Rep. Boebert on Why She Called Out Biden on Afghanistan

CLAY: We are joined now, I believe, by Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who is in the firing line in the wake of the State of the Union address. Now, I don’t know if you saw this, but Jen Psaki has come on and said in response to a question about why they didn’t mention January 6th, that they didn’t have time to fit everything into the State of the Union address.

And, Congresswoman, you were reacting because, as Joe Biden is speaking, he is not referencing the 13 different soldiers that we lost in Afghanistan, and you yelled out to him. What has the reaction been since you did that? And what do you think of Joe Biden not having the time to actually address that? We now have the cut, for people who might not have heard it last night. Here’s what it sounded like.

BIDEN: A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin. I know.

REP. BOEBERT: You put them in there!

BIDEN: One of those — one of those soldiers was my son, Major Beau Biden.

CLAY: Congresswoman, what’s been the reaction again and what do you think about Biden not having the time to mention the 13 Afghan — soldiers we lost in Afghanistan?

REP. BOEBERT: So when I heard Joe Biden trying to win political points by talking about troops that were being buried in flag-draped coffins, my mind went straight to the 13 servicemen and women that died in Afghanistan. The mother of one of those soldiers lives in my district and she told me that Joe Biden killed her son. You know, last night Joe Biden certainly had time to invite a Big Tech CEO to the State of the Union but couldn’t bother to recognize any of the families whose loved ones were lost in Afghanistan.

I think the reaction that we are getting from me saying, “You put them in there,” 13 of them in those flag-draped coffins. We’re getting a lot of people saying, “Thank you.” Because these 13 service members would not have been mentioned, would not have been brought up had that reaction not taken place last night. It’s not something that I had planned, but also, Buck, the left is really upset at me for interrupting Joe Biden’s speech.

But I would like them to just sit back and think how upsetting it is for the families whose lives are completely interrupted by Joe Biden’s failure. And, you know, we understand that time is very valuable for Joe. There’s only so many hours that he’s awake during the day. It takes him away from ice cream and apple sauce and dwelling in the basement or fake White House set, whatever it is that he does. But he showed us that he did not have time for those 13 soldiers way before last night’s State of the Union. Remember at that service for the fallen soldiers, he was checking his watch then. He showed America then he did not have time for them.

BUCK: Media who are scolding you on a decorum level here: I mean, as soon as I saw that, there’s Tapper over at CNN. He’s always the chief hall monitor for all things that Republicans say that he doesn’t like. But I remember Nancy Pelosi ripping up a State of the Union address.

REP. BOEBERT: Mmm-hmm.

BUCK: I remember other times where people have acted out and spoken out during it. What do you want to say to people who are yelling at you, essentially, that this was a breach of decorum?

REP. BOEBERT: I really don’t give a darn about a breach of decorum when our 13 service members were completely ignored by the man responsible for their deaths. And who is CNN to talk about decorum? We’ve all seen what takes place on their Zoom videos and the disgusting things that come out of CNN. And of course, Nancy Pelosi shredding President Trump’s State of the Union speech like she’s something. I don’t give a darn about decorum.

The People’s House has been completely destroyed this past year. There was fencing all around the Capitol again last night because this is tremendous symbolism of how the people are not in control of what happens here any longer. This is Pelosi’s House, and we are under one-party Democrat rule, and what they say goes, and there’s no policy that we could point to that is benefiting any American right now that’s coming from the Democrats.

Last night at the State of the Union members of Congress were required to have PCR testing to test for covid-19, to have a special golden ticket to enter the House chambers — and on that ticket, it would say whether the members of Congress were seated on the House floor or in the gallery. Members were not allowed to have an invited guest, as they usually are, and we were supposed to socially distance in our assigned seating.

How crappy and un-American is that? Buck, I’ll tell you right now, I did not get tested. I did not have a golden ticket. I did not have an assigned seat, and I sat wherever the heck I wanted to last night. And I was in my workplace, the House Chamber, and I was going to be there unrestrained.

CLAY: Congresswoman, what do you think about the fact that suddenly the mask mandate was gone just in time for the State of the Union, and Joe Biden — who they’ve kept in a mask for two straight yours — suddenly out of his mask walking down, shaking hands, engaging in some sort of odd head butt with a couple of different people. How hypocritical did it feel to suddenly have the mask mandate gone just in time for Joe Biden’s address?

REP. BOEBERT: Well, I’m curious if they actually did that because they know that a lot of our masks say things like — I don’t know — “Let’s go, Brandon.” And maybe they didn’t want that displayed there in the House Chambers. But it is a State of the Union miracle that suddenly we don’t need masks in the House Chamber. Now, the Senate, they have never had a mask requirement.

And there aren’t any mask requirements outside of the House Chamber that have any repercussion if you break them. So members of Congress were fined up to $2500. I’ve been fined a couple times for violating the mask rule in the House Chamber. But I told Nancy Pelosi to kiss my mask a long time ago, so I haven’t been playing that game. It’s been political theater from the start because members of Congress were only fined where the C-SPAN cameras were rolling.

But, Buck, we saw just the day before the State of the Union on Monday, we saw Joe Biden at the White House walking through an empty field with a mask on while he was completely alone, and then last night slobbering all over Democrats. I even posted a video saying, “Hey, look at this! We no longer have to socially distance because science,” and that’s the game that Americans are so sick and tired of. They bound our children, they muzzle our children in schools with these masks, and they do whatever the heck they want, and we tired of it.

BUCK: We’re speaking to Congresswoman Boebert of Colorado, and Congresswoman, I just want to ask before we let you go: Are you and your Republican colleagues in the House as fired up as can be after what felt like a very weak speech from Joe Biden, and do you have a 40- or 50-seat swing toward the Republicans in mind going into this? Along with your own reelection, of course.

REP. BOEBERT: Look, I’d love the red wave — and if we keep showing the American people that we will take a stand and we will do what we promised to do, then we absolutely will take back the House in 2022 where we can start to have real investigations into the origin of covid, into the NIH, the WHO, into Fauci, our elections in 2020, and so much more, including the border and Afghanistan. And even energy. I serve on the National Resources Committee.

I’d love to have investigations into our energy policies here in America and hold people accountable. But here’s the thing, Buck. We need to elect conservatives. We need to elect principled conservatives whose R behind their names does not stand for “Rollover.” Unfortunately, I see a lot of those in Congress now, and we need to make sure that we’re not bringing in more of those. So 40-, 50-seat swing? Sure, maybe. But honestly I would love a smaller majority so every vote actually counts and they have to consider the consequences of every single vote rather than just saying, “Ah, we got a big majority.” It doesn’t really matter.”

CLAY: Congresswoman, appreciate the time. We’ll talk to you again soon.

REP. BOEBERT: Thanks so much.