Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday shot down the conservative argument that anti-transgender bathroom laws were necessary to stop sexual predators from committing crimes in public restrooms.
During a panel discussion on Fox News Sunday, Wallace wondered if GOP presidential hopeful Ted Cruz was making a mistake by using the issue to attack Donald Trump, who recently said that he disagreed with laws that prevent transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice.
According to Ben Domenech, a conservative columnist for The Federalist, the laws were intended to protect children from "sexual predators."
"That's actually what people are concerned about," Domenech insisted. "They're less concerned about transgender people coming into bathrooms than they are about men using this as a way to get into locker rooms with women and to exploit that opportunity to participate in some kind of criminal act."
Wallace, however, dismissed Domenech's assertion with a quick fact check.
"We actually tried to find out whether it is a public safety issues," the Fox News host explained. "Whether it is a problem with transgender people misusing bathrooms to prey on others."
Wallace noted that PolitiFact had looked into the issue and found that there was no known "instance of criminals convicted of using transgender protections as cover in the United States."
"This seems to be a solution in search of a problem," he concluded.
