Politics

Lauren Boebert could be the next fringe Republican to lose her committee assignments

U.S. Congresswoman Lauren Boebert speaking with attendees at the 2021 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida.
Photo: Gage Skidmore

House progressives are demanding that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) be stripped of her committee assignments after she attacked her Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for months with racist and Islamophobic invective.

“Rep. Boebert has repeatedly weaponized dangerous, anti-Muslim bigotry at our colleague Ilhan Omar (MN-05),” states a letter signed by 38 House Democrats. “Instead of apologizing, Rep. Boebert has continued her Islamophobic rhetoric and chosen to spread hateful speech even further.”

Related: Lauren Boebert brags about giving birth in a truck in repulsive anti-gay rant about Pete Buttigieg

The letter is led by Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Andre Carson (D-IN), and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). Out Reps. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY) were among the other 34 Congressmembers who signed the letter, as well as close ally Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL), who is a supportive mother to her transgender daughter and knows a thing or two about standing up to hate speech.

The letter addresses a video that went viral last month showing Boebert telling a story to supporters about Omar in which she implied that Omar is a terrorist and called her a part of the “Jihad Squad.” Later in the month, a new video was uncovered showing Boebert laughing and telling another group of supporters the same story. Omar says the entire story is made up.

Boebert also accused Omar of marrying her brother during a speech on the House floor, a bizarre and false belief held by some on the fringe right.

She called Omar to apologize for her comments, but then ended up demanding Omar apologize for being “anti-American.” Boebert also called Omar “black-hearted” and “evil.”

Boebert’s attacks led to Omar receiving terrifying and racist death threats. She played a voicemail from an unidentified man at a press conference this week in which he said: “We see you Muslim, sand [n-word] bitch…. You fucking Muslim piece of shit, you jihadist, we know what you are. You are a fucking traitor. You will not live much longer, bitch, I can almost guarantee you that.”

The House Progressives said that Boebert’s speech “creates a dangerous work environment and furthers a climate of toxicity and intolerance.”

“Congress cannot forgo accountability when a Member engages in hate speech that dehumanizes not only a colleague, but an entire people.”

The Congressmembers say they owe it “to every person who has been the recipient of harassment and verbal abuse based on their religion, race, gender, sexuality, or other identity, to stand up and show them that their votes to send us here mean something.”

If Boebert loses her committee assignments as a result of her hate speech, she will join close allies Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) as the only Congressmembers currently unable to exercise their power to shape legislation in committees.

Greene lost her committee assignments due to her social media support for violence against Democrats and Gosar lost his after he published a cartoon on Twitter that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)

Republican leadership has so far refused to condemn Boebert’s attacks on Omar.

While she is currently facing criticism for her statements about Omar, Boebert also has a long history of anti-LGBTQ comments. She led a press conference outside the Capitol when Congress was voting on the Equality Act, where she went on an unhinged rant full of fake claims about transgender pre-teens and told reporters she is raising her sons “to be men” and she is “proud of that.”

“The so-called Equality Act, which we all know is the Democrats using a play on words,” Boebert said during a media appearance this year. “There is nothing about equality in that act. If anything, it’s the supremacy for gays, lesbians, and transves-hikes.”

She also took a brave stance against Spongebob Squarepants being gay. The cartoon character has not come out.

Boebert made fun of  Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Rachel Levine, tweeting a photo of the highly accomplished transgender woman with the words, “Welcome to woke medicine, America.”

And last month she attacked out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for taking “maternity leave” to take care of his new kids.

“The guy was not working! Because why? He was trying to figure out how to chestfeed,” she said.

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