Caitlyn Jenner continued to defend voting Republican in the 2016 election on “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” but it’s not straightforward.
She appeared on the late-night show Tuesday night after the airing of her follow-up interview with Diane Sawyer on “20/20,” in which the former Olympic athlete and a long-time Republican said she was disappointed with the party’s handling of LGBTQ+ issues.
“My loyalty is not with Donald Trump,” Jenner told Meyers. “My loyalty is not with the Republican party. My loyalty is with my community, and I will fight for this community.”
Meyers and Jenner joked a bit about her vote in the beginning of the clip, which you can watch above, before diving into the specifics of why she voted Republican.
“I’m not a one-issue voter and obviously — I know, I’m not stupid — the Republican party does not do a good job when it comes to equality and the entire LGBT community. The Democrats are better there,” she said. “But for me, I’ve been around a long time, I’m probably more conservative. I believe in little things like the Constitution and freedom. I believe in minimal government…. And so Republicans have done a better job in that direction.”
Jenner told Sawyer that she was “coming after” the Republican party for its anti-LGBTQ+ stances and she echoed that sentiment on “Late Night.”
“I gotta keep an eye on these people,” she continued. “Trump, who I talked to before [at] the Inauguration, about a lot of LGBT issues when the whole North Carolina bathroom bill, all that mess. And I had talked to him about my feelings on that. All of sudden he gets into office and one of the first things he does, which he never should have done, is repeal the Title IX for equality for trans people in school. That was good federal guidelines for states to be able to follow, and I blasted him.”
As for whether she’ll get to talk to Trump on these issues is unclear. Jenner said she’d get slammed by the LGBTQ+ community if she played golf with the president (most likely true). She also added that she feels Trump is “toxic.”
Trump did invite her to play golf with him, but it hasn’t happened yet.
“I haven’t done it because I don’t think he wants to get beat by a 67-year-old trans woman,” Jenner joked. “The man has an ego!”