Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) attempted to make Tuesday night’s State of the Union address all about herself—only to get booed by her colleagues as President Joe Biden solemnly talked about his son dying of cancer and military veterans suffering from burn pit exposure.
Towards the end of his speech, the president turned his attention to an issue that has drawn bipartisan support and attention: increased care for soldiers who have suffered the effects of toxic exposure.
As he announced his plans to provide health care and disability compensation for military members who’ve become ill due to breathing in toxic smoke from burn pits, Biden began explaining how this was a personal issue for him.
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“Many of you have been there. I've been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 40 times. These burn pits that incinerate waste, the waste of war, medical, and hazardous material, jet fuel, and so much more,” he stated. “And 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.”
In a moment that went miles beyond GOP Rep. Joe Wilson’s notorious 2009 “you lie” outburst, Boebert shouted that Biden was the one who had put Americans into those flag-draped coffins.
“You put them in, 13 of them,” she yell, referencing the terror attack during last year’s chaotic Kabul withdrawal that left 13 American soldiers dead.
Her heckling immediately drew loud jeers from Democratic lawmakers. Making the matter more cringeworthy, Boebert’s shouted comments came just as the president mentioned the death of his son, a military veteran.
“I know. One of those soldiers was my son, Major Beau Biden,” the president continued. “I don't know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near-- that his hooch was near in Iraq and earlier than that in Kosovo is the cause of his brain cancer, the disease of so many other troops, but I am committed to find out everything we can.”
He then began honoring affected soldiers and their families, who happened to be in attendance for the State of the Union.
Elsewhere in the speech, Boebert and fellow MAGA troll Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)—who was also seen mouthing that Biden is “a fucking idiot” as the president spoke—attempted to get a “Build the wall!” chant going after the president praised border security, only to find no takers.
