Lauren Boebert blasted as 'feral breed of conservative' and her own 'worst enemy'
Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert has jumped from her own district and into another part of the state in an effort to keep a seat in Congress — but one columnist on Wednesday said it was she, not the area she covered, that was the problem.
Writing for the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, Mark Z. Barabak called the congresswoman "one of a feral breed of conservatives attacking Congress from within."
While running for office in 2022, Boebert won her seat by just 546 votes. Barabak thinks that she nearly lost because of her extremism while in office, together with a number of personal scandals.
The piece began by recalling a "sermon" that Boebert delivered from a megachurch in the new district she's trying to win in the next election. While she referenced Jesus Christ and Satan, she also attacked "sellouts" in the GOP.
“Every time that dirty four-letter word called ‘compromise’ comes up,” Boebert told the crowd — ignoring that the word has ten letters — “It’s always Republicans stepping away from their principles, their platform, your priorities and siding with socialists, communists and Marxists.”
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Barabak described her "fusillade of attacks that issue forth in a high-volume, highly caffeinated rat-a-tat" about policy disagreements framed as slogans.
The speech, he wrote, came "straight from the Book of Grievance."
Barabak explained that Boebert hasn't played "so well back at home" after some of her behavior in Washington. She heckled President Joe Biden during the State of the Union Address, she carried her gun and refused to follow local laws.
As she faces a packed Republican Primary Election in a new district, Barabak said that her scandals have become part of campaign attacks from her GOP opponents — making her "her own worst enemy."
“I promise not to embarrass you,” he quoted Logan County Commissioner Jerry Sonnenberg saying. “I promise not to humiliate you.”
The reference is to an incident in which Boebert was seen with a date groping her and vaping during the musical "Beetlejuice." At first, she denied it happened, but security camera footage was released. This came after a breakup with her husband that became very public as he fought for custody of their four children. Her eldest son was then arrested and charged with several crimes.
Boebert seemed like she was in danger of losing her seat to a Democrat, who previously only lost by 546 votes, and many blame that competition for her moving to a new district. She swears that isn't the reason.
“I wanted a fresh start for my boys,” Boebert said in an interview that Barabak cited. He noted that her existing district is roughly the size of Pennsylvania, so she could have moved across the district and still have "distance between herself and her ex-husband."
The columnist spoke to a 73-year-old retired postal worker named Larry, who said he liked Boebert's standing up to Democrats. However, he sees some problems with Boebert.
“But I’m not sure about her leaving her district," he said. "And as a devout Christian, from a moral standpoint, I don’t like her antics at the theater in Denver.”
It's unclear if Boebert has a shot at the new seat. Despite being square in "Trump Country," as Barabak put it, local polls show her losing by seven points to the Democrat if she becomes the GOP nominee.