Speaker Johnson Has Sudden Epiphany About What A Woman Actually Is

House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman. Or can he? We’ve gotten quite the whiplash in the last 24 hours.

First, the Speaker came out with the most mealy-mouthed non-answer possible regarding a question about his new transgender colleague, Democratic Representative-elect Sarah McBride.

“Is freshman-elect Sarah McBride a man or a woman?” asked a reporter Tuesday afternoon.

“Look, I’m not going to get into this,” Johnson diplomatically responded. “We treat all persons with dignity and respect and we will. I’m not going to engage in silly debates about this,” he continued.

He then went on to address the “concern about uses of restroom facilities and locker rooms.” Sure, Congress will work in a “deliberate fashion” to reach “member consensus” and “accommodate the needs of every single person” — but that still didn’t answer whether he’d support Rep. Nancy Mace’s proposal to make Congressional bathrooms strictly sex-based.

But that lasted all of a few hours before the Speaker came right back out to the podium to walk back his embarrassing non-answer. “Let me be unequivocally clear. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. And a man cannot become a woman,” he reiterated to a gaggle of reporters.

Better, but still somewhat tepid.

By Wednesday afternoon, Johnson finally announced that Congress would adopt Mace’s proposed rule. “All single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings (like restrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms) are reserved for individuals of that biological sex,” he said in a statement.

This is the bare minimum we should expect from one of the top leaders of a political party that makes rejecting this gender nonsense a core plank of its platform. The real question is: why couldn’t he do it the first time?

Was it instinctive panic? A habituated reflex to bend the knee? Or maybe just some good old fashioned Protestant civility? We’ve long known that a certain kind of Republican just doesn’t believe these culture war battles are worth fighting. (RELATED: House Speaker Bars Biological Men From Women’s Bathrooms In US Capitol)

The other question is: what got him to switch up his tune? There was a flood of grassroots backlash to the first press conference posted on X. Some conservative pundits were quick to pounce on his prevaricating. Did he respond to the overwhelming sentiment within his party, or did someone give him a shoulder tap to tell him what he must do?

It almost doesn’t matter.

There’s something to say about not needlessly antagonizing your colleagues; civility still has its place. But Republicans need to stop painting themselves into the prescribed box of “villain” that Democrats have put them in. The person antagonizing his colleagues is the one who walks in a room and narcissistically demands they all cater to his delusion.

We need a leader who can actually lead, who can make up his mind on tough decisions not the second or third time, but the first time. The sad part is, this wasn’t even really a “tough” decision. The stifling air of self-censorship has fallen away, as Americans overwhelmingly reject the hostile culture of political correctness that Democrats subjected them to over these past several years. People are now speaking their minds without the fear of being labeled a villain, and supporting the MAGA agenda isn’t just socially acceptable —  it’s downright cool.

If you and I can do it, there’s no reason the Speaker of the House can’t as well.