Utah school board member who questioned a student’s gender censured by lawmakers

The Utah Legislature voted Thursday to censure a conservative member of the state Board of Education whose social media post questioning the gender of a high school basketball player triggered threats against the girl and led state officials to call for the board member's resignation.

Lawmakers passed a resolution condemning the actions of Natalie Cline a day after the Utah State Board of Education voted unanimously to strip Cline of her committee assignments and nearly all administrative responsibilities. The board will no longer allow Cline to attend meetings or place items on the agenda, and her colleagues have asked her to resign by Feb. 19.

The legislative reprimand, which now heads to the governor's desk, carries no real punishment but is a formal way for lawmakers to express their disapproval. The measure received unanimous support in the Senate after passing the House with only two votes against, one from a Democrat and the other from a Republican.

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Both the Legislature and Board of Education have left it up to Cline whether to resign or remain in her role with limited authority. She is up for reelection in November. Democrats had urged the Republican legislative leaders to punish Cline more harshly, either by impeaching her or by allowing the board to impeach her — a power it does not currently have.

Cline, who had previously come under investigation for inflammatory comments about LGBTQ+ students, singled out the Salt Lake City athlete in a Facebook post that falsely insinuated the girl was transgender. After she learned that the girl was not trans, Cline apologized for provoking a firestorm of vulgar comments.

House Speaker Mike Schultz, a Hooper Republican, said ahead of the vote that members of his chamber were "scattered" on whether to impeach Cline or allow voters to decide her future in the fall.

"If this body moves ahead with impeachment, this blows up like a mushroom cloud on the national stage," Schultz said. "The hate that you’re seeing directed toward that family right now then becomes national. That’s a hard decision to make."

House Minority Leader Angela Romero said she was frustrated that Republican leaders cut off debate before she could propose an amendment that would instead initiate impeachment proceedings. She and her fellow Democrats nonetheless overwhelmingly voted in favor of the resolution to censure Cline.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox told reporters Thursday that he supports the board's forceful censure and thinks it effectively has the same impact as impeachment. He had urged the board to take action against Cline, saying she "embarrassed the state."

Even when she apologized, Cline defended her initial suspicions, saying that a national push to normalize transgender identities makes it "normal to pause and wonder if people are what they say they are."

Cox pushed back Thursday against criticisms from LGBTQ+ rights advocates who argue he and Republican lawmakers enabled Cline's behavior by passing a transgender bathroom ban that they say gives people license to question someone's gender.

"Even if this young person was transgender, it would still have been inappropriate," Cox said. "That is not who we are or what we should be doing."

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Cline argued the board was taking away her right to represent her constituents without due process. She wrote that she did not have enough time to read all the materials and create a response before Wednesday’s meeting.

The board determined that Cline violated policies requiring members to respect student privacy and to uphold state educator standards, which include not participating in sexual or emotional harassment of students and treating students with dignity and respect.

The board's resolution said Cline allowed negative comments about the girl to remain on her social media page while comments in support of the student were deleted, which together "appeared to constitute cyberbullying as defined" in Utah law.

In a letter published Thursday in The Salt Lake Tribune, the girl’s parents, Al and Rachel van der Beek, also urged Cline to resign and called for her impeachment.

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"Ms. Cline did the very thing we teach our children not to do — she blasted social media without fact checking, which ultimately led to a barrage of hateful and despicable comments that were directed at our daughter that lasted for more than 16 hours," the letter said. "It was one of the most painful things we’ve had to endure."

Romney uses Biden’s own words against him, calls for president to join him in retirement: ‘Time to transition’

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, used President Biden's own words against him on Wednesday while calling on him to drop his 2024 bid for re-election and join him in retirement at the end of his term.

Romney's challenge to Biden comes just hours after the first-term senator officially announced he would not be seeking a second term, citing his own advanced age as his main reason for the decision.

"President Biden, when he was running, said he was a transitional figure to the next generation. Well, time to transition," Romney said when asked by a reporter if his decision not to run for re-election because of his age should also apply to Biden, 80, and former President Donald Trump, 77.

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Romney's comments were in reference to Biden calling himself a "transition candidate" during his 2020 campaign for the presidency, something he later meant he would be someone who would help pave the way for a new generation of Democratic leadership.

"I think it would be a great thing if both President Biden and former President Trump were to stand aside and let their respective party pick someone in the next generation … I think both parties would be far better served if they were going to be represented by people other than those of us from the baby boom generation," he added.

Concern over Biden's age amid his re-election has continued to grow, even from within his own party. A recent Associated Press-NORC poll found 69% of Democrats think Biden is too old to run again.

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Romney's inclusion of Trump in his concern about the age of the two presidential front-runners joins that of Trump's closest rival in the Republican primary, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said during a recent interview on CBS that the former president's age was "a legitimate concern" for voters going into 2024.

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Rep Chris Stewart’s ex-staffer wins Utah special election bid to replace him

A former staffer for Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, has all but won her bid to replace him after he resigns later this year.

Celeste Maloy, who served as Sterwart's chief legal counsel in Congress, won a three-way Republican primary election on Thursday ahead of an upcoming special election. With the Republican nomination, she is now the heavy favorite in the special election against Democratic state Sen. Kathleen Riebe in November.

"It’s exciting that we’re going to have somebody come out of this primary that represents rural and southern Utah. I think it’s time for that, and everybody’s ready for it," Maloy said Thursday.

Stewart has served in the House of Representatives for roughly 10 years, but he is resigning in September due to his wife's illness.

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Maloy credited her win to her campaign's focus on rural areas in Utah.

"I did debates in the rural counties. I showed up and held events in the rural counties," Maloy said. "We decided early on that our strategy was going to be to win the rural counties, and then get as much as we could in the more urban counties."

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Maloy's election effort enjoyed a boost from Stewart's own endorsement as well as an endorsement from former Utah U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop.

Stewart is one of three members of the U.S. House of Representatives to voluntarily leave office early this year. Reps. David Cicilline, D-RI, and Donald McEachin, D-Va., also resigned within the past 12 months.

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In all, 15 other senators and representatives have announced that they are not running for re-election in 2024, opening up races across the country.

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Maloy will face off against Riebe on Nov. 21.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Utah’s Mike Lee says trial statements about him were ‘contrary to fact,’ gets record revised: report

U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, succeeded Wednesday in having a Democrat’s statements about him withdrawn from the record during the second day of former President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, according to a report.

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Following Republican Sen. Mitt Romney's vote to convict President Trump on abuse of power in the Senate's impeachment trial, Trump took dead aim at the Utah senator during remarks Thursday afternoon at the White House.

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Sen. Mitt Romney’s decision to vote to convict President Trump for abuse of power in his Senate impeachment trial Wednesday has sparked praise and outage, including in his home state of Utah.