Lauren Boebert confronted about voting behavior and “Beetlejuice” incident

During a heated Republican primary debate, Rep. Lauren Boebert was questioned about her votes against infrastructure projects in Colorado, for which she later took responsibility, as well as her behavior while watching a musical in 2023.

The right-leaning lawmaker currently represents the state’s third congressional district after her narrow victory in November 2022 against Democrat Adam Frisch. She is now campaigning in the more Republican-friendly fourth district after Republican Rep. Ken Buck resigned from Congress in March.

During a televised debate between the district’s candidates on NBC affiliate 9News in Denver, moderator Kyle Clark said she has “repeatedly taken credit for projects in Colorado for which she asked for funding but then voted against the bill.”

Walker cited the South Bridge over the Roaring Fork River in Glenwood Springs and a water treatment plant in Gunnison as examples of projects for which she could get “the credit for voting no” because she knew there were enough other Republicans to ensure passage.

The White House has criticized Republicans for taking credit for projects funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, even though they voted against the 2021 legislation, considered a key success of the Biden administration.

In May, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg criticized Boebert for boasting that she helped secure federal funding for the bridge, even though she voted against the bill that funded the bridge. Boebert has touted 10 projects in her district that were funded with the passage of the bill she voted against, according to the Colorado News Agency. The diary reported in April.

Clark asked Boebert if she would have voted no even if she had had the deciding vote to kill those projects. Boebert replied “yes.”

When Boebert tried to add that she had “worked to get these passed” and that she had “passed over 80 initiatives into law through the budget process,” Clark interrupted, seeming glad to have received a direct answer.

Boebert was also challenged for her widely publicized incident in September 2023, when she was escorted out of a performance of the Beetlejuice Musical in Denver for vaping and making too much noise during the show. The video also showed Boebert and the man she was on a date groping each other in their seats during the performance.

Boebert’s team had initially denied that she was vaping in the theater at the Denver Center for Performing Arts until surveillance footage was released. Boebert then said she was “sincerely sorry” for her behavior because it “did not align with my values.”

The issue came up again in Thursday’s debate, with Boebert saying she had “owned up” to her behavior but did not want to “spend her life in shame and let it destroy me” before attempting to shift the focus to her record as a lawmaker.

But Clark interrupted her. He told the congresswoman that while she had apologized, he wanted to clarify whether the issue was about her behavior toward her date and vaping or about her “lying to voters about her behavior that night and the disrespect shown toward the service staff,” referring to the theater staff she was accused of being rude to.

Boebert insisted there was “no disrespect” and that the incident was “completely misrepresented.”

But when Boebert tried to protest during a conversation that lasted for a few seconds, Clark interrupted her and thanked her for her response. The clip can be seen in the viral clip on X, which had been viewed 113,000 times as of Saturday.

Newsweek has asked Boebert’s office for comment.

To win the Republican nomination, Boebert must defeat state Reps. Mike Lynch and Richard Holtorf, former state Senator Jerry Sonnenberg, businessman Peter Yu and former radio host Deborah Flora.