Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) heckled President Biden during his State of the Union address on Tuesday as he spoke about service members who died as a result of their exposure to burn pits.
“Headaches, numbness, dizziness, a cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin,” Biden said. “I would know,” he continued, about to invoke his late son Beau before Boebert interrupted him. “You put them in, 13 of them,” she yelled, an apparent reference to the 13 U.S. service members who died during a terrorist attack in Afghanistan this summer.
The House Chamber booed.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) interrupts President Biden as he discusses burn pits at his State of the Union address:
“You put them in, 13 of them.” pic.twitter.com/8BbLVmH1nq
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) March 2, 2022
Boebert defended herself in a tweet following Biden’s address. “When Biden said flag draped coffins I couldn’t stay silent,” she wrote. “I told him directly he did it. He put 13 in there. Our heroic servicemen and women deserve so much better.”
Trashing Biden as he spoke about the death of his son wasn’t the only time Boebert heckled the president on Tuesday night. She and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) kicked off the night by turning their backs on Biden’s Cabinet. Later, they chanted “Build the Wall” as Biden pushed for immigration reform.
Boebert and Greene chanting build the wall pic.twitter.com/6KeXFSCnP5
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 2, 2022
Matt Fuller of The Daily Beast noted multiple instances in which the pair heckled or muttered objections as Biden spoke.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is now just shaking her head and saying “No.”
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) March 2, 2022
The New York Post noted hat Greene was “making faces” and “muttering” throughout the speech.
Several Republicans opted not to attend the address on Tuesday, citing the Covid-19 testing requirement. Boebert and Greene, both vocal critics of measure to mitigate the spread of the virus, attended, but Boebert made sure to mock the effort to space members apart during the address. “Hey, everyone, the State of the Union is over and we no longer have to socially distance, because science,” Boebert said in a video showing members shaking hands after the conclusion of the speech. “They wanted us spaced out throughout the House. Well, political science has won again.”
Boebert and Greene reportedly declined to sit in a socially distanced arrangement and instead sat next to each other.
Source: RollingStone
