What a far-right mess that rootin’ tootin’ Lauren Boebert has created for herself now. The GOP lawmaker’s attention-seeking antics have included a string of “jihad squad” jokes, which fits her patterns of attacking fellow House members with conspiracy theories. This has led a former top Mitch McConnell advisor to go on CNN and denounce Boebert’s comments while speaking with Jim Acosta. Let’s do this with a brief recap.
A few months ago, Boebert’s “jihad squad” routine began when, after she used her own campaign funds to pay rent, she baselessly accused Rep. Ilhan Omar of passing “over a million dollars” to her spouse “and not her brother-husband – the other one.” That House floor-ridiculousness included the “jihad squad” remark, and that led a fed-up local Colorado news anchor to denounce her rhetoric on behalf of her constituents.
This didn’t deter Boebert. She unloaded the “jihad squad” remark again in a viral video, in which she performed what looked like bad stand-up comedy and told a fake story: she claimed that a Capitol Hill officer was fearful when Rep. Ilhan Omar entered an elevator. She also insinuated that Omar was a terrorist/suicide bomber, and in response, Omar tweeted, “Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.”
Well, someone in power (or with a lot of money) must have talked to Boebert, who uncharacteristically apologized to Omar and the Muslim community for offending them “with my comment about Rep. Omar.” She didn’t apologize for the divisive, anti-Muslim rhetoric, but only for providing “an unnecessary distraction.” And that’s when former McConnell advisor Scott Jennings decided to — while noting that McConnell himself doesn’t comment on colleagues’ rhetoric — declare (via Raw Story) that he knows what’s happening in Mitch’s head:
“Senator McConnell serves in the Senate. I guarantee you, I know what he’s thinking. It’s a garbage comment from a garbage politics. I‘m as anti-Squad as the next [Republican], but there’s plenty of ways to debate these folks without stooping to this garbage rhetoric. I noted, by the way, that Boebert has been forced to apologize. I assume that didn’t happen in a vacuum, but she’s of course committed the ultimate sin, which is the people she’s being performative for here would say you never should apologize.”
Jennings has a point. The far-right audience that heartily laughed and clapped at Boebert’s remarks (in the below viral video) won’t be happy that she apologized.
Over the Thanksgiving break, Lauren Boebert said she was recently in a Capitol elevator with Ilhan Omar when a fretful Capitol police officer ran up.
Lauren Boebert said: “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”
Boebert then called Ilhan Omar, “jihad squad.” pic.twitter.com/Y7f0nFbnud
— PatriotTakes
(@patriottakes) November 25, 2021
And Boebert’s apology did nothing to impress Rep. Omar, who’s calling for Boebert to face punishment for her anti-Muslim remarks.
(Via Raw Story)