When “the Republican Party goes all out on its transphobia,” Laverne Cox pushes back.

The trans actor and icon recently appeared on an episode of The Daily Show to tackle some of the Republican Party’s most blatant disinformation ahead of the Nov. 5 election. She started by referring to a report from The New York Times Earlier this month, it emerged that Republicans have spent more than $65 million on attack ads against the trans community since August.

“Seriously, $65 million in anti-trans ads?” Cox said. “Do you know how disappointing it is to finally have someone spend $65 million on me for this crap?”

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Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have released several television ads over the past two months to repeat in battleground states — airing heavily during college sports games — that push false claims about gender-affirming care and transgender athletes. As politicians drive their supporters crazy based on lies, Cox noted that “it’s no wonder we see so much anti-trans violence and suicide,” citing a report byThe lawyer which showed that hate crimes against transgender people have increased dramatically in recent years.

“This is straight out of the bigot’s playbook: using dehumanizing language against marginalized groups provides a permission structure to attack them, because when people are no longer humanized, you can take away their rights and commit violence against them with impunity,” Cox said . . “But transgender people are people – people with real thoughts and feelings.”

The segment then played a clip featuring a completely made-up claim by Trump that children in public schools are undergoing gender-affirming surgery, which Cox expertly shot down. “Do you think teachers can convince kids to get gender-affirming care? Teachers can’t even get kids to wear deodorant,” she said.

“We’re just trying to live our lives. We just want to be who we are and not experience stigma, violence and discrimination for that,” Cox continued. “And most people understand this, but because that is such a simple and non-controversial truth, Republicans have to flood the airwaves with fabricated fear-mongering.”

Cox then pointed out the “crazy” part – that running anti-trans ads “doesn’t even work on their electoral chances.” She noted that “Republicans tried anti-trans campaigns in 2022 and they were unsuccessful,” referring to the several anti-LGBTQ+ candidates rejected by voters in recent years.

“So, why are they doing them again?” Cox asked. “Is it possible because it’s easier than solving problems that actually exist? Yes, that’s the reason.”