Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert was heard yelling at members of her own caucus as they failed to censure a Democratic delegate to the House over her ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Emails released by the House Oversight Committee showed that Stacey Plaskett, a nonvoting delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, had been texting with Epstein while watching the committee’s questioning of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former attorney and fixer, The Washington Post reported.
House Republicans moved to censure Plaskett, whose questions during the 2019 hearing may have been influenced by Epstein, but the effort failed on a 209-214 vote.
Afterward, several Republicans accused their party leadership of cutting a deal with Democrats to stop them from bringing their own measure against Florida GOP Rep. Cory Mills, who has been accused of domestic violence and was the subject of a restraining order last month, according to CNN.
Boebert, 38, could be heard in the chamber lashing out at members of her party for failing to push through the Plaskett censure. “This is why America hates us,” she told them, Wall Street Journal congressional reporter Olivia Beavers wrote on X.
Soon after, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna tried to raise a question on the floor about “why leadership on both sides, Democrat and Republican, are cutting back-end deals to cover up public corruption in the House of Representatives.”
Boebert called out, “Get it, girl!” as the question was rejected for not following the proper protocols.
Several other Republicans also accused their party leadership of cutting backroom deals.
The censure resolution against Plaskett would have directed the House Ethics Committee to investigate her relationship with Epstein and remove her from the House Intelligence Committee.
It failed after three Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure and three registered as “present.”
Boebert had also clashed with Republican leadership last week over her support for a discharge petition that forced a vote on the Epstein files.
House Speaker Mike Johnson refused for months to hold a vote on a bill directing the Department of Justice to release its investigative files on the disgraced financier, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Boebert sided with Democrats and a handful of fellow Republicans and signed a discharge petition that bypassed party leadership and brought the bill to the floor.
This week, it passed both the House and Senate and will now head to President Donald Trump for signing. The president was a close friend of Epstein for more than a decade.
The post Fuming Boebert Yells at Fellow Republicans as Bid to Censure Dem Over Epstein Ties Fails appeared first on The Daily Beast.
