Date: 2024-09-27 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021805
US POLITICS
GOP'S STUPID BRATS
Pelosi says Reps. Greene and Boebert should 'shut up’ in reaction to SOTU outburst ... also Lindsey Graham
GOP'S STUPID BRATS
Pelosi says Reps. Greene and Boebert should 'shut up’ in reaction to SOTU outburst ... also Lindsey Graham
Original article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/03/pelosi-boebert-biden-heckles/
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
Pelosi said she agreed with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who seemed to mouth ‘Oh, shut up’ after Boebert interrupted Biden as he mentioned his late son, Beau, during the State of the Union address
By Mariana Alfaro and Andrea Salcedo
March 3, 2022 at 12:37 p.m. EST
Pelosi says Reps. Greene and Boebert should 'shut up’ in reaction to SOTU outburst
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and other Republicans who heckled President Biden during his State of the Union address Tuesday should “just shut up.”
During his address, Biden spoke about his late son, Beau Biden — an Iraq War veteran who died of brain cancer in 2015 — as he called on Congress to pass legislation to aid veterans exposed to toxins while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The toxins, he said, lead to cancers “that would put them in a flag-draped coffin.”
For years, Biden has said his son’s death might have been caused by exposure to toxins while he served in Iraq and Kosovo. Beau Biden was a major in the Army National Guard.
Boebert interrupted the president as he mentioned the flag-draped coffins, yelling from her seat: “You put them there. Thirteen of them!”
She appeared to be referring to the 13 U.S. troops killed in a suicide attack last year during the final days of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Some lawmakers around Boebert appeared annoyed and unsettled by her outburst. Democrats booed her, and one shouted, “Kick her out!”
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) was seen seeming to mouth, “Oh, shut up.”
On Thursday morning, when a reporter asked Pelosi what she made of Boebert’s outburst, she echoed Graham’s sentiment.
“Let me just say this, I agree with what Senator Lindsey Graham said: ‘Shut up,’ ” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. “That’s what he said to them. I think they should just shut up.”
Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), left, and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) scream “Build the wall!” as President Biden delivers his first State of the Union address on March 1. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/AP)
In response to Pelosi’s comments, Boebert tweeted a clip Thursday of the speaker tearing up a copy of then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union speech, an image that went viral and encapsulated a tumultuous year in the relationship between Pelosi and Trump.
“So Fancy Nancy is upset about me speaking out at the State of the Union,” Boebert tweeted. “What’s she so torn up about? I will not ‘shut up’ about Biden’s failure in Afghanistan and the 13 heroes we lost because of it.”
By the end of Biden’s address, Boebert tweeted, “When Biden said flag-draped coffins I couldn’t stay silent. I told him directly he did it. He put 13 in there. Our heroic servicemen and women deserve so much better.”
Boebert’s outburst wasn’t the only one of the night. Some in the chamber — including Boebert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — seemed to mock the president as he went on with his speech. Boebert and Greene led a chant of “Build the wall!” — a slogan popular among supporters of Trump — when Biden talked about his plans to tackle immigration.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) interrupted President Biden as he discussed his late son, Beau Biden, and troop exposure to burn pits on March 1. (The Washington Post) Boebert’s actions Tuesday night drew immediate rebuke from other lawmakers, including fellow Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat, who told CBS Local that Boebert’s behavior showed she “doesn’t understand service and doesn’t understand sacrifice.”
Boebert, Crow said, “doesn’t know what she’s doing” and “is not interested in legislating or even knowing the issues or knowing the facts.”
Written by Mariana Alfaro and Andrea Salcedo
Mariana Alfaro is a reporter for The Washington Post's breaking political news team. The El Salvador native joined The Post in 2019 as a researcher for the Daily 202, our flagship politics newsletter. Before that, Mariana interned at the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Insider, and The Texas Tribune.
Andrea Salcedo is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. Before joining The Post in 2020, she covered breaking news and features for the New York Times metro desk.