September 24, 2020 02:00 PM UTC

Lauren Boebert's Latest "QAnon" Retort Is The Worst Yet

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• by: Colorado Pols

AP’s James Anderson has the latest must-read dive into the spotty record of Republican CD-3 upstart nominee Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert, whose past expressions of support for the debunked “QAnon” conspiracy theory about Donald Trump’s global war against a secret cabal of ruling pedophiles have landed her in a select group of nationally lampooned Republican candidates in this singularly (we hope) wacky election season.

Boebert’s current answer on the question of “QAnon,” after some weeks to come up with a better one, has not improved:

Boebert briefly commented on QAnon during a May interview with internet journalist Ann Vandersteel, whose site highlights conspiracy theories. Pressed by Vandersteel, she said, “If this is real, it could be really great for our country.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Boebert decried the efforts to tie her to QAnon. She said that criticism comes from a playbook in which Democrats campaigning remotely because of the coronavirus are waiting for candidates like herself to slip up.

“I made one comment: A polite ‘yes’ on a podcast,” she said. [Pols emphasis] “That one comment has been stretched and exaggerated. They can’t win on policy. It’s part of their frustration, and it will backfire.”

The problem with this answer is that it’s completely false, and everyone who has been following Boebert’s homespun campaign knows it’s false. Starting with Boebert’s original comments to QAnon/Seth Rich/Pizzagate maven Ann Vandersteel:

“Honestly, everything that I’ve heard on ‘Q’ — I hope that this is real, because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values. And that’s what I am for. And, so, everything that I have heard of this movement is only motivating and encouraging and bringing people together, stronger, and if this is real, then it could be really great for our country.”

Please do your own word count, but that looks to us like considerably more than the word “yes.”

Earlier this month, the Colorado Times Recorder reported that Boebert deleted a Youtube profile with multiple subscriptions to “QAnon” conspiracy theory channels. It’s entirely likely that one of those channels is what set Boebert off on Twitter decrying Tom Hanks’ acceptance of Greek citizenship, which is a major sidebar of the “Q” theories about Hollywood pedophiles and an international conspiracy to steal the blood of children and stay forever young.

Back in July, after unexpectedly winning the GOP nomination for Scott Tipton’s seat, Boebert addressed the “QAnon” question, and made a surprising admission about why Republicans are not making any real effort to shun “QAnon” adherents:

“The thing that I was referring to — anything that’s going to get conservatives to get involved with politics is definitely interesting and worth looking at.” [Pols emphasis]

Because “QAnon” believers are 1. a large percentage of the Republican base, and 2. voters. This is one of the more frank admissions we’ve seen from any Republican for why seemingly well-adjusted people–we are not including Boebert in this assessment–deliberately court believers in a totally unhinged fantasy world.

Given Boebert’s (we keep trying to find nice ways to say this) limited acumen, we’re inclined to think her Q-curiosity is not personally lucid of the fact that it’s a diversion intended solely to keep a particularly impressionable segment of the Republican electorate pacified. There’s no reason for Boebert to think critically about “QAnon,” because she has no reality-based frame of reference from which to know it’s nonsense. Now that she’s running in a marquee race for Congress, like most fringe viewpoints one can get away with in obscurity, this realization is seriously damaging.

A better response was urgently needed weeks ago. At this point, Lauren “Q*Bert” Boebert is defined.