Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert reportedly tried to kick a “guy” out of a women’s restroom in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, only to realize she’d made a mistake.
Congressional leaders were voting on the House floor when the far-right representative reportedly came “bursting” out of a nearby women’s restroom and complained to security that there was “a guy” inside, Bloomberg reporter Billy House wrote in a series of posts on X.
Transgender people are banned from using single-sex facilities that align with their gender identities near the House Chamber under a policy first introduced by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.).
House said Boebert brought Mace over to help sniff out the supposed intruder.
Recalling the scene, House said he waited outside the restroom after seeing Boebert and Mace storm back in. He saw four people leave after her, all women.
Back on the House floor, Boebert falsely told colleagues that the person she saw was Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the Daily Beast reported, citing sources present. McBride is the first transgender member of Congress and the target of Mace’s bathroom ban.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Boebert said she told the person in the women’s room, according to the Daily Beast.
After reporting the incident to colleagues, House said Boebert returned to the restroom with Mace. Both entered the room but “just seconds” later, they “quietly” exited and returned to the House floor, he wrote.
House said he questioned Boebert about what happened and said she admitted that she hadn’t seen “a guy” after all.
“I apologized, learned a lesson, and it won’t happen again,” she said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
A spokesperson for McBride chastised the two lawmakers for their behavior.
“What a thoroughly predictable ― and predicted ― outcome,” Michaela Kurinsky-Malos told HuffPost Friday. “Representative McBride thinks people should get back to work rather than play bathroom police.”
Representatives for Boebert and Mace did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Friday.