President Joe Biden had some choice words for Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) while addressing a crowd of her constituents on Wednesday afternoon, making the sign of the cross after name-checking her before launching into a harsh critique of her legislative priorities.
Biden toured the CS Wind plant in Pueblo, a city south of Denver that lies in Boebert’s district, before giving a 23-minute speech to the wind turbine factory’s workers and local officials, touting the jobs created by his agenda of clean energy investment.
In a statement on the president’s visit, the White House crowed that CS Wind was “expanding operations and creating hundreds of jobs as the direct result of the Inflation Reduction Act,” noting pointedly that Boebert had criticized the law as “‘dangerous for America,’ ‘a massive failure,’ and ‘bad for Colorado’s Third District.’”
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In his speech, Biden reminded his audience that Boebert—“you know, that very quiet Republican lady?”—had actively worked against his administration’s climate policies. Invoking her name, the president paused, then crossed himself, eliciting laughs from the crowd.
“She, along with every single Republican colleague, voted against the law that made these investments in jobs possible,” he said. “And then she voted to repeal key parts of this law, and she called this law a massive failure. You all know you’re part of a massive failure?” More laughs followed.
“Tell that to the 850 Coloradans who got new jobs…” Biden continued. “It all sounds like a massive failure in thinking by the congresswoman and her colleagues.”
The president called Boebert “one of the leaders of this extreme MAGA movement,” drawing a direct line between her and Donald Trump and his supporters.
“The speaker, Donald Trump, and the MAGA Republicans here in Congress are committed to protecting outrageous tax cuts for those at the very top,” he said. “And they’re going to continue to oppose investing in all those programs that help people.”
Boebert, who remains a controversial figure in her own backyard, winning re-election by a slim margin of 546 votes last year, issued a sharp statement on the president’s visit ahead of his arrival. “Families in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District are being crushed by so-called ‘Bidenomics.’ On Joe Biden’s watch, credit card debt, inflation, groceries, and gas prices have all reached record highs. These high prices are squeezing working-class Coloradans and rural America,” she said.
“Instead of touting the poorly named Inflation Reduction Act that mandated Green New Deal policies which cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars,” she continued, “Joe Biden should work with me to get my Pueblo Jobs Act signed into law that will create 1,000 new jobs in Pueblo and help revitalize Southern Colorado’s economy.”
The congresswoman continued her broadside throughout Wednesday, jabbing at the president in a series of tweets that accused him of waging “war on fossil fuels.”
Speaking to Raw Story in Washington, D.C., she latched onto his age, saying that while Biden was “out of the basement and wandering around, I hope there’s not a Silver Alert that goes out for him,” referring to the notification system for missing senior citizens with mental disabilities.
