Lauren Boebert

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Lauren Boebert
God, guns, and freedom
U.S. Politics
Icon politics USA.svg
Starting arguments over Thanksgiving dinner
Persons of interest
Objecting to the counting of certain electoral votes is NOT “overthrowing” the results of the election if those votes were won through fraud. Winning an election through fraud is what I would consider “overthrowing” the results. That is exactly why we’re fighting for POTUS![note 1]
—a tweet from Lauren Boebert[1]

Lauren Opal Boebert (1986–) is an American high-school dropout who only just got her GED (high school equivalency degree) in May 2020 (after she began running for office),[2] QAnon nut,[3] and Representative for Colorado's 3rd district, which comprises much of the Colorado Western Slope.Wikipedia If Marjorie Taylor Greene is your conspiratorial aunt, then Boebert is your gun nut aunt (which one is crazier is up for debate). The election of these two in 2020, as well as Louie Gohmert joining the fun the year after, sadly means that QAnon is better represented in the House of Representatives than openly nonreligious people, of which there is only one.Wikipedia

Before Congress[edit]

Rap sheet[edit]

Despite being supposedly a pro-"law and order" candidate who opposes Black Lives Matter,[4] she has quite a long list of crimes. She has been arrested and court summoned at least four times, one for alleged harassment, another for an altercation with police, a third for missing a court deadline, and a fourth for reckless driving.[5] She has also been fined for a number of speeding incidents, failures to use seat belts or child restraints, and more petty things like expired plates and improper proof of insurance.[6] Her husband was also arrested for indecent exposure to a minor in 2004, and days later would be arrested for domestic violence;[7] she would marry him a year and a half later. She apparently doesn't have adequate responsibility to drive a car or show up to court when ordered; would you want someone like this open-carrying near you?

How she became a gun nut[edit]

Boebert has frequently told variations on a story during and after her campaign about why she decided to open carry a gun at her restaurant in Rifle, Colorado. The stories have either claimed that either that a man was beaten to death outside her restaurant (Shooter's Grill) or that there was a violent incident outside her restaurant. The reality is that two men got in a fight over drugs; one of the men (Anthony Green) knocked the other down detaching the downed man's artificial leg. Green then fled the scene and collapsed in front of an abandoned store where he was found dead; the cause of death was ruled methamphetamine intoxication. The incident did occur in Rifle, but none of it occurred in front of Boebert's restaurant.[8] Why did Boebert decide to open carry? Perhaps we'll never know.

Militia connections[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Militia movement

If her criminal history isn't enough, she also has close ties to extremist right wing militia groups. She has hired the Three Percenters, a far-right anti-government militia operating in the U.S. and Canada that has been labelled as Canada's "most dangerous extremist group" by anti-terrorism experts,[9] as security for her campaign events.[10] She also appeared with a group of Three Percenters and Proud Boys in a protest against red flag laws.[11] She was additionally following multiple QAnon accounts (despite her claiming not to "follow" QAnon), which led to her deleting her channel.[12] and continued to make multiple references to QAnon on the campaign trail.[13]

COVID denialism[edit]

She has a history of downplaying the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic. She kept her restaurant open despite a cease-and-desist letter from the sheriff's office and a later suspension of her restaurant license.[14] She largely campaigned off of opposing the government's COVID restrictions, advocating an approach similar to South Dakota, where they didn't shut down the state, didn't require masks, and allowed large gatherings at special events such as the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.Wikipedia[15] This strategy led South Dakota to have the highest COVID daily death rate in the nation, despite its rural nature, meaning that it shouldn't have been hit as hard as more urban areas such as California.[16] Her campaign rallies were largely maskless super spreader events.

In Congress[edit]

Capitol riot[edit]

"Is it true that you were live-tweeting from the floor our location the people on the outside as we were being attacked, Lauren?" — Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Washington
"Umm, yes. Those tweets did go out and that was something that was live and public information. It was broadcast live." — Boebert
"So don't ask us about security if you're telling the attackers where we're at" — Beutler[17]

She was a huge supporter of Donald Trump's false claims that he was the real winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and that it was "stolen" from him.[18] She was an invited speaker in the March for Trump/Save America rally, which directly preceded the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot.[19] During the riot, she tweeted the location of Nancy Pelosi, which resulted in widespread calls for Boebert to resign.[20] The fallout from the insurrection led to the resignation of her communications director.[21] Worse still, she voted to overturn the results of the election in the immediate wake of the riot.[22]

Transphobia[edit]

Boebert with Florida governor Ron DeSantis in 2021.
See the main article on this topic: Transphobia

She opposed the Equality Act for transphobic reasons, saying, "Where is the equality in this legislation for the young girls across America who will have to look behind their backs as they change in school locker rooms just to make sure there isn’t a confused man trying to catch a peek?", reinforcing the myth that trans women would rape young girls en masse if they were allowed in locker rooms and women's bathrooms.[23] This ignores the reality that trans women tend to get assaulted vastly more in men's spaces.[24] These remarks earned her the condemnation of not only many Colorado lawmakers but also the LGBTQ caucus.[25] She has said that she is raising her boys "to be men" and is "proud of that" regarding her opposition to puberty blockers, while also espousing homophobic stereotypes and spouting bogus claims that puberty blockers can cause cancer, brain damage, and sterilization when they're totally reversible.[note 2][26][27]

Islamophobia[edit]

Boebert has been accused of Islamophobic remarks towards Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar. One such statement involved calling Omar the "jihad squad".[28] She has also called Omar "a full-time propagandist for Hamas" and an "honorary member of Hamas."[29]

Anti-Semitism[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Antisemitism

She asked a group of Orthodox Jewish visitors to the Capitol if they were doing "reconnaissance", and when called on it she claimed she was just joking.[30] Like her fellow loon Marjorie Taylor Greene, she has been known to compare vaccines to the Holocaust.[31]

Theocracy[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Theocracy

Despite having sworn to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States" in her Congressional oath of office, Boebert is openly hostile to separation of church and state, the second clause of the First Amendment:

The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it. I'm tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.[32][33]

The letter to which Boebert was referring was Thomas Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists, which used the phrase "separation between Church & State" in explaining the First Amendment.[34]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. This claim about election fraud is widely disputed, including by many court rulings.
  2. People who die whilst using puberty blockers are generally using them as part of palliative care. Notably, Lupron, a common puberty blocker, is used by prostate cancer patients.

