July 11, 2024 11:13 AM UTC

Lauren Boebert is Now Free to be Her True Asinine Self

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• by: Colorado Pols

Congressperson Lauren Boebert likely saved her political career with a landslide victory in last month’s Republican Primary in CO-04. Now that she can exhale about her employment for the next few years, Boebert is free to be her true self…

Her true ridiculous, uninformed, and embarrassing self.

Boebert is still technically representing the third congressional district in Congress, even though she no longer lives anywhere near her constituents after moving 400 miles to Weld County in order to run for the seat vacated by the retirement of Rep. Ken Buck. Boebert needs to defeat Democrat Trisha Calvarese in a General Election in order to become the next Congressperson from CO-04 (Greg Lopez is currently filling in for the remainder of Buck’s term), but since CO-04 is the most Republican-heavy district in Colorado, there’s no real chance that she won’t be sworn in as the representative of her new district in January.

So with little to worry about electorally, Boebert need no longer worry about restraining herself — to the extent that she ever did — and is free to barf out whatever nonsense crowds its way into her muddled brain. As the residents of Eastern Colorado and Douglas County are about to learn: You break it, you buy it.

On Wednesday, Boebert made an absolute fool of herself during a House Oversight Committee hearing in which she challenged EPA Administrator Michael Regan on an issue related to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the case of Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — a ruling that Boebert clearly does not understand in the slightest. Her bumbling demands of Regan eventually led to a verbal smackdown from New York Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman:

 

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Boebert seems to think that the Chevron ruling, which she calls a “huge victory,” should require the Environmental Protection Agency and its “rogue bureaucrats” to stop implementing regulations altogether. A very perplexed Regan responded by asking, “Do you understand the ruling?”

Here’s what happened next:

BOEBERT: Do you understand the ruling of the Supreme Court?

REGAN: I do, so your question is ill-formed…

BOEBERT: [interrupting] Will you be repealing…

REGAN: We’re not going to stop…

BOEBERT: [interrupting] So you’re going to unconstitutionally continue with the rulemakings of the EPA?

REGAN: “We’re going to continue…”

BOEBERT: [interrupting] So which rulemakings are you going to roll back?

REGAN: We’re going to adhere to the Supreme Court [ruling] and continue to do our work in accordance to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court made a ruling…

BOEBERT: [interrupting] Which ones are you going to repeal?

REGAN: The Supreme Court didn’t tell us to repeal anything. [Pols emphasis]

BOEBERT: They have been deemed unconstitutional.

REGAN: Noooo…

BOEBERT: Absolutely, they have. This was a huge victory.

REGAN: [laughing]

Eventually Rep. Goldman, the ranking member on the committee, steps in to provide some much-needed clarity:

GOLDMAN: Mr. Regan, I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but I would just like to clarify a few things for my colleague from Colorado. The Loper Bright ruling [which was part of Chevron], as you know, said that the courts should not defer to agency rulemaking if a statute is ambiguous, and instead the courts get to determine…what the statute means. Is that your understanding as well?

REGAN: [chuckling] Absolutely.

GOLDMAN: So, that would not require any regulations to be reversed or overturned, correct?

REGAN: Correct.

D’oh!

For some reason, Boebert or her staff thought this exchange reflected well on the Congresswoman and posted it to their own YouTube channel.

You can watch the entire exchange below, which begins this way:

BOEBERT: Mr. Regan, is it true that the EPA has never obtained formal authorization legislation from Congress?

REGAN: I’m sorry?

BOEBERT: Is it true that the EPA has never obtained formal legislation, um, authoritation [sic] legislation from Congress? It’s never been authorized by Congress? [Pols emphasis]

REGAN: The EPA is not authorized by Congress?

BOEBERT: I’m asking you.

REGAN: I thought the EPA was authorized by Congress.

BOEBERT: Well, the EPA is not. The EPA has never been formally authorized by Congress.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Boebert is wrong on this point. Congress does, in fact, give formal “authoritation” to the EPA. From the EPA’s own website:

In order to make the laws work on a day-to-day level, Congress authorizes certain government agencies – including EPA – to create regulations.

Great work, Congresswoman. This headline from The Independent sums up the hearing perfectly: “Lauren Boebert laughed at during House hearing with EPA Head.”

—–

Boebert was not content to act the fool just once this week. As The New Republic writes today, “Lauren Boebert Humiliates Herself With Bonkers New Biden Conspiracy Theory”:

There are legitimate questions to be had about President Joe Biden’s physical and mental ability to serve another four years in the White House, but at least one conservative lawmaker is pushing an unhinged conspiracy to explain the chief executive’s disastrous debate performance last month.

Early Thursday, Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert rhetorically asked online, “I wonder what could have caused Joe Biden’s rapid physical and cognitive decline?” But her choice to include four additional photos of Biden getting vaccinations revealed the shallowness of her concern.

But wait, there’s more!

Boebert followed her anti-vaxxer screed with perhaps her dumbest take of the week:

While it would have been nice to see Boebert defeated in last month’s Primary Election, we’ve long said in this space that Boebert is a far bigger problem for Republicans than she is for Democrats. Polling has consistently shown that Colorado voters consider Boebert to be the face of the Republican Party in this state.

If Colorado voters think all Republicans are as patently absurd as Lauren Boebert…good luck convincing them to vote for a Republican in any close contest in Colorado.