Boebert Tells Us How She Really Feels About January 6th

As NBC News reports, the first hearing of the GOP-controlled U.S. House Natural Resources Committee took place yesterday, where the first order of business was an amendment to the committee rules aimed squarely at GOP outrage magnet Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Readers will recall that in 2021, then-freshman Rep. Boebert raised eyebrows over a comically awkward stack of guns propped up behind her for a remote meeting of the same committee. 2023’s in-person session kicked off with a similar Boebert-centric spectacle:

The House Natural Resources Committee’s first meeting of the year turned heated Wednesday when a Democratic member offered an amendment that would prohibit lawmakers from carrying guns in its hearing room.

The amendment failed, but not before Boebert had a characteristic moment of pique. After all, she’s the representative who promised to “carry her Glock to Congress.”

“With threats against members of Congress at an all-time high, now is not the time to be stripping members of our constitutional right to defend ourselves,” Boebert said before she recounted several incidents of violence in the Capitol and against lawmakers over the years…

A list that contained one telling omission:

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who recently launched a Senate bid, noted Wednesday that Boebert’s list of incidents against lawmakers omitted the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Omitted as readers know due to Boebert’s personal role in the events of January 6th, 2021, exhorting her followers on social media that “Today is 1776” and cheering on the rioters outside the capitol in a floor speech just moments before they stormed the building. Yesterday, thanks to Rep. Ruben Gallego, Boebert had a perfect opportunity to redeem herself and repudiate the political violence of January 6, 2021 once and for all.

You already know that didn’t happen.

“Yes, it was awful when Ashli Babbitt was murdered,” Boebert snapped back, [Pols emphasis] referring to a rioter who was shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to get through a door leading to where members of Congress were being evacuated.

“And you don’t care about the 100 police officers” who were injured in the attack, Gallego replied.

Boebert went on to explain that the real problem on January 6th is that she wasn’t allowed to carry her weapon at the Capitol, which is very odd indeed since the rioters who stormed the Capitol were on Boebert’s side, and presumably wouldn’t have targeted her in any way. In every other respect Boebert simply effaces the violence on January 6th by focusing exclusively on the death of one of the rioters–killed while ostensibly trying to defend Boebert–instead of the riot itself. It’s reasonable to conclude from this that Boebert believes Ashli Babbitt’s death is the only bad thing that happened on January 6th.

That’s probably not what Boebert will say when asked with any preparation.

But it’s in moments of confrontation like these when how one really feels slips out.