It was toward the end of his State of the Union address when President Joe Biden reflected on the dangers U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced. The Democrat specifically expressed concern about American troops’ proximity to burn pits, and the ongoing health risks those pits may have created, before referencing the death of his own son, who served in Iraq.
It was right around this time when Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado thought it’d be a good idea to heckle the president, and blame Biden for a deadly terrorist attack in Afghanistan last year.
No one seriously expected the far-right congresswoman to apologize, and she didn’t. The conservative Washington Times reported:
Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who loudly heckled President Biden during his state of the union speech Tuesday, said she has no regrets about shouting in the House chamber to bring attention to the 13 U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan last summer.
Appearing on a conservative radio program yesterday, the GOP congresswoman said “a lot of people” thanked her for Tuesday night’s outburst. Boebert also referenced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up a copy of Donald Trump’s State of the Union address two years ago, as if the two incidents are comparable.
According to the CBS affiliate in Denver, the Republican also sent “an apparent fundraising email to supporters” the day after the incident.
If recent history is any guide, the appeal was likely quite lucrative, which is emblematic of the larger problem.
I don’t imagine anyone is surprised by any of this. Of course Boebert didn’t apologize. Of course she sent out a new fundraising solicitation. Of course there were no apparent efforts from House Republican leaders to admonish their member for heckling a sitting president while he honored fallen American troops.
This is just how GOP politics works now. The political world’s expectations have adjusted accordingly.
But it really wasn’t that long ago when such behavior was at least somewhat controversial. Circling back to our coverage from yesterday, when Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina heckled Barack Obama in September 2009, falsely accusing the then-president of lying about health care policy, much of the political world was stunned by the breach in protocol.
Then-Sen. John McCain, among others, quickly condemned the congressman’s antics, and no GOP leaders were willing to defend Wilson’s interruption. Short on friends and support, the Republican lawmaker quickly apologized, conceding that his outburst was “inappropriate and regrettable.” Just hours after the presidential speech, Wilson spoke directly to then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to express his regret. The House nevertheless formally rebuked the South Carolinian less than a week after the presidential address — and seven GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats in support of the resolution. Thirteen years later, our politics has become so poisoned that Boebert didn’t feel any real pressure to show any contrition, and House Republican leaders were content to ignore the whole matter. There’s no talk of a formal congressional rebuke, because there’s a broad understanding that this reflects a new normal. I liked the old normal better.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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