Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), a gun-rights hardliner who has vowed to carry her firearm around the Capitol, on Thursday backtracked on her accusation that Rep. Patrick Maloney (D-NY) had tied her to the deadly insurrection at the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters.
“A thousand apologies @RepSeanMaloney,” Boebert tweeted. “I’m glad you clarified you were not making any remarks about me whatsoever.”
A few hours earlier, the freshman Republican had posted a letter to Maloney accusing him of making “extremely offensive, shameful and dangerous” comments during an MSNBC interview that the Republican claimed had “implied” that she conspired with the pro-Trump seditionists to attack the Capitol.
Maloney pointed out via Twitter that at no point during that interview did he even mention her.
“Um, I’ve never said your name in public, @RepBoebert. Never. Not once. (If you’re going to be a gun nut, you probably shouldn’t go off half cocked.),” the Democrat fired back.
He offered to post the transcript of the interview but warned her that it “might be like ‘a fact,'” so the transcript “might not help you.”
In the interview, Maloney discussed a fellow Democrat’s account of seeing one lawmaker give a “tour” of the Capitol with the insurrectionists the day before the siege. Then Maloney expressed alarm over “some of our new colleagues” who “believe in conspiracy theories and who want to carry guns into the House chamber.”
“This conduct is beyond the pale and it extends to some of this interaction with the very people who attacked the Capitol,” he said.
Right before a House vote on Tuesday night, Boebert refused to hand over her bag to the Capitol police after she set off the newly installed metal detectors at the entrance of the House chamber. However, she wasn’t alone: Several of her GOP colleagues also set off the alarm or refused to go through the detector altogether and walked around it to enter the chamber.
