Representative-elect Sarah McBride (Democrat, Delaware), who made history this month as the first openly trans person elected to Congress, explained why Republicans aren’t fooling her in their attacks on the trans community on Sunday.

“It is an attempt to distract from what they are actually doing. Every single time— every single time we hear them say the word ‘trans,’ look at what they’re doing with their right hand,” said McBride in an appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation.

McBride has recently been at the centre of Representative Nancy Mace’s anti-trans crusade as the South Carolina Republican has fixated on pushing a bill that would ban trans women from using the women’s bathroom on Capitol Hill.

Mace, whohasusedsocialmediatorantaboutthetopic and is selling t-shirts to “FUEL” her fight, has been slammed by critics including her former aide who claimed that she’s using the bill as a “ploy” to get on Fox News.

On Sunday, Mace discussed her crusade on Fox News in an interview where host Rachel Campos-Duffy misgendered McBride and declared that she knows Rachel Levine — a trans woman who serves as President Joe Biden’s assistant secretary of health — was “not a woman.”

Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan, in her interview with McBride, brought up Democrats who havevoiced concerns about trans youth playing sports before asking if she understood why some parents “feel uncomfortable or frustrated.”

McBride said the US is “still entering” into a conversation around trans people and she’s talked with her Democratic colleagues that “span diversity of thought” on how to tackle a number of issues.

“But I think we are all united that every single American deserves equal rights, I think we are all united that attempts to attack a vulnerable community are not only mean spirited but really an attempt to misdirect,” she said.

“Because every single time we hear the incoming administration or Republicans in Congress talk about any vulnerable group in this country, we have to be clear that it is an attempt to distract.”

She later urged Americans to look at what Republicans are doing to “pick the pocket of American workers,” “fleece seniors” while privatising Medicare and Social Security and making other moves to undermine workers.

She argued that the last week of attacks has been a “prime example” of how lawmakers have diverted “time and energy” away from tackling their constituents’ cost of living.

“And we have to be clear that there is a real cost for the American worker every time they focus on this,” she said.