Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert, trying to escape voters in Colorado’s 3rd District who nearly voted her out in 2022, is fighting for her party’s nomination in the adjacent 4th District. But the conservative firebrand still can’t seem to escape her notorious 2023 incident during a performance of “Beetlejuice,” when she and a date were kicked out for unruly behavior, The Daily Beast reports.
“Do you want to talk about theater?” asked KUSA’s Kyle Clark, moderating a debate last Thursday between her and her much less famous Republican primary opponents.
“Um, sure,” Boebert replied. “So, Kyle, I – I definitely recognized, uh, I recognized my night in Denver.”
The alleged claim of responsibility Boebert was referring to was a tweet in which she sarcastically pleaded “guilty to laughing and singing too loud” while denying committing other transgressions of theater etiquette. Boebert was forced to backtrack on her initial downplaying of the incident after the local NBC affiliate obtained and released theater surveillance footage of her vaping, taking selfies with her camera’s flash, participating in a group party with her date and giving an usher the middle finger on the way out.
“Um,” Boebert continued during the debate, “and you know, I’ve been on this public apology tour and I’m grateful for the mercy and the grace that’s been shown. But I — I’m not going to continue to living in shame and, uh, being beaten by it And, you know, I’d like to go back to my track record.
But Clark wasn’t letting her get off easy.
“I just want to be sure. Have you apologized for the behavior that occurred between you and your date?” he asked, intimidating her attempts to interrupt. “Or – forgive me – or apologized for lying to voters about what you did that night and the lack of respect you showed to service workers that night What specifically did you want to apologize for? ?
Boebert, visibly flustered and trying to find an opening to attack, denied hijacking the bailiff and accused the media of taking her behavior “out of context.” She then tried to suggest that Clark was being hypocritical for once by saying “how disgusting it is to record someone without their knowledge” in a podcast interview.
As Boebert continued to ramble, Clark decided to honor Boebert’s wish to move on to his legislative record and turned to the other candidates, who filed in happily.
The experience of last Thursday’s debate was apparently too much for the embattled MP. She decided not to show up for the next debate, which took place 48 hours later, leaving her opponents to take figurative shots at an empty podium.