Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was one of few willing to heckle President Joe Biden during his first State of the Union address.
The moment came as Biden was talking about America’s promise to veterans and just before he was going to announce the wife of a veteran who died of cancer. He mentioned his own son, who, he said, slept near one of the toxic burn pits.
“I don’t know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near in Iraq, and earlier than that, in Kosovo, was the cause of his brain cancer, or the diseases of so many of our troops, but I am committed to finding out everything we can,” Biden said.
Boebert shouted out that Biden killed 13 American soldiers, a reference to the suicide bomber attack in Afghanistan during the withdrawal.
Cameras happened to be on Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at the time. He is among the GOP leaders who knew the late Beau Biden, who suffered from an aggressive form of brain cancer. It was clear that Graham was displeased by the outburst.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced the legislation for the burn pit veterans along with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), but he couldn’t attend the speech because he said he didn’t have time to get a COVID test.
Boebert was summarily booed by her fellow colleagues on both sides.
“When Biden said flag-draped coffins I couldn’t stay silent,” Boebert claimed. “I told him directly he did it. He put 13 in there. Our heroic servicemen and women deserve so much better.”
The issue Biden was discussing has been a major one for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. They have spent years advocating for treatment from the Veterans Administration for the rare form of cancers they have.
“I just finished listening to a speech by Joe Biden, the weakest and worst president in American history,” Boebert ranted in a video to her supporters. “Now more than ever, we must reject Biden’s ‘America last’ policies and put America first.”
While Boebert may disagree with Biden on policy, her own party found it inappropriate to use that moment to make it about herself instead of the veterans Biden was talking about helping.
Speaking to NBC News, Sen. Gillibrand said Boebert’s “disruption was inappropriate, especially given the substance of the comments that the President was making at the time, which is to continue this way, which is to protect service members and our veterans.”
Republican Sen. Mike Braun (IN) agreed, explaining, “It’s something that I think that there’s a place, that’s not the place to do that.”
See her rants below: