A public political disagreement seems to be jeopardizing the friendship between fellow talk show hosts Andy Cohen and Meghan McCain.
The pair traded pointed jabs on X Tuesday morning over one of the most hot-button topics in the current American political conversation: transgender women in sports.
The spat kicked off when McCain, a Republican who has been critical of Donald Trump, responded to a tweet from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
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Leavitt’s post was about Payton McNabb, a 19-year-old who says she suffered a traumatic brain injury after a transgender woman spiked a volleyball into her face during a match in high school. McNabb will be a guest of honor at Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday.
“I have had the pleasure of meeting Payton—she is incredibly smart, strong and brave. Both she and her family have been through the unthinkable,“ wrote McCain, who is the daughter of late Republican Sen. John McCain. ”Democrats defending young women suffering from traumatic brain injuries as a result of trans athletes is why they will continue losing every election.”
The post roiled Cohen, who has had many chummy conversations with McCain during her appearances on his show Watch What Happens Live. McCain, a former host of The View, suggested in May that Cohen was the best pick to moderate a presidential debate.
Cohen wrote to McCain that he was “surprised you’re buying into the vilification of the trans community given the real problems happening in this country, your previous ally-ship of the lgbtq community, and the fact that this non issue affects about four people in this country.”
Cohen, who is gay, has not explicitly aligned himself with a political party. He has, however, rebuked Trump—endorsing both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the past two presidential races.
It wasn’t long before McCain fired back on Tuesday.
“Surprised you’re okay with violence against female athletes. Peyton suffered serious brain damage—just one story,” she wrote. “You have my cell, always happy to talk privately or publicly on either of our shows because these conversations are reductive to hash out on social media.”
It’s not clear whether Cohen took her up on the offer to move the fight offline.
The question of whether trans athletes should compete in women’s sports has become a key political flashpoint during Trump’s political resurgence.
Since entering office, the president has taken strong executive action to bar trans women from competing on sports teams corresponding to their gender. Last month, the NCAA acquiesced and instituted a ban.
