Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) may have been kicked out of a performance of the musical Beetlejuice last September, but a part of her never really left that Denver theater, as evidenced by her comments in a recent interview.
Speaking on KHOW’s Dan Caplis Show on Friday, the Colorado congresswoman referenced the day she was ejected from the Denver Center for Performing Arts for obnoxious behavior like vaping, singing, and groping her date as she responded to a question about what scandals might emerge in her future.
“As far as [opposition] research, I am very clearly an open book,” she told Caplis. “And I can’t even go to a theater without that being, you know, broadcast to the world.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The far-right Republican firebrand promised that—presumably because of pesky things like eyewitnesses, journalists, and surveillance cameras in theaters—“there’s nothing new or hidden that’s coming out about me” ahead of this summer’s primary election in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.
Boebert currently represents the state’s 3rd District, but announced in December that she planned to switch to the 4th, a more reliably red stronghold, and run to succeed Rep. Ken Buck, who had announced he would not seek another term. Buck threw a wrench into the works, however, when he moved his retirement up ahead of schedule, saying earlier this month that this coming Friday would be his last term in office.
Boebert responded by saying that she would not run in the special election triggered by Buck’s early exit, which would require her own resignation in the 3rd, threatening the GOP’s already tenuous hold on the House, opting instead to focus on the primary. She also slammed Buck for giving a “gift to the Uniparty” and accused him of trying to “rig” the primary with “a swampy backroom deal.”
Buck denied this in a recent interview with the Colorado Sun, calling Boebert’s allegations “ridiculous” and her efforts to fundraise off of them “fundamentally unfair.”
“I’m not giving anybody an advantage or disadvantage,” he said, pointing out to the Sun that he hadn’t commented when asked about the recent arrests of Boebert’s ex-husband and son. “I have done my very best to stay out of this primary election.”
In her Friday interview, Boebert brushed off Buck as “so irrelevant and such an embarrassment to Colorado,” claiming that people come up and ask her why he hates America. As for his comments, she said, they’re nothing but “old news.”
“This isn’t something that’s going to be an October surprise to folks—that I had a rough divorce and there’s issues going on at home,” she said. “But people are seeing that I’m still committed to serving them, and to representing them.”
Boebert is polling decently in the 4th District, but her victory remains uncertain, particularly as she’s been lambasted by her critics and opponents for carpetbagging.
“I’ve been called much worse than a carpetbagger,” she told Caplis, laughing, “and my records show that the carpetbaggers actually brought a lot of innovation and prosperity. So we can look at it that way as well.”
