Republican firebrand Lauren Boebert reportedly flew into a rage this week over transgender Rep. Sarah McBride using the women’s restroom – only to discover the perpetrator wasn’t McBride at all.
The Colorado congresswoman was spotted emerging from the ladies’ room at the Capitol this week complaining about ‘a guy’ in the restroom, according to reporting from the Daily Beast.
As she marched back to the House floor, Boebert was heard telling other members that she found McBride in the bathroom.
McBride is banned from using the women’s bathroom due to a rule set in place by Speaker Mike Johnson barring transgender people from using single-sex bathrooms.
According to an anonymous GOP lawmaker who spoke to the Daily Beast, Boebert was infuriated that McBride went against the rule, and told the person in the bathroom: ‘You shouldn’t be here.’
But the controversial Republican apparently quickly realized the person she accosted in the bathroom wasn’t McBride at all.
‘I overheard Boebert say she went to apologize,’ the GOP source added.
In a statement after the mix-up was revealed, Boebert admitted her blunder, saying: ‘I made an error regarding a mistaken identity. I apologized, learned a lesson, and it won’t happen again.’
Republican firebrand Lauren Boebert reportedly flew into a rage at transgender Rep. Sarah McBride using the women’s restroom – only to discover the perpetrator wasn’t McBride at all
McBride became the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress this year, and was banned from using the women’s bathroom by Speaker Mike Johnson
Bloomberg reporter Billy House first witnessed the controversy unfolding, posting to X that he saw Boebert ‘bursting’ out of the women’s room in the House, ‘complaining to security personnel’ about ‘a guy’ in the bathroom.
House said he stuck around to see who would emerge, and only saw four women walk out.
Boebert then came ‘storming back’ to the restroom, having brought South Carolina Congresswoman and fellow anti-trans crusader Nancy Mace with her, House said.
Mace was notably the author of the resolution banning transgender women from using the women’s restroom, and her public stance was the driving force behind Johnson’s rule banning McBride’s from them in the current congress.
‘But alas, just seconds after this duo entered the bathroom, they come back out – and went back quietly to the floor,’ House reported at the time.
When asked by the Daily Beast about the incident, McBride said she was not confronted by Boebert.
She said while she disagrees with Johnson’s rule barring her from the women’s bathroom, she is committed to following the rule and has no intention of breaking it.
‘I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down the costs facing families,’ she previously said in November when the controversy made headlines.
‘Like all members, I will follow the rules outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them.’
McBride became the first openly transgender lawmaker ever elected to the US Congress, but her place in the chamber quickly drew the ire of some conservatives after she was sworn in in January.
Mace has repeatedly referred to McBride as ‘a man’, with fellow Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene going further by describing her as a predator and accusing her of being ‘mentally ill.’
Boebert reportedly gathered Congresswoman Nancy Mace to find McBride in the bathroom in the case of mistaken identity, as Mace had been a vocal opponent of McBride using women’s bathrooms earlier this year
Fellow Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene was also among those opposing McBride in Congress, describing her as a predator and accusing her of being ‘mentally ill’
Despite being told she had to use the men’s bathroom in the Capitol, McBride said she was not fazed by the move.
‘This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days, as I’ve remained hard at work preparing to represent the greatest state in the union come January,’ she said at the time.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman was among those who came out in support of McBride, saying at the time: ‘There’s no job I’m afraid to lose if it requires me to degrade anyone.
‘If that’s a defining issue for a voter, there will be a different candidate. We have a bathroom in my office that anybody is welcome to use, including Representative-elect Sarah McBride.’
