Rep. Cori Bush: Lauren Boebert is lying, race-baiting ‘danger to this country’
Bush was among Democrats decrying Boebert's "bigoted" comments targeting their Muslim colleague, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Progressive Democrats held a press conference Wednesday to announce they are introducing a resolution to strip Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of her committee assignments for the Colorado lawmaker’s “bigoted” comments targeting their Muslim colleague, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who is sponsoring the resolution, said, per Fox 2, “Inaction is to be complicit in Islamophobia. Without accountability, we embolden further action.”
The press conference was attended by California Rep. Barbara Lee, Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman, but it was Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri who delivered what NowThis News called a “mic-drop moment.”
Bush said the House needs to “show this country that we will “firmly stand against Islamophobia and that we will protect Rep. Omar and the livelihoods and the lives of Muslim communities around this country.”
“If we’re serious about tackling the systems of entrenched white supremacy that stain every fiber of this country,” she added, “then we need to start right here, right in this Capitol.”
“We need to start with this lying, Islamophobic, race-baiting, violence-inciting, white supremacist sentiment-spreading, Christmas tree gun-toting elected official, who is out here straight-up calling her colleagues terrorists,” Bush said of Boebert.
“Lauren Boebert is a danger to this country,” Bush continued. “She is a danger to the Muslim staffers that work here; she is a danger to her fellow members of Congress. Removing her from her committees is the least leadership can do to protect every employee, member and visitor of this body.”
Bush said she wishes the House didn’t have to “keep coming back every few weeks to do this,” adding that “Black and brown women are carrying the water for this country” by encouraging leaders in Congress to act to keep us safe.
“This shouldn’t need a press conference.” said Democratic New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was recently depicted in an anime video being beheaded by Republican Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar. “We shouldn’t be gathered here today. We shouldn’t have to be asking for the bare minimum of protection and respect for our colleague.”
Gosar was subsequently censured and stripped of his committee assignments.
Two videos emerged last month of Boebert claiming a Capitol Police officer approached her with “fret on his face” as she went to board an elevator at the Capitol.
“I look to my left, and there she is — Ilhan Omar. And I said: ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,’” Boebert mocked with a laugh, an apparent reference to the Muslim legislator not carrying a suicide bomb.
She has, in the past, referred to Omar as a member of the “jihad squad” from the Capitol floor, and also called her “black-hearted” and “evil.” When asked to make a public apology, in a call with Omar, Boebert said that she refused, and the Minnesota congresswoman hung up on her.
Earlier this month, Omar held a press conference in which she played a profane and violent death threat she received only days after Boebert’s remarks.
This weekend, she called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take “decisive action” against Boebert, with only four days left in the session before Congress adjourns for the holidays.
Americans pushed back against a photo of Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie posing with his family all holding guns in front of a Christmas tree mere days after four teenagers were killed in a school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, by a 15-year-old boy whose parents had purchased the teen a gun for Christmas.
Not to be outdone, Boebert shared a photo of herself and her even-younger children all holding semi-automatic AR-style guns with the caption: “The Boeberts have your six, @RepThomasMassie! (No spare ammo for you, though).”
Rightfully, both photos have been slammed by critics, including Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Guttenberg, according to The Washington Post, called Boebert irresponsible, contending that she was “likely raising a future school shooter or domestic terrorist.”
While Pelosi has taken action against Gosar and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, she has been slow to act against Boebert, choosing instead to not give her the attention that ultimately leads to the fundraising dollars she desires.
“I don’t feel like talking about what the Republicans aren’t doing, or are doing, about the disgraceful, unacceptable behavior of their members,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday, adding that ”the responsibility is on them” to do something.
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