Caitlyn Jenner whines that her super-rich friends are leaving California so they don’t have to see homeless people
Caitlyn Jenner sounded off about homeless – by focusing on her plane-owning friend. (Screen capture via Twitter/Fox News)
Caitlyn Jenner sparked controversy Wednesday (5 May) after saying she knows someone who left California because he didn’t want to see people experiencing homelessness.
Jenner let her true colours shine in her first TV interview since announcing her bid to become governor of California.
Attempting to tour herself as an anti-elitist torchbearer for the disgruntled everyperson, the 71-year-old sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity at her private aeroplane hanger in well-heeled Malibu.
Rattling off incumbent Gavin Newsom’s “failures”, she said: “My friends are leaving California. My hangar, the guy right across, he was packing up his hangar and I said: ‘Where are you going?’
“And he says: ‘I’m moving to Sedona, Arizona, I can’t take it anymore. I can’t walk down the streets and see the homeless’.”
Her comments quickly became a lightning rod for criticism on Twitter, with countless users incensed at how “out of touch” the plane-owning millionaire is.
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California is clogged with billionaires. According to the 2020 US Census, 160 billionaires are based in the state – more than any other.
Homelessness, meanwhile, has soared in California across the last few years. The state has one highest rates of homelessness in the country and the second-greatest number of homeless families, the United States Interagency Council reported in 2019.
The federal agency, which helms government efforts to end homelessness, estimated that California has an estimated 151,278 people experiencing homelessness on any given day.
One in five trans people has experienced homelessness at some point in their lives in the US, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.
The lives of trans folk experiencing homelessness were only worsened during the Trump administration, with Department of Housing and Urban Development officials at the time moving to allow shelters to turn away trans people altogether. The Biden administration binned the proposals in April.
Caitlyn Jenner has stumbled in the days since announcing her bid to unseat Newsom. Despite championing herself as a trans rights advocate, the former Olympian drew heat for saying trans girls should not compete in school sports teams.
While discussing her take on trans athletes with Hannity, she dubbed herself a “role model” for trans youth before saying she “doesn’t care” what people think of her views.
In one highlight, Jenner said she’s “pro-illegal immigration”.
“You’re pro-legal immigration,” Hannity corrected.
“Sorry, did I miss the legal part?” she responded. “Thanks for catching me.”
