Daily Wire personality Michael Knowles cheered as Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced a bill targeted at preventing Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) from using the women’s bathroom on Capitol Hill. 

Knowles and others in the online right have consistently pushed elected Republicans to adopt more confrontational positions on the inclusion of trans people. This time, however, their antics drew significant condemnation from both the right and the mainstream media, in a potential hint at the limits of a broader appetite for MAGA media’s politics of humiliation of individual trans people.  

Before McBride had even taken her oath of office, anti-LGBTQ influencers took aim at the Delaware congresswoman-elect, who won her seat this November with 57.9% of the vote. 

Libs of TikTok asserted that “using the women’s bathroom is a fetish for” her. 

Former college swimmer Riley Gaines echoed that charge. 

Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro ranted that “I don’t want him in my bathroom. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to wash my hands near him. I don’t want him in there. … Good for Nancy Mace.” 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reportedly threatened to attack McBride if she used a shared bathroom.  

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who has not shied away from such positions in the past, initially declined to answer a question about whether McBride is a man or a woman, saying, “We treat all persons with dignity and respect, and we will.” 

But just hours later, Johnson felt the need to clarify in the face of right-wing backlash, stating that “a man cannot become a woman.” 

In response, McBride posted a simple statement:

None of this satisfied the online right. 

Matt Walsh blasted Johnson for initially being “too shy to say, you know, whether the trans congressman … is actually a man.” 

YouTuber Charlie Kirk  attacked McBride, demanding that she use the bathroom that matches her chromosomes and adding, “I totally support MTG and Nancy Mace drawing the line.”

Mace announced the sale of T-shirts featuring a picture of a bathroom sign and the words “come and take it” and expanded her bill. 

Knowles wasted no time taking credit: “We kind of brought this to the forefront.” 

By contrast, mainstream media praised McBride’s grace in the face of this treatment. 

An op-ed in The New York Times — which has recently faced criticism for its coverage of transgender people — carried a headline saying there was no excuse for “the bullying of Sarah McBride.” 

Another Times column labeled Mace an amateur Phyllis Schlafly. 

A scathing Washington Post column asked whether Mace knows “how women’s bathrooms work.” 

In a segment on MSNBC’s Ayman, the host labeled Mace’s behavior “outrageous” and “wildly performative.” 

A segment on MSNBC’s Alex Witt Reports noted that Mace was selling T-shirts “to fundraise off her proposal” and that she had previously supported LGBTQ rights. 

Footage on CNN featured Mace plastering a sign that said “biological” above the sign marking a women’s restroom and mentioned that the congresswoman had tweeted about the issue more than 300 times in a matter of days.

Although The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro continued grumbling about McBride, the response to the ban from the broader right was scarcely more positive than the mainstream coverage. 

Meghan McCain wrote that “Congresswoman McBride deserves dignity and respect and Republicans are not giving it.” 

Writer Caitlin Flanagan, who has defended J.K. Rowling from criticisms of transphobia, described McBride as “mistreated.” 

Former Republican House member Adam Kinzinger posted that Mace was “on the verge of something unhealthy.” 

Former Republican House member George Santos suggested that Mace take a break from posting.

Mace’s own former communications director derided the effort as “a messaging bill that’s sole goal is getting on TV.” 

And in back-to-back columns, writers for the National Review warned that “Nancy Mace–style theatrics won’t serve the GOP well” and lamented “the unpleasant return of the bathroom wars.” 

On December 3, as Mace continued tweeting bathroom memes, the Montana House Rules Committee met to consider a measure to ban Rep. Zooey Zephyr from using the women’s restrooms in the state capitol. 

The year before, Zephyr had been expelled from the chamber after a speech in which she suggested that her colleagues had blood on their hands for the passage of a bill that would prohibit minors from accessing medically necessary transition care. She was reelected with 80% of the vote. 

This time around, four Republicans ultimately voted against banning Zephyr from using the women’s restroom. Explaining his vote, Rep. David Bedey cited the media: “We have a reasonable accommodation that we put in place. This particular action will have the effect of making people famous in the national news and will not contribute to the effective conduct of our business.”

Zephyr’s public statement mirrored the language used by McBride. 

“I'm happy to see that this proposed ban failed and am grateful for my colleagues—particularly my republican colleagues—who recognized this as a distraction from the work we were elected to do,” she wrote in a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter). “I'm ready to represent my constituents & look forward to working on behalf of Montana.”