A Colorado lawmaker who tweeted Pelosi’s ‘safe room’ location during riot is asked to resign

January 13, 2021

Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert (R-3^rd District) went on the offensive on Monday night, January 11, as Republicans issued a bellicose statement amid growing calls for her resignation following her actions before and during the riot at the U.S. Capitol, The Boston Globe reports.

A first-term lawmaker who ran as an outspoken defender of President Donald Trump, Boebert is facing serious pushback for tweeting about the location of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as legislators were whisked to a secure location to shelter in place while insurrectionists stormed the building.

The vicious attacks on January 6 came after a rally held the same day by the outgoing president—who urged his followers to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”

Boebert accused Democrats of having their “hypocrisy” on “full display” with talks of impeachment, censure, and other ways to punish Republicans for false accusations of inciting the type of violence they have so frequently and transparently supported in the past.”

During the violent siege, Boebert first tweeted that representatives “were locked in the House Chambers” and then only a minute later that the “Speaker has been removed from the chambers.”

She dismissed the seriousness of the charges that she had endangered the life of Pelosi in her statement — or that her tweeting was even noteworthy in the first place.

“[Democrats] accuse me of live-tweeting the Speaker’s presence after she had been safely removed from the Capitol, as if I was revealing some big secret, when in fact this removal was also being broadcast on TV,” Boebert said.

The remainder of her statement was replete with baseless claims about President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Pelosi, and the “far-left,” the Globe reported.

She compared the Black Lives Matter protests — reported to be greater than 93% peaceful — to the dangerous insurrection, referring to them as “the violence over the summer.”

In response to Boebert’s tweets, Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz (D)  said late Monday that lawmakers “were specifically instructed by those protecting us not to tell anyone, including our family, where exactly we were, for reasons that remain obvious.”

Schatz continued that it’s not explicitly clear “to what extent the rioters were coordinating operationally with government officials,” so it’s vital that lawmakers and others are “extremely careful in this line of inquiry.”

“But we must discover which elected and appointed officials, if any, and which civil servants, were helping the coup,” Schatz added, according to the Globe.

Congress convened last Wednesday to certify the Electoral College votes, and thus, Biden’s victory. But Republicans in both the Senate and the House — in support of Trump and his baseless election fraud claims — vowed to protest the votes.

Even after the riot, dozens of Republican lawmakers still objected to the votes — ncluding Boebert.

While on the floor, Boebert addressed Pelosi directly and said that she had “constituents outside this building right now.”

Boebert, her voice rising during the speech, said that she had promised her voters to “be their voice.” She objected to the Electoral College votes in both Arizona and Pennsylvania, two states Biden decisively won.

Because of her actions, Boebert — who ran on a “pro-freedom, pro-guns, pro-constitution, pro-energy, pro-life, pro-Colorado, and pro-America” platform, according to her campaign website—has faced criticism and calls to step down from fellow lawmakers, including those within her own state.

California Representative Eric Swalwell (D) compared Boebert to a criminal Monday and suggested that she refrain from making any further incendiary remarks.

“Like any citizen who has committed a crime, Lauren Boebert has the right to remain silent,” he said. “I suggest that she use it.”

As of Monday, more than 20,000 tweets had racked up with the hashtag #ResignBoebert.

Research contact: @BostonGlobe