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June 06, 2023 11:40 AM UTC

Lauren Boebert's Debt Ceiling Disaster: A Timeline

  • 22 Comments
  • 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:

 

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

Congressional record for Roll Call Vote 243.

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:

 

 

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:

 

Tuesday, June 6

“Baghdad Bob” would be proud.

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.

Comments

22 thoughts on “Lauren Boebert’s Debt Ceiling Disaster: A Timeline

  1. She’s a hot mess. 
     

    “Being on the ground with the people reminds me of who I’m doing this for and makes it all worth it.”

    A failed business, marriage, a 15 year old daughter-in-law and missed court appearances by the baby daddy. 
     

    At least 6-inch thumb got a short-lived million-dollar O&G consulting gig, and Honey Boo Boo may end up as a short-lived news correspondent for NewsMax. 
     

    We should start a pool on what she was up to that caused her to miss the vote. 

        1. I thought I saw a picture of her with her Rock and Roll Jesus on the Capitol steps???  She said women should "chase Jesus" when their marriage is crashing. I figured she had caught him. 😄

  2. " They closed it?", I think, is going to stick…

    Could make a great T-shirt or bumper sticker with her clueless looking mug on it. 

  3. Poll options:

    – On the phone yelling at baby daddy

    – On the phone yelling at kid

    – On the phone getting schooled by lawyer

    – On the phone begging pillow guy to send $$$

    – Not on the phone

    1. Maybe looking for the hottest new place in DC where she can serve up some “Lord’s Chicken™”?

      1. I thought the Lord was pretty much mostly a bread-and-fishes kind of guy (along with the occasional glass or two of home-brew vino)?

        Anyway, how many “Lord’s chicken” joint options are in the CO-3rd?:

        Saint Sanders?  The Apostle Popeye’s?  Church’s Texas Chicken? The Rifle Bowling Alley? (I know our little white nationalists aren’t thinking, Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles.)

        Hope Morgonn and the other patriots don’t expect Boebert to show up somewhere to vote on this fowlcott?!!

  4. Lauren Boebert’s disaster timeline:

    November 3. 2020 — elected to Congress

    January 3, 2021 — sworn into Congress.  Disaster commences.

    January 6, 2021 — Insurrection cheerleader.  Disaster reaches full throttle lunacy.

    November 8, 2022 — Reelected by 576 votes.  Disaster ongoing, imagines has received a disaster “mandate.”

    “. . . The same thing we do every day, CO-3rd — disaster, disaster, disaster”

     

      1. Reminds of 10 or 12 years ago when Michelle Bachman – remember when we thought she was about as odd and stupid as they came – filed her legislation to save the non-energy-efficient light bulb?

        I wonder what that screw ball is doing today? And is she still married to her husband who famously fellated a corn dog at the Iowa State Fair?

        The really disturbing part is that Bachman and her Tea Partiers were relatively intelligent vis-a-vis the MAGAdonians of today.

  5. I am dying to hear where she was when the vote was happening.  What could possibly be more important to her than a chance to grandstand and to make rude noises?

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