References[edit]

  1. https://archive.is/20210303041850/https://twitter.com/laurenboebert/status/1343330664473616385
  2. Just How Unqualified Is Lauren Boebert, Really? (18 Sep. 2020) Colorado Pols 18 Sep. 2020 (archived from November 25, 2020).
  3. Alex Kaplan,Here are the QAnon supporters running for Congress in 2020, MediaMatters.org 7 Jan. 2021
  4. Madeleine Schmidt, Congressional Candidate Boebert Claims BLM Protesters Were “Paid and Bussed In” at Rally in Rifle, Colorado Times Recorder 16 Jul. 2020
  5. Justin Wingerter, Congressional candidate Lauren Boebert has a history of minor arrests, court no-shows, Denver Post 27 Aug. 2020
  6. Lauren Boebert Full Rapsheet, Rural Colorado United
  7. https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/03/08/inconsistencies-in-rep-boeberts-accounts-of-volunteer-work-arrest-history-revealed-in-county-records/
  8. Lauren Boebert's tall tale about a man's death that led her to pack heat by Glenn Kessler (March 12, 2021 at 12:00 a.m. PST) The Washington Post.
  9. Kristy Hunter, Three Percenters are Canada's 'most dangerous' extremist group, say some experts, CBC 10 Mar. 2018
  10. Erik Maulbetsch, Boebert's Campaign Embraces Far-Right Militia Movement, Colorado Times Recorder 27 Jul. 2020
  11. Erik Maulbetsch, Colorado Legislators Joined Extremist Groups for a “We Will Not Comply” Rally Against Red Flag Law Colorado Times Recorder 9 Dec. 2019
  12. Jason Salzman, YouTube Bans QAnon Accounts Once Followed by Boebert, Colorado Times Recorder 16 Oct. 2020
  13. Erik Maulbetsch, Boebert Poses With Sign Linking Her to QAnon, Colorado Times Recorder 22 Sep. 2020
  14. Michael Roberts, COVID-19: Lauren Boebert on Challenging Grill Closure Order, Westword 14 May 2020
  15. Jennifer Oldham, The Gun-Toting, Millennial Restaurant Owner Trying to Ride the Covid Backlash to Congress, Politico 13 Sep. 2020
  16. Don Jorgensen, South Dakota’s COVID-19 death rate highest in the nation according to health professionals, Keloland 21 Dec. 2020
  17. Audio: Republican confronted Lauren Boebert for "telling the attackers where we're at" on Jan. 6 by Jon Skolnik (June 9, 2022) MSN.
  18. Madeleine Schmidt, A history of Boebert’s ties to right-wing extremist groups, deadly conspiracies, Real Vail 12 Jan. 2021
  19. President Trump Wants You in DC January 6 Wild Protest
  20. Shannon Larson, A Colorado Republican tweeted about Pelosi’s location during the Capitol siege. She’s now facing calls to resign, Boston Globe 12 Jan. 2021
  21. Alex Woodward, Aide to Lauren Boebert resigns following Capitol riots, The Independent 16 Jan. 2021
  22. Li Zhou, 147 Republican lawmakers still objected to the election results after the Capitol attack, Vox 7 Jan. 2021
  23. Carly Compesi, Colorado Politicians Speak Against Rep. Boebert's Transphobic Remarks, Out Front Magazine 1 Mar. 2021
  24. Targets for Abuse: Transgender Inmates and Prisoner Rape, Just Detention International Mar. 2013
  25. LGBTQ Caucus Condemns Boebert's Transphobic Floor Remarks, senatedems.co 25 Feb. 2021
  26. Bil Browning, GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert uses anti-gay stereotypes to explain vote against LGBTQ rights bill, LGBTQ Nation 25 Feb. 2021
  27. Pubertal blockers for transgender and gender diverse youth, Mayo Clinic
  28. Rep. Boebert apologizes for joking that a Muslim member of Congress is a terrorist by Megan Verlee, November 26, 2021, Colorado Public Radio/
  29. Another video shows Lauren Boebert suggesting Ilhan Omar was terrorist
  30. Boebert primary challenger rips incumbent's reported remarks to Jewish Capitol visitors, Ernest Luning, Colorado Politics 20 January 2022
  31. Rep. Lauren Boebert says Biden’s COVID vaccine staff are ‘Needle Nazis’, Ben Sales, Jewish Telegraph Agency 8 July 2021
  32. Lauren Boebert told congregation she’s “tired of this separation of church and state junk”: The congresswoman’s comments were made Sunday to a crowd at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Basalt by Conrad Swanson (June 27, 2022 at 6:20 p.m.) The Denver Post.
  33. GOP Rep. Boebert: ‘I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk’ by Adela Suliman (June 28, 2022 at 10:11 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  34. Jefferson's Letter to the Danbury Baptists (Jan. 1. 1802) Library of Congress.