Gun rights advocate and anti vaxxer Republican Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado is in hot water after several screaming outbursts during Democratic President Joe Biden's State of the Union address last night.
As Biden spoke of his late son Beau, a military veteran who died of brain cancer in 2015, Boebert shouted from the floor about 13 American soldiers who died in a terror attack during last year's military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The moment drew wide condemnation both online and within the House chamber, where she was booed for her inappropriate outburst.
But Boebert doubled down, reiterating her blame of Biden for the deaths on Twitter.
See her tweets below.
Boebert tweeted:
"When Biden said flag draped coffins I couldn't stay silent. I told him directly he did it. He put 13 in there."
"Our heroic servicemen and women deserve so much better."
Missing from Boebert's outbursts, as always, was context.
The chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal that resulted in those 13 deaths was partly caused by her beloved former Republican President Donald Trump's incompetent handling of the negotiations with the Taliban on which Biden's withdrawal of troops was based. Even Republicans in Washington have laid part of the blame for the debacle that ensued at Trump's feet.
Boebert is uninterested in facts.
She followed up with another tersely worded tweet.
Boebert's outburst and subsequent tweets were in reference to a moment when Biden announced plans to provide greater healthcare and monetary support to combat veterans sickened by exposure to toxic chemicals in burn pits.
Biden described the impact of the exposure in his speech.
"They come home, many of the world's fittest and best-trained warriors in the world, never the same. Headaches, numbness, dizziness. A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin.”
As Biden explained how this is a personal issue for him because his son's brain cancer—one commonly seen among service members—is believed to have been caused by burn-pit exposure, Boebert could no longer contain herself.
Heckling from the House floor, she screamed at the President to blame him for the 13 deaths in Afghanistan.
On Biden's "flag-draped coffin" line, Boebert heckled:
“You put them in, 13 of them!"
She was immediately booed by her colleagues.
Even former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh—infamous for heckling Democratic President Barack Obama by shouting "You lie!" during one of his State of the Union speeches—lamented the moment on Twitter.
Boebert's comments were not well received on Twitter either.
She was excoriated for her hypocritical outbursts by military veterans among others.
Biden's comment about service members wasn't the only section during which Boebert heckled the President.
She and QAnon conspiracy theory spewing Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia also tried to get a chant of "Build the wall!" going when Biden mentioned immigration.
Nobody joined them.
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