Tufts denies blocking student internships in Democratic congressman’s office
Tufts University denied Tuesday that it was preventing its students from interning in the office of Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., after he made remarks about transgender athletes following last week’s election.
The Boston-area university’s denial followed a reported claim by one of its professors that the political science department would no longer facilitate internships at Moulton’s office.
“We have reached out to Congressman Moulton’s office to clarify that we have not — and will not — limit internship opportunities with his office,” the university said in a statement. “We remain committed to fostering an inclusive environment that values diverse perspectives, and our Career Center will continue to provide students with a wide range of employment opportunities across the political and ideological spectrum.”
The controversy began Thursday when Moulton spoke with The New York Times and implied that some of the Democratic Party’s policy positions on transgender rights contributed to the election losses of Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.
“Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face,” he told The Times. “I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat, I’m supposed to be afraid to say that.”
David Art, a Tufts professor who chairs the university’s political science department, then called Moulton’s office on Friday and threatened to block student internships, according to internal Slack messages Moulton’s office shared with NBC News. Moulton’s office also shared a transcript of a voicemail that it said was left by Art, the contents of which were first reported by The Boston Globe.
“I’m calling once again just to have an email contact with someone who I can coordinate with [in] order to get this letter across to Congressman Moulton about unwillingness to facilitate internship opportunities or at least advertisement,” the transcript reads.
Art did not immediately return a request for comment, but the professor did confirm to The Globe that he had called Moulton’s office about blocking student internships.
Moulton’s communications director, Sydney Simon, said in an email Wednesday that the university’s political science department “did go rogue on this decision to close off students to the opportunity of interning with us” and that it was not an institutional decision made by the university.
Republicans leaned into transgender issues during the campaign — particularly whether trans women should be allowed to play on women’s sports teams and trans minors’ access gender-affirming care — spending over $200 million on ads targeting the trans community, according to data shared with NBC News by AdImpact, which tracks political ad spending.
Moulton has suggested that others agree with him in private on the issue.
“Sadly, too many fellow Democrats feel like there isn’t a place within our party for them to say certain things out loud — even when it’s a reasonable, majority opinion in our country,” Moulton wrote in a post on Facebook. “These are the people whose trust and confidence we need to win back if we want to become a party that is victorious, not just sanctimonious.”
A 2022 Pew Research Center poll found that 58% of Americans favor proposals that would require transgender athletes to compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth.
Moulton reiterated his views Tuesday in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” whose anchors have similarly pointed to transgender athletes in the wake of Harris’ election loss. (NBC News and MSNBC are both owned by NBCUniversal.)
Moulton is not the only Democratic lawmaker to suggest that the party’s position on transgender rights contributed to Harris’ loss. Rep. Tom Suozzi, of New York, addressed the issue in a separate interview with The Times last week.
“The Democrats have to stop pandering to the far left,” Suozzi told the paper. “I don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but I don’t think biological boys should be playing in girls’ sports.”
The Trump campaign repeatedly aired television ads that mentioned Harris’ past support for taxpayer-funded gender-affirming surgery for inmates in the weeks leading up to the election. The ads ended with the tagline: “Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you.”
Harris largely avoided the issue on the campaign trail and in interviews, and it was notably absent from this year’s Democratic National Convention. Conversely, Republicans leaned into transgender issues during the Republican National Convention.
The Harris campaign did not immediately return a request for comment, but its LGBTQ engagement director, Sam Alleman, urged voters not to scapegoat trans people.
“Please do not blame trans issues or trans people for why we lost,” he wrote on X on Thursday. “No exit polling or data is showing this as a significant decision point for voters.”
