Michael Knowles wants mass arrests at Pride events if Boebert is charged in “Beetlejuice” groping

The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles is taking his defense of far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-DO) even further. On Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Knowles Show, the conservative pundit called for mass arrests of drag queens and participants in Pride parades if Boebert faces public indecency charges related to her conduct at a recent performance of Beetlejuice.

On Sunday, September 10, the Republican congresswoman and a male companion were kicked out of a performance of the musical at the city-owned Buell Theatre in Denver after the venue’s staff received multiple complaints that the couple was vaping, singing loudly, recording the show, and “causing a disturbance.” The security footage shows Boebert and her date, identified as Aspen bar owner Quinn Gallagher, getting handsy with each other during the performance. Gallagher can be seen groping Boebert’s chest, while the congresswoman places her hand in Gallagher’s lap.

Related:

Conservative pundit defends Lauren Boebert theater groping: Liberals say it’s “empowering”

Michael Knowles says that Democrats are OK with masturbating in theaters and Lauren Boebert is “on our team” so it’s not a big deal.

Boebert, whose divorce from husband Jayson Boebert is ongoing, has issued an apology, while at the same time attempting to downplay the situation by describing her behavior as “eccentric.” She has also failed to address accusations of hypocrisy from critics who note that while she has consistently leveled baseless accusations of “grooming” and “sexualizing” children at LGBTQ+ people, she herself behaved in a sexualized manner in a theater where children were present.

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On Monday, a spokesperson for the Denver District Attorney’s Office told Newsweek that it has no plans to charge Boebert under Colorado’s public indecency law. “Although a theater is a crowded public setting where ‘a lewd fondling’ could be prosecuted as public indecency, it is unlikely that brief groping, over the clothes while seated in a dark theater, would lead to conviction,” Denver-based attorney Matthew Hand told the outlet.

But that didn’t stop Knowles from lashing out at the mere suggestion that the congresswoman might face legal repercussions for her actions.

“My friend, Lauren Boebert, is being threatened with prosecution for sex crimes because of this footage in the dark theater where she was inappropriate with her male companion,” Knowles said on the September 19 episode of his show, without specifying who was “threatening” Boebert.

“I’m all for enforcing public indecency statutes,” he continued, noting that Boebert was unlikely to be charged. “But I have noticed that there are a lot of Republican counties in Colorado. Denver is very blue, but there’s a lot of Republican counties. And those Republican counties have Republican DAs (district attorneys). And I’ve noticed a lot of counties in Colorado have drag queen story hour. Google ‘drag queen story hour Colorado,’ you will see pages and pages of events come up. And I think that if Colorado, all of a sudden, wants to get serious about prosecuting lewdness in public, public indecency, well, that’s great. Then those Republican DAs should arrest every single one of those drag queen story hour performers.”

Colorado doesn’t have any laws banning children from seeing drag performers. Most Drag Queen Story Hour performers just read children’s’ books or sing to kids while wearing costumes.

Over the past few years, anti-LGBTQ+ conservatives like Knowles and Boebert have targeted drag queens, spreading the false narrative that all drag performances, and particularly drag story hour events, are sexually explicit and inappropriate for children. Republican lawmakers in states like Tennessee have attempted to pass legislation banning minors from drag shows and restricting where drag queens can perform.

Knowles also suggested that Colorado’s Pride parades are similarly “lewd” and “indecent.”

“Colorado wants to start getting tough on lewdness, I’m all for it,” he said. “Then all of those Republican DAs should start arresting and prosecuting every one of those attendees at the Pride parades, which are extremely indecent and extremely lewd.”

Knowels continued his snide rant, claiming that drag queen story hour events and Pride parades are “much worse” than what Boebert and her date did. He suggested that what goes on at LGBTQ+ events is “perverse and unnatural,” and went on to characterize Boebert and Gallagher’s behavior as “what a normal guy and a girl do in a theater.”

“If you say it’s all the same, well, that’s fine too,” he added. “If we’re gonna start prosecuting people for lewdness, then what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. What a great way to find a silver lining in a storm cloud of a ginned up Republican political scandal. Great idea.”

Knowles previously defended Boebert’s actions at the Beetlejuice performance, calling the congresswoman “my friend,” and claiming that she was only “doing things that the liberals exalt as positive goods.”