August 03, 2023 11:03 AM UTC

Lauren Boebert's Stunning January 6th Denialism: Roll Tape

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• by: Colorado Pols

We took note yesterday of an interview conducted by far-right pseudonews talking head Grant Stinchfield of Colorado’s foremost MAGA cheerleader Rep. Lauren Boebert following ex-President Donald Trump’s indictment on criminal charges related to the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. A clip from this interview featured Boebert reciting the same thoroughly discredited case that Trump should still be President she was making in the days leading up to January 6th.

Then the subject in this interview inevitably turned to the events of January 6th with Stinchfield making no secret of his laudatory views of both Trump and the rioters. In this friendly environment, Rep. Boebert let her true feelings be known–and they’re nothing short of jaw-dropping:

BOEBERT: Well really it was more of an escorted tour into the Capitol, [Pols emphasis] um, we saw these January 6th tapes that were released once Speaker McCarthy became Speaker, and released those, and we see Capitol Police that are, um, allowing people um access to the Capitol, uh to the Senate chambers, uh and so this is (giggling) more of an escorted tour than anything…

Boebert is of course referring to cherrypicked footage from January 6th assembled by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in his discredited and at least partially career-ending attempt to whitewash the violence that occurred that day. Once the estimated 2,000 rioters had flooding the U.S. Capitol, it’s true some police worked to redirect the rioters peacefully–but the idea that those anecdotal moments somehow cancel out the violence committed smashing their way into the building is beyond ludicrous.

The best way to illustrate this is with the video that Tucker Carlson didn’t cherrypick:

We joke about Boebert’s tenuous-at-best grasp of the issues she was elected to advocate for on behalf of her constituents, but this is not a story of Boebert’s incompetence or inability to understand the basic facts. Boebert was in the building on January 6th, actually Tweeting about being locked in the House chambers–and knows perfectly well that her characterization of the violence on January 6th, 2021 as an “escorted tour” is a lie of the highest order.

Boebert is not the only Republican trying to rewrite the history of Trump’s attempt to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election, but she could be the most electorally vulnerable Republican not just publicly stanning for Trump but still reciting 2020’s discredited conspiracy theories.

Trump is going to trial over the 2020 election in part to ensure the historical record accurately reflects the terrible events that Trump was responsible for while trying to pull one over on American democracy. The fragility of our democratic institutions revealed by Trump’s coup attempt makes it of central importance to our country’s future that there be real accountability for what happened.

And if that’s true for Trump, it must be true for his lying enablers. There can be no more presumption of ignorance. Beating the “Big Lie,” now more than ever, means beating Lauren Boebert.