Lauren Boebert is afraid her groping scandal cost her the 2024 election, panel suggests

Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) apologies for vaping and fondling a man’s genitals during an all-ages musical performance reveal that the anti-LGBTQ+ Christian nationalist is feeling nervous about her re-election chances, according to MSNBC pundits.

Last week, Boebert was kicked out of a performance of the musical Beetlejuice in Denver. Boebert initially denied reports that she was vaping during the show, saying instead that she was “guilty” of “laughing and singing too loud” along with the show.

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Ron DeSantis and Matt Gaetz aren’t positively portrayed in the video either.

However, camera footage from the theatre auditorium showed that Boebert was indeed vaping and also groping and being groped by Quinn Gallagher, the owner of a bar in Aspen that holds drag performances. Boebert took a picture of the musical cast, which is forbidden by theatre rules. After multiple patrons complained about her behavior, she was kicked out. While leaving, she flipped her middle finger at the usher and yelled, “Do you know who I am?”

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Boebert eventually released an apology last Friday, stating that she “genuinely did not recall vaping” and that she “simply fell short of my values.” Over the weekend, she blamed her behavior on being “a little too eccentric” and “having an animated personality.”

In a discussion on MSNBC about Boebert’s behavior, contributor Katty Kay noted, “It’s kind of rare to hear Lauren Boebert be sort of vaguely apologetic about anything. She doesn’t do it very much but I guess when you’ve just won your election by five votes, you need to make sure that you hang on to all of the votes you possibly can, which I suppose is why she’s sort of changed her tune.”

While not exactly five votes, Boebert won re-election in her district by a minuscule 551 votes, a narrower victory than pundits had expected for her. Her former Democratic opponent Adam Frisch is running against her in 2024 and he currently has a polling and fundraising lead in her district. Democrats have targeted her seat as one that they intend to flip in 2024, and even Boebert’s campaign recently admitted, “If the Election were held today … Lauren would lose.”

Kay continued commenting on Boebert’s apology, saying, “It’s kind of a change of character for her to come out in anything other than defiant mode, so I think she realizes this doesn’t go down particularly well with people in her district.”

Frisch said of Boebert’s theatre behavior, “It’s just another notch in the belt of embarrassment…. She even lied about her lies. So, for the end of the day, the voters are sick and tired of this embarrassment, whether it’s an audience member watching a theater performance.”

“But what’s even worse,” Frisch added, “is her embarrassment in the halls of Congress and those committee meetings when she’s not focused on the job. She’s very, very focused on herself, and there’s real issues out there with rural access to health care, reproductive right protection.”

“One of the reasons we’re doing so well,” Frisch continued, “is because we’re focused on the task at hand, which is ‘What do the voters want?’ and not this ‘angertainment industry’ that she’s so proud of participating in, even in her off time.”

Boebert has also been quietly removed from the speaker line-up for the upcoming Texas Youth Summit. The summit had repeatedly promoted her expected presence before deleting all pages and mentions of her from its platforms over the weekend.