislature what it said
what it said i asked for changes
for the regulations and how kids would
have to prove their boys and girls i
asked them not to open it up to
litigation if a child
doesn't make a team they up to a year
later can come back
and sue every member of that team in the
k-12 system and the entire school
district as well
and continue suing so that they have the
opportunity to play
if we put the collegiate athletics on
there then we will get punitively
challenged by the end c double a and
then we'll have to continue to fight
them
and a court district that is not
friendly to winning
that's the what the legal scholars have
told me for many many months
is that my chances of winning in court
are very very low
my chances of winning this as you've
stated in the public opinion
is extremely extremely successful so
that's why i'm building this coalition
to make sure we're taking our argument
to the public and we're going to tell
the ncaa
that this coalition will fight to make
sure we're protecting women's sports
i appreciate you coming on tonight
governor christina south dakota thank
you