On Saturday, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) claimed that Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff (California) and Eric Swalwell (California) should be barred from serving on the House Intelligence Committee, saying that they are “conspiracy theorists.”
Boebert is an election denier and loyalist to former President Donald Trump who has repeatedly peddled false conspiracy theories tied to QAnon. Her comments, made on Fox News on Saturday night, echoed previous statements from Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-California), who has promised not to seat Schiff and Swalwell on the congressional panel.
Both Schiff and Swalwell have participated in various investigations into Trump’s alleged wrongdoings. Schiff served as lead manager during Trump’s first impeachment trial, for example, when the former president was accused of trying to coerce Ukrainian leaders to find political dirt on now-President Joe Biden in exchange for military assistance against potential Russian aggression in 2019.
Boebert attacked Schiff over his demands for Trump inquiries and implied, without evidence, that Swalwell had shared intelligence with a Chinese spy. (U.S. intelligence officials do not believe Swalwell shared such information.)
“They’re really showing their colors, they’re a bunch of Blue Anons, conspiracy theorists, that have these witch hunts and hopes that they chase after,” Boebert said during the Fox News program.
Boebert’s assertion that Swalwell and Schiff are “conspiracy theorists” is hypocritical, as the Colorado Republican has consistently pushed false information, including wrongly asserting that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
“There is no way that anyone can call the 2020 presidential election fair,” Boebert said on social media following Trump’s loss.
Boebert was one of 147 Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the Electoral College results of the 2020 election.
In the same Fox News interview, Boebert attacked Democrats for their reactions to the revelation that Biden was keeping classified documents at a think tank bearing his name and at his private home. Democratic calls for investigations into Trump — who kept more than 300 classified documents at his home in Florida — are hypocritical if Democrats don’t also demand investigations into Biden, she said.
“The Democrats’ double standard is out of control,” Boebert said on Saturday. “They want to throw Trump in jail over classified documents, and with Biden it’s ‘let’s wait and see.'”
The cases are notably different, however. Trump kept documents hidden at his estate while the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sought their return for more than a year; the Department of Justice (DOJ) ultimately had to get involved once it was revealed that the records at Mar-a-Lago included classified documents. In Biden’s case, the documents were returned as soon as Biden’s lawyers realized that the president had them in his possession.
“Equating the two cases is like saying a hit-and-run [car accident] is the same as a fender bender where the guilty party calls the police and pulls out his license and insurance card,” said USA Today opinion columnist Rex Huppke.
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Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
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