House Speaker Mike Johnson has doubts over whether President Biden fully understood what he was doing when he issued a proclamation declaring March 31, the same day as Easter this year, as Transgender Day of Visibility.
When asked during the White House Easter Egg Roll Monday about Johnson claiming on X that Biden – who is reputed devout Catholic – "betrayed" Easter tenets, the president accused the speaker of being "thoroughly uninformed" before retorting "I didn't do that."
However, the presidential document reads in part "I, Joseph R. Biden Jr… do hereby proclaim March 31, 2024 as Transgender Day of Visibility."
Johnson pointed out out the discrepancy in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity Monday and suggested the controversy is another indication of questions about the president's mental acuity.
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"Well, it's his own signature on the document. That's why we posted it," he said on "Hannity." "The evidence speaks for itself, as we used to say in the courtroom."
"[I]t's highly possible that he doesn't even know what he's signing," he added. "[T]hat might be even more alarming."
The speaker said the proclamation incident highlights that the upcoming election is indeed a contrast between two visions for America.
"This radical, leftist, progressive vision for the country is not who we are as Americans, and I think most of the country agrees with us -- And I think that's why we're going to have a very successful election in November," he said.
Transgender Day of Visibility was started in 2009 by Transgender Michigan executive director Rachel Crandall Crocker, who held a commemoration ceremony in Lansing for the 15th anniversary of its founding, according to the Michigan Advance.
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In a recent statement to Fox News Digital, a White House spokesperson noted Biden didn't choose the date of March 31 to be Transgender Day of Visibility, and that the White House in past years has issued the same proclamation on the last day of the third month.
However, in addition to Johnson, other top Republicans criticized the proclamation's precedence on one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar, with the Trump campaign calling for a White House apology "to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America."
"[They] believe [that day] is for one celebration only – the resurrection of Jesus Christ," Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, invoked another contemporary topic in responding to Biden's proclamation on X, quipping, "Squatting rights … on Christianity's most sacred day."
But not all lawmakers took umbrage at Biden, with a prominent Democrat and clergyman instead criticizing Johnson for taking issue with him.
Noting how Johnson called Biden's proclamation "abhorrent," Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., – who is also the pastor of what was Rev. Martin Luther King's church in Atlanta – told CNN that, "apparently the speaker finds trans people abhorrent. And I think he ought to think about that."
