House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is a prude, so much so that he apparently thinks that people getting naked in public in the city of Portland, Oregon — as Portlanders often do — is more threatening than federal agents shooting pepper balls at civilians.

Johnson made the comments earlier today at a press conference, when a reporter asked him about “what acceptable conduct for law enforcement” is, in light of abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that keep making media headlines.

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“When is it incumbent on Congress to demand oversight?” the reporter asked.

Johnson said that federal law enforcement, in his opinion, did not “cross the line yet,” but one thing did cross the line: naked protestors in Portland.

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This past Sunday, activists in the Oregon city held an emergency World Naked Bike Ride. The World Naked Bike Ride is an annual worldwide event aimed at promoting alternatives to burning fossil fuels and body positivity. It has been held since 2004. However, the one held last Sunday was actually a protest against an ICE facility in South Portland. Organizers of the protest want the Portland City Council to revoke land use approval for the facility.

“The vulnerability of bodies could not be more explicit than seeing our neighbors kidnapped off our streets while, at the same time, those who protest at the ICE facility are dealing with being brutalized,” the organizers said in a statement.

“Joy is a form of protest. Being together with mutual respect and kindness is a form of protest,” they posted to Instagram. “It’s your choice how much or little you wear.”

The event included a die-in demonstration as well as a bike ride in the rain. Most attendees wore clothes or comedic costumes due to the cool, wet weather, but some were naked or nearly naked.

And apparently, all of this was too much for Johnson, who said that naked people pretending to die in the street was worse than violence.

“What I’ve seen is the abuse of law enforcement by radical leftist activists,” Johnson said. “You know, most recently, the most threatening thing I’ve seen yet was the naked bicyclers in Portland who were protesting ICE down there. I mean, it’s getting really ugly.”

“They have attacked — physically assaulted officers. People have been arrested. Okay, this is serious business.”

Portland Police said in a statement that there were no arrests at the protest, but qualified that fact: “Just because arrests are not made at the scene, when tensions are high, that does not mean that people are not being charged with crimes later.”

Even though the World Naked Bike Ride is a demonstration associated with the left, the left doesn’t have a monopoly on using nudity in protest. Recently, there have been several incidents of rightwing activists stripping at school board meetings to protest school policies allowing trans students to use facilities associated with their genders. One such protest happened last week in Maine.

“You feel uncomfortable?” a man told the school board as it took public comment on its policy on trans student-athletes. Two women who were with him were removing their clothes. “Because that’s what these young girls feel like when a boy walks into the locker room and starts unchanging in front of them.”

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