Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) was booed by her colleagues for heckling President Joe Biden as he spoke about Afghanistan and Iraq veterans and his late son, Beau Biden, during his State of the Union address.
Biden was speaking about the effects of “burn pits” that “incinerated wastes of war — medical and hazard material, jet fuel, and more,” saying some veterans battle “a cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin. I know.”
After that remark, Boebert shouted, “You put them in, 13 of them,” referencing 13 service members who died last year in a bomb attack in Kabul. Democrats booed Boebert after the outburst.
Biden continued without acknowledging Boebert’s comment, mentioning his son, who died of brain cancer in 2015, by name.
“I don’t know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near ... in Iraq, and earlier than that, in Kosovo, was the cause of his brain cancer, or the disease of so many of our troops, but I am committed to finding out everything we can,” he said.
Boebert tweeted about the moment after the speech, claiming she “couldn’t stay silent” when she heard Biden refer to “flag-draped coffins.”
Earlier in the speech, Boebert and her colleague Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) attempted to start a “build the wall” chant as Biden spoke about immigration, but it didn’t take off. The Daily Beast’s Matt Fuller reports someone told them to “sit down.”
Boebert also made a sartorial statement during Tuesday’s event, wearing a shawl featuring the phrase “drill baby drill.”
Outbursts from lawmakers during presidential addresses aren’t particularly common. In 2009, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) made headlines for shouting “You lie!” at President Barack Obama during a health care address in front of a joint session of Congress. The taunt was later used against him by his own constituents at campaign events in 2017.