Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Colorado congresswoman long associated with the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, on Wednesday criticized President Donald Trump for vetoing bipartisan legislation to support a major drinking-water project in her district, saying she hopes the rejection “has nothing to do with political retaliation.”
The legislation Trump vetoed, known as the Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act, would have helped complete the final component of the decades-old Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. Colorado lawmakers supporting the bill have said the project’s cost estimate has nearly doubled in recent years because of inflation and increased labor costs.
Trump said in a statement Monday that his action was intended to save taxpayer money.
Boebert countered that the veto of the “noncontroversial, bipartisan bill,” which both the House and Senate passed unanimously this year, will deny “clean drinking water to 50,000 people in Southeast Colorado, many of whom enthusiastically voted for him in all three elections.” In a statement, she continued, “I sincerely hope this veto has nothing to do with political retaliation for calling out corruption and demanding accountability.”
The three-term representative was one of four House Republicans to sign onto a discharge petition in November to force a vote to compel the Justice Department to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump and the White House pressured Boebert and the other Republicans to remove their names, but they didn’t and the petition passed. The president, who has decried the files as a “hoax,” subsequently signed the bill directing the Justice Department to release the files.
Trump has publicly retaliated against two of those other Republicans. He disowned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — a onetime MAGA loyalist — and called her a “traitor,” saying he would endorse a primary challenger in her race. Greene subsequently said she would resign from Congress. The president publicly taunted Rep. Thomas Massie (Kentucky), who led the petition, for getting remarried after the death of his longtime wife last year.
On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump vowed to wage retribution against political enemies, and since his return to office in January, that has taken many forms. The Justice Department, for example, has attempted to prosecute a number of Trump’s perceived foes, including former FBI director James B. Comey.
The administration also has tried to identify and remove career government officials who might not be loyal to the president’s political agenda.Trump has tried to strip security clearances from political opponents and Washington law firms. And officials have threatened to withhold federal funding for state educational programs and universities that do not adopt conservative priorities.
For months, Trump has threatened to retaliate against Colorado if the state does not free Tina Peters, a former elections clerk who was convicted in state court on felony charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
On Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump again called for Peters’s release, repeating baseless claims about voter fraud and criticizing Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) and the district attorney “who did this to her.”
“I wish them only the worst. May they rot in Hell,” Trump added.
Polis, who supported finishing construction on the Arkansas Valley Conduit, said in a statement that the president’s action was “very disappointing.” The legislation, he noted, would help to “secure this much-needed supply of clean water for rural southeastern Colorado.”
Congress can override a presidential veto by passing a bill again by at least a two-thirds majority. The House is expected to consider the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act again next week, according to a person familiar with the chamber’s plans who was not authorized to speak publicly.
A second Trump veto blocked a bill to expand Miccosukee Tribe land in Florida.
The tribe joined environmentalists in a lawsuit to stop the construction of Alligator Alcatraz, an immigration detention facility in the Everglades set up by the Trump administration. Trump tied his veto to the tribe’s opposition to his administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
“Despite seeking funding and special treatment from the federal government, the Miccosukee Tribe has actively sought to obstruct reasonable immigration policies that the American people decisively voted for when I was elected,” Trump wrote. “My administration is committed to preventing American taxpayers from funding projects for special interests, especially those that are unaligned with my administration’s policy of removing violent criminal illegal aliens from the country.”
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