June 06, 2023 11:40 AM UTC

Lauren Boebert's Debt Ceiling Disaster: A Timeline

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• by: Colorado Pols

Congressperson Lauren Boebert (R-ifle) continues to deal with the fallout of missing the most important Congressional vote of 2023 despite weeks of grandstanding and partisan rhetoric.

In an effort to help figure out what Boebert was doing when she missed the key vote on June 1 and why she chose to change her story about her absence, we’ve constructed this helpful timeline that we’ll update as more information becomes available.

Tuesday, May 30

Boebert takes part in a fist-shaking press conference alongside her pals from the “House Freedom Caucus.”

Boebert decries the debt ceiling deal approved by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as “a bunch of fake news.” This comment makes more sense in her head than it does for anyone else:

Boebert: Tomorrow’s bill is a bunch of fake news pic.twitter.com/woJQuLCnrt

— Acyn (@Acyn) May 30, 2023

That same day, Boebert posts a two-minute rambling statement on Twitter that includes a couple of important (and, in hindsight, hilarious) comments:

♦ “As presented today, I’m voting no.”

♦ “I am fighting to allow Congress to simply do its job.”

♦ “Under this bill, spending goes way, way up.”

♦ “I am continuing to stand strong for you and hold the line.”

Wednesday, May 31

On the same day that we wrote in this space about Boebert having no good options on the debt ceiling deal, the Congresswoman tells something called “Eric Bolling the Balance” on Newsmax that the debt ceiling deal is “just a huge fail on our part.”

Thursday, June 1

The House of Representatives approves the debt ceiling deal by a margin of 314-117, with 165 Democrats saving McCarthy’s ass and helping to prevent a global economic crisis.

All of the Democrats in Colorado’s Congressional delegation vote ‘YES,’ as does Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado Springs). The sole ‘NO’ vote from Colorado is cast by Rep. Ken Buck (R-Greeley); Buck has proudly voted in favor of a catastrophic government default at every opportunity going back to the Obama administration.

Boebert, meanwhile, is one of only four House members to not cast a vote AT ALL on the debt ceiling bill. Boebert listed her official excuse for missing the vote in the Congressional Record as a result of being “unavoidably detained.”

Colorado colleagues including Rep. Jason Crow (D-Aurora) and Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Denver) are incensed by Boebert’s absence after her vitriolic comments days earlier.

Boebert apparently was trying to get to the House Chambers to cast her vote, but she didn’t make it in time. As Axios reporter Juliegrace Brufke noted:

Friday, June 2

Journalists in Colorado try to understand how Boebert could have missed the most important House vote of 2023 after weeks of steaming rhetoric on the subject.

As Conrad Swanson reported for The Denver Post, the official line out of Boebert’s office is that missing the vote was a mistake:

A spokesperson for Boebert confirmed that the congresswoman did not intend to miss the vote…

…After missing the vote Boebert released a statement, which reads in part:

“The Swamp did its old song and dance and pretended to listen to the American people, but as soon as the backroom deal was made, it was predetermined that it would pass,” Boebert said. “I certainly wasn’t afraid to vote against the bill, as I have been advocating against it all week.”

Kyle Clark of 9News seems to have received the same statement from Boebert’s office:

To this point, the always-online Boebert has yet to comment personally on her reasons for missing the debt ceiling vote.

Saturday, June 3

Apparently back in Colorado, Boebert posts a video on Twitter with an inexplicable new explanation for her missed vote that makes little sense even by Boebert’s standards. One day after Boebert’s office told reporters that she did not intend to miss the debt ceiling vote, Boebert films herself saying that skipping the debt ceiling vote was something she did ON PURPOSE because she was mad about a lack of amendments, or something:

Says Boebert:

“No excuses: I was ticked off that they wouldn’t let me do my job, so I didn’t take the vote…

…Call it a ‘no-show protest.'”

Twitter users did not let this nonsense excuse stand, as you can see below:

Reporters are also not fooled by this silliness. Jesse Paul of The Colorado Sun acknowledged the video but reported that Boebert’s office “didn’t respond” to multiple inquiries about why she missed Thursday’s vote.

It was both bold and incredibly stupid for Boebert to assume that she was going to get away with this change of explanation. It didn’t take long for more evidence to emerge that made Boebert out to be an obvious liar.

Sunday, June 4

As it turns out, a CNN videographer happened to catch Boebert running toward the House Chambers on Thursday in an attempt to cast a vote that she had just claimed she skipped on purpose out of protest. As Spencer Soicher of KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs artfully introduced, “Boebert may need an explanation…for her explanation.”

Monday, June 5

Kyle Clark of 9News blasts Boebert for her “obvious, clumsy lies” on missing the debt ceiling vote:

#HeyNext Commentary: Giving Rep. Lauren Boebert a pass for lying about missing the debt ceiling vote does a disservice to her constituents and to elected officials who haven’t made falsehoods their personality. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/tujPzdC7ZI

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) June 6, 2023

Caitlyn Kim of Colorado Public Radio did manage to get a response (of sorts) from Boebert’s office about the Congresswoman’s conflicting answers on her missed vote. The spokesperson tries to say that Boebert was making “no excuses” for her missed vote in the very video in which Boebert makes a new excuse for her missed vote. A follow-up question from Kim goes nowhere:

Not sure the spox clarifies anything. It’s clear she did not like the bill. But I asked the spox did she mean to miss the vote or not?

Haven’t heard back yet.

— Caitlyn Kim (@caitlynkim) June 5, 2023

Tuesday, June 6

Boebert has not yet offered up a third explanation for why she missed the debt ceiling vote, though she did hit ‘send’ on this absurd Tweet over the weekend. As of Tuesday, June 6, we are not the only observers who are still looking for legitimate answers to some important questions about Boebert’s debt ceiling absence.

Where was Boebert when she missed the debt limit vote?

Why is Boebert’s office so reluctant to offer any details about what she was doing instead? 

What is the point of all of this obfuscation?

In the end, we’re left with the same conclusion: This is how you take an embarrassing gaffe and turn it into a full-on credibility disaster.