Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) started her first term in Congress just days before the January 6 insurrection in 2021, an event that left five people dead as Trump supporters attempted to violently overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. But she didn’t need much experience in Congress to know the building’s layout. She tweeted the location of members of Congress, potentially helping the rioters target them.
That angered her colleague, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), who confronted Boebert several days later on January 11, 2021 as part of an internal investigation. Audio of that confrontation has just been made public.
Related: Karine Jean-Pierre’s mother was “devastated” when she came out. But then her mom came around.
“Is it true that you were live-tweeting, from the [House] floor, our location to people on the outside as we were being attacked, Lauren?” Herrera Beutler asked pointedly.
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
“Um, yes…” Boebert responded. She then tried to excuse her actions by saying that it was already public information.
“Those tweets did go out and that was something that was live and public information that was broadcast live from-”
Herrera Beutler wasn’t having it.
“So don’t ask us about security if you’re telling the attackers where we’re at. I yield back.”
“So, that was something being broadcast live from C-SPAN, and once we were on move, there was absolutely nothing else that was broadcast,” Boebert said to argue that her tweets weren’t that bad since members were being evacuated to secure locations around the complex.
Beutler to Boebert: Don’t ask us about security if you’re telling the attackers where we’re at pic.twitter.com/oNfbJuk5tm
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 11, 2022
As the Capitol was being stormed, Boebert sent several tweets that gave information on the locations of members.
“We were locked in the House Chambers,” she tweeted during the insurrection.
“The Speaker has been removed from the Chambers,” she wrote.
Boebert was in contact with several people involved in organizing the “Stop the Steal” protests in D.C. that week.
The Speaker has been removed from the chambers.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 6, 2021
“It’s seldom that you hear someone articulate it in the way we heard it in that clip where she draws a straight line between those bogus expectations that they might actually stop Joe Biden from becoming the president and the risk of actual physical danger,” said New York Times reporter Alex Burns said on CNN.
Burns, along with his colleague Jonathan Martin, released the audio clip as part of the research they compiled for their new book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future.
