Lauren Boebert, the carpetbagging canoodler, may be trying to switch congressional districts — from the GOP-leaning 3rd to the GOP-dominant 4th — to save her phony baloney job, but whatever district she’s in, she’s still the same old Boebert.
Last we saw her, Boebert and a few of her Freedom Caucus buddies had gone to George Washington University for a headline-seeking confrontation with pro-Palestinian protesters.
As political theater goes, it was your basic theater of the absurd. Boebert, bullhorn in hand, trolled the protesters. The protesters, meanwhile, heckled her by chanting “Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!”
But on Thursday, Boebert upped the, uh, performance-art stakes.
This time, she went to New York as a cast member, along with the usual MAGA suspects, in what one columnist called an off-Broadway production of “Trump’s Synchronized Sycophants.”
We’ve watched, with equal parts horror and amusem*nt, as a parade of GOP politicians has gone full grovel to New York to support Donald Trump at his trial for fixing the books to cover up his hush-money payments to a p*rn star.
In Boebert’s case, she just provided one more opportunity for the late-night talk-show guys to ridicule her.
As Seth Meyers put it, “Got to say I’m surprised to see Lauren Boebert there. Not surprised she showed up, just surprised she hasn’t been kicked out yet. I mean, if you’re going to get handsy during a performance of “Beetlejuice: the Musical,” I can’t imagine how turned on you’d get for a hush-money-to-a-p*rn-star trial.”
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But there’s more to it than that.
Whether Trump is found guilty or not of book-fixing, he is definitely guilty of catch-and-kill sleaziness, of 10 counts of contempt of court, and, not incidentally, of doing all he can to trash the American system of criminal justice. And that’s the person Boebert came to defend.
The case, which is likely to be sent to the jury sometime next week, has reached what should be its lowest of many low points, in which Trump’s lawyers are cross-examining former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, showing him, as everyone knows, to be a serial liar and convicted perjurer.
What they don’t mention — although the prosecutors surely will — is that the reason Trump happily employed a sleaze like Cohen for all those years is because he would unabashedly lie and perjure himself for a sleazy New York real estate mogul.
But because Trump is under a limited gag order — to prevent him from harassing family members of court officials and from intimidating witnesses — he isn’t allowed to strike back at Cohen.
Which brings us back to Boebert and team. They’ve been called there, as Boebert admits, to say the things that Trump can’t say.
Boebert didn’t stop at Cohen, though. Without any evidence and merely repeating pre-gag-order Trumpist talking points, Boebert went on to trash the judge’s daughter. Because Trump isn’t allowed to.
Disgusting? Of course. Sycophantic? Sure. Hypocritical? Definitely, as we’ll get to in a minute.
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“I wonder if I’ll run into Judge Merchan’s daughter here in court today. She’s probably too busy being paid millions and millions of dollars by Democratic campaigns across the country and won’t be able to make it,” Boebert tweeted before arriving at the courtroom.
For her services, Boebert was awarded a front-row seat at the courthouse, along with the repulsive Matt Gaetz, just behind Trump and his defense team.
Yes, Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter does consulting work for Democrats, which obviously doesn’t make the judge corrupt. I mean, many of the people calling Merchan corrupt are the same ones who defend Clarence Thomas for failing to recuse himself, despite his wife’s activities, in January 6 hearings.
In any case, Boebert isn’t exactly alone in going with the evidence-free millions and millions supposedly made by the judge’s daughter — a number which will probably grow to billions and billions by trial’s end.
During his turn standing outside the courtroom a few days before Boebert, House Speaker-for-now Mike Johnson said, “Among the atrocities here, the judge’s own daughter is making millions of dollars doing online fundraising for Democrats.”
The day before that, Sen. J.D. Vance said, “The judge inside, his daughter is making millions of dollars running against Donald Trump, raising money for Trump’s political opponents.”
And on and on it goes.
But the hypocrisy? You may remember how Boebert has pleaded for privacy for her family amid their many travails. You may remember, too, how that hasn’t stopped her from tweeting about the so-called “Biden Crime Family” even as her son Tyler was being arrested in Rifle.
It’s even worse than that. While Boebert proudly showed up for Trump’s trial, she apparently failed to show for a recent hearing — according to several reports — where son Tyler told a judge he was having trouble affording a lawyer.
Is it fair to go after Boebert for her parenting efforts? Normally, I would say no. But we know what Boebert would do if it were, say, a judge’s daughter who had been arrested. We know what she says about a daughter who hasn’t done a single thing wrong.
In any case, Boebert is all in for Trump, which, it should be pointed out, is what she needs to be in her GOP primary race in the 4th CD. She has five opponents in the race, and if she can keep hold of the MAGA base, that may well secure enough votes to keep her in Congress.
How far will she go? At a late-night House committee hearing Thursday, a Democratic congressman was making fun of Trump’s propensity for snoozing during his trial, prompting Boebert to say, and I’m not making this up, that she thought Trump was probably praying instead of sleeping.
“But if he is sleeping, you know, (he) certainly looks pretty while he sleeps,” she said.
What doesn’t look so pretty are the MAGA grovelers going after the spirit, if not the law, of the gag order. I’m sure that Trump, when he’s awake anyway, must be watching.
As Boebert tweeted the other day, “They may have gagged President Trump.
“They didn’t gag me.
“They didn’t gag the rest of us.”
I’m not sure if she means all of the rest of us. Because I know it’s not just me who reads this and can’t help … gagging.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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Type of Story: Opinion
Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
