WATCH: Riley Gaines Says Katie Porter Snidely ‘Congratulated’ Her, Then Fled After Taking Shot at Her on Bill Maher

Collegiate swimmer turned political activist Riley Gaines alleged that Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) — who has accused Gaines of being motivated by a desire for attention — fled the scene after Gaines confronted her on Capitol Hill earlier this week.

Gaines recounted the story in an appearance on Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich:

I was in D.C. at the Capitol and I saw Representative Katie Porter who a few weeks ago — she’s of course a Democrat representative from California — a few weeks ago, she went on Piers Morgan and was talking about me and said she disagrees with everything that I do entirely because she thinks I’m doing it for clicks and for likes.

And so I saw her yesterday for the first time in person. We made eye contact, which she very quickly acted like she was on the phone because she didn’t want to address me. But I went up to her and I introduced myself and I said ‘Hello, Representative Porter. My name is Riley Gaines and I –‘ and she looked at me and said, ‘Congrats on being a competitor.’ That’s what she said. And I said, ‘I want to address something with you.’ She turned around and bolted! Wouldn’t even let me get a word out! The disrespect, the audacity to simply turn around and not even acknowledge or take accountability for what she said.

Once she turned around I of course followed her and I said, ‘This comment you made, of me doing this for clicks and likes, that is disingenuous and you know this. You know that’s not why I’m doing this, yet you chose to say that.’ She did not respond and she continued walking away, which I think shows perfectly the cowardice of these people.

Gaines has become an outspoken advocate of barring male-to-female transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, arguing that they retain biologically-endowed physical advantages over the competition.

The former University of Kentucky swimmer tied the University of Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas, who transitioned after competing on the school’s men’s team for several years, for fifth in last year’s 200m freestyle at the NCAA Championships. Only Thomas was awarded the fifth-place trophy.

Porter accused Gaines of “using” the issue to “get likes and get clicks” on Bill Maher’s show last month before having her argument challenged by Piers Morgan.

“I’ve got no truck for Riley Gaines personally, but all I’ve seen her do is stand up for women’s rights to fairness and equality,” said Morgan. “She actually competed against Lia Thomas and it was obviously unfair. Lia Thomas won one of the races in the NCAA championships by 50 seconds against a bunch of biological females who simply couldn’t keep up. That cannot be right. It cannot be fair.”

Watch above via the Independent Women’s Forum on Twitter.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]