Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) featured on Russian state television.
Barely re-elected Rep. Lauren Boebert received the usual headline-making scorn she cannot distinguish from praise last week after publicly dissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during Zelensky’s address to Congress. Joining with Rep. Matt Gaetz to ostentatiously sit out repeated standing ovations for Zelensky while scrolling on their phones, Boebert announced afterward that she would be a no on any future aid to Ukraine in their defense against the ongoing Russian invasion.
As Newsweek reported yesterday, the Motherland is grateful for the sympathy:
Representatives Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz have been praised on Russian state TV after they refused to clap and join a standing ovation for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Congress last week.
In a clip shared by Russian Media Monitor—an independent project monitoring Russian news media—TV host and Kremlin propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov reported on Zelensky’s unannounced visit to Washington on December 21 with a focus on the Republican figures that have greeted the Ukrainian leader with skepticism: Boebert, Gaetz and Fox News host Tucker Carlson…
“Congress members Gaetz and Boebert didn’t clap,” Kiselyov said. “They demonstratively remained seated and didn’t jump up. You can feel the fatigue in Washington over the boundless aid to Ukraine.”
Jane Fonda in Hanoi, 1972. Any resemblance to current events is unintended and coincidental.
If you’re a Russian propagandist, definitely you want to encourage a sense of “fatigue” over American support for Ukraine, a nation that has defied all the predictions made early in the war and doggedly held on against Russian aggression. But unfortunately for Vladimir Putin and Lauren Boebert, that’s not what the polls say:
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in October found that 73 percent of Americans — including 81 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans — favor continued U.S. support for Ukraine against Russia.
This tracks with a poll from the Chicago Council of Foreign Affairs conducted in November. It found 65 percent of Americans support continuing to support Ukraine with arms, 66 percent support continuing economic aid and 75 percent favor continuing sanctions on Russia.
Before Boebert came within 550 votes of losing her ostensibly safe Republican seat this year, taking a position wildly at odds with the overwhelming consensus of public opinion was considered part of her charm. Viewed through the lens of Boebert’s vulnerability demonstrated in this year’s elections, it’s a warning that Boebert has learned nothing from almost losing–despite her offhanded promise in a single Tweet to help “take down the temperature” in Washington.
In addition to ever-present Russian propaganda on social media and Tucker Carlson’s monologues, animus against Ukraine from the MAGA movement goes all the way back to the first impeachment of Donald Trump. But that animus has not aged well, and today it has the effect of providing aid and comfort to the enemy on the business end of all those billions of dollars we’ve spent helping to defend Ukraine.
There was a time in history when that alone could end a political career faster than you can say “Jeanette Rankin.” While Lauren Boebert’s re-election in 2024 probably won’t hinge on carrying water for Vladimir Putin, we don’t see how this can possibly help her.
And a 550-vote election can hinge on just about anything.
How do her qactions poll in her district?
You would think people would notice the difference among House members: CPR did when it told the story about the Omnibus funding bill.
So Tootsie doesn’t respect our government or those of our allies, doesn’t carry bills of her own, votes against her own party’s priorities, and doesn’t even try to bring home the bacon to her struggling district. Other than angertainment, what’s she good for??
Putin apparently finds her to be a useful idiot.
Boebert introduced a bill some months ago to designate part of the Dolores River as a National Conservation Area.
Yes, it actually happened. I did not read the bill. But it will die shortly, like many other bills, at the end of this Congress.
I didn't hear much about it from my sources in public lands work.
Maybe someone in her district should try to recall her on the grounds she appears to be a foreign operative.
There are pockets in that district which really like recalls, after all.
Members of Congress cannot be recalled, regardless of what state they are from. It's a Federally elected office and there is no Federal mechanism for recalling Federally elected officials.
I don't think you can recall a member of Congress. Remember Bush won in 2000, with the help of the Supreme Court, with only 500 or so vote margin. Then we had 9/11. He evidently had not taken intelligence reports seriously in August. So, we went to war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11 and Bush was re-elected.
I don't like Bobo B However, I would not discount her nor dismiss her.
I’m old enough to remember when Paul Manafort took a pro-Russian / anti-Ukraine platform change to the ‘16 Convention. That set the stage for a series of anti-American clowns like BoBo to have a global podium to exhibit their treason and dumbfuckery.
Yeah, and look where he landed.
Pushing Russia's military capability back decades and minimizing their threat to the world is an investment in security and peace that is almost immeasurable. If clowns like Bobo don't understand that or find its more important to undermine it because "teh libs" support it, then they certainly don't belong in Congress. Traitorous, pathetic, and shameful behavior.
But it is in Congress and can be fun to watch. Boebert is feuding with M.T. Greene over McCarthy becoming Speaker. Green is also feuding with Tulsi Gabbard over George Santos, the lying & fake NY congressman-elect.
As long as serious harm isn't being done…..pass the popcorn.
BoBo, EmptyG and Santos. That right there is a hat trick in reverse.
So the whole "Pro-Russian" thing is really just pure cussedness?
Yes. I think it is a combination of Bobo and her fellow idiots falling for a bit of pro-Russian propaganda (Putin Strong!) and taking the extremely juvenile " if the libs are for it, I'm against it" stance. CD-3 can really do better than this.
CD-3 came within 550 or so votes of disposing of "Anger-tainment" Boebert last month. I doubt she's smart enough to figure out that she needs to moderate the tone a bit to concentrate on actually serving her constituents. On to 2024.
When people ate her pork sliders: