Dr. Phil Becomes the Left’s Public Enemy No. 1

A new champion for sanity and common sense appears to be emerging: Dr. Phillip C. McGraw – better known to fans of the mustached TV personality as simply “Dr. Phil.”

In recent weeks, Dr. Phil has made headlines – and enraged the left – for his questioning of so-called “gender-affirming care” for children, criticism of pandemic lockdowns, and statements about the humanitarian disaster taking place as a result of the ongoing border crisis.

Dr. Phil, who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and has been the host of Dr. Phil since 2002, has largely avoided taking sides on hot-button political issues throughout his career. But that now appears to be changing as he has increasingly spoken out against the most extreme aspects of social leftism.

In an appearance on the immensely popular “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast on February 20, Dr. Phil took aim at the transgender movement and specifically the experimental drug regimens and surgeries being peddled to minors.

“It’s interesting they choose words like ‘gender-affirming care,’” Dr. Phil said. “That’s interesting that they call it that, but really what they are talking about is hormonal therapy or sex reassignment surgery on children.”

As Dr. Phil shared with host Joe Rogan, many major medical organizations have signed off on providing this supposedly “life-saving care” to minors even amid serious concerns about lasting harm to kids who are confused about their gender. Despite the claims of transgender activists, there are no long-term studies showing that hormone therapies and sex change surgeries reduce suicidality among trans-identifying youth.

“I have never seen those organizations sign off on anything with less information as to whether or not it does long-term harm,” Dr. Phil said, referring to institutions such as the American Association of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. “I thought that the deal was first do no harm… All of the European countries, Sweden, Norway, they’ve all stopped doing it, because they say, ‘we cannot say in good conscience that it does no harm.’ Because it does do harm.”

Later in the episode, Dr. Phil also told Rogan about his visit to the southern border, which he described as “out of control.” Dr. Phil blasted the Biden administration for actions like ending the practice of using DNA testing kits to ensure children traveling with adults were actually related, which he said amounted to “paying money to take these children and sell them into sex slavery.”

Dr. Phil also raised the alarm about “the number of military-age men that are showing up with military haircuts, clearly in shape… These guys are showing up with six-packs and military boots.”

The left-wing media predictably reacted with outrage to Dr. Phil’s conversation with Rogan, employing all the usual attack lines about “xenophobia” and “transphobia.” Late night host Jon Stewart did an entire bit mocking Dr. Phil’s concerns about the border, while popular left-wing YouTuber Sam Seder called the podcast episode an “idiot contest.”

But Dr. Phil wasn’t done upsetting liberal media personalities. A few days later, he made an appearance on The View, where he made the case that COVID-19 lockdowns and school closures did far more harm than good for American kids and were in fact not based on any solid scientific evidence.

“Who does that? Who takes away the support system for these children?” Dr. Phil asked. “Who takes it away and shuts it down? And by the way, when they shut it down, they stopped the mandated reporters from being able to see children that were being abused and sexually molested and in fact sent them home and abandoned them to their abusers, with no way to watch, and referrals dropped 50 percent to 60 percent.”

Predictably, Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin objected, insisting that the government and public health authorities were “trying to save children’s lives.”

“They were the less vulnerable group and they suffered and will suffer more from the mismanagement of COVID than they will from the exposure to COVID,” Dr. Phil retorted. “And that’s not an opinion, that’s a fact,” he said, as the audience applauded.

Following his performance on The View, Dr. Phil continued his media tour with an appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, where he suggested that President Joe Biden should take a cognitive exam. “People that have nothing to hide, hide nothing. So, why not?” Dr. Phil said.

While Dr. Phil has proven himself more than willing to criticize left-wing orthodoxy, it’s still probably safe to say that he’s not a through-and-through conservative. But that shouldn’t diminish how important it is that an individual with his level of cultural relevance has the courage to stand up and speak the truth while facing down the left’s cancel culture and media smear machine.

For an ideology as fragile and incoherent as modern leftism, the most dangerous thing is a popular, well-spoken person willing to public dismantle its core tenets – which appears to be exactly what Dr. Phil is set on doing.

Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @ShaneHarris513.