Newly elected Republican Congresswoman provokes standoff with Capitol Police over her bag
With each passing year, the incoming Republican freshmen representatives are increasingly unhinged from the outset and always eager to prove their conservative chops with some kind of outrageous stunt.
Newly elected Lauren Boebert (R-CO), a devotee of the QAnon conspiracy, gained notoriety around the country for her brazen declaration that she will carry her Glock in the halls of Congress.
Let me tell you why I WILL carry my Glock to Congress.
Government does NOT get to tell me or my constituents how we are allowed to keep our families safe.
I promise to always stand strong for our 2nd Amendment rights.https://t.co/E75tYpdN4B pic.twitter.com/qg7QGenrNo
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 4, 2021
On Tuesday night, that desire to bear arms clashed with the new security measures installed on Capitol Hill in the wake of the mob riot that disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral college votes on January 6th.
Ironically, Boebert had celebrated the disturbing event, tweeting “today is 1776” in a staggeringly lazy and barely comprehensible attempt to equate the storming of a Congress by a mass of petit-bourgeois small business tyrants and brain-broken ex-Air Force officers with the Revolutionary War that gave birth to the democracy that said bloated and seething mass of overprivileged whiteness was trying to overturn.
Boebert found herself in a standoff with Capitol Police over her bag, which had set off both the new metal detectors and Boebert’s sense of outraged entitlement. She refused to allow the bag to be searched.
2) good reminder who Lauren Boebert is…. https://t.co/Zlrr0LOZVV
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) January 13, 2021
Unfortunately, the Capitol Police once again laid down and allowed rabid right-wing extremists to walk all over them. Reps. Louie Gohmert, Steve Stivers, Van Taylor, Lauren Boebert, Debbie Lesko, and Larry Bucshon were all allowed into Congress without having their bags checked.
More names: Republican Reps. Louie Gohmert, Steve Stivers, Van Taylor, Lauren Boebert, Debbie Lesko and Larry Bucshon were among others seen not complying with police at checkpoints, or complained of its implementation. https://t.co/DnKgqSqh3m
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 13, 2021
The metal detectors are going to be useless if they’re just going to let the members who don’t want to go through the magnetometer sidestep it.
I’m watching Democrats and about 4/5ths of Republicans comply. It’s really causing tension between police and members.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) January 13, 2021
Boebert has barely been in Congress for a month and she’s already made a strong case for her immediate expulsion. Not only did she cheer on the mob that defiled the Capitol building, she posted Nancy Pelosi’s location to social media during the attack, almost certainly in hopes of something “accidentally ” happening to her. She’s been arrested four times already and her husband has previously been arrested for exposing himself to a minor at a bowling alley.
She is already a disgrace to the office she has been elected to hold and should face serious consequences for her outrageous behavior.
Imagine being so privileged, reckless and high off your Caucasity that you're willing to potentially martyr your Congressional career over conceal and carry at the US Capitol, within a week of a terror attack. Ladies and gents, I present to you @laurenboebert.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) January 13, 2021
Lauren Boebert is part of a group that the FBI has labeled a domestic terror threat, and was trying to help the domestic terrorists who attacked the U.S. Capitol find Nancy Pelosi.
She can’t be trusted with a gun at the Capitol. https://t.co/cdDCo60zro
— Matt O'Brien (@ObsoleteDogma) January 13, 2021
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.