Alright, so Lauren Boebert just sort of loudly opened a space blanket—like shook it free so that everyone could hear it in the chamber—and then just draped it on her lap.
I honestly don't know what it means.
She's just sort of casually sitting there with the blanket—one of those shiny silvery things. A thermal blanket, I believe is another name for it.
If it's some form of protest, it hasn't really had any effect in the chamber.
Still haven’t seen Lauren Boebert say anything about the space blanket.
Starting to feel like one of those stunts that someone half-heartedly attempts and realizes almost immediately that it was not the play.
Tomorrow she’ll probably just be like, ‘Uhhhh, I was...cold??’
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
As the Robinhood hearing starts, the real action — apparently — is at the Natural Resources organizing meeting, where Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) is roasting Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) for the gun shrine she’s constructed as a Zoom background.
Jared Huffman on Lauren Boebert: “If somebody wants to have a shrine to their gun fetish as a Zoom backdrop in their private life, they can do that. But this is our hearing room and at some point we will get past the Covid epidemic and we’ll all start showing up in person...”
“...and our safety and our ability to conduct business civilly, without feeling threatened, is a relevant consideration.”
So Capitol Police called me today to come in for an interview.
They were pretty cryptic on what it was about, but it turns out they have two ongoing investigations that I was witness to: one, the potential assault of an officer by a Member of Congress, the other, Andy Harris.
The first investigation is about Rep. Russ Fulcher manhandling an officer who was at the metal detectors outside the House floor.
I saw him very aggressively brush a female officer aside after he set the magnetometer off the night of 1/12.
The interaction has definitely stuck with me, because he was very aggressive, yes, but also because that officer was pretty disturbed too.
I tried to ask her about it after, and while she wouldn’t say anything, she nearly had tears in her eyes.
Still thinking about Rep. Kelly Armstrong’s floor speech on 1/13, where he said voting against impeachment would give him credibility with his base and voting for impeachment would give Dems credibility with their base.
This is basically how GOP lawmakers think about things.
Reading “Inside the NRA,” and the author — formerly the No. 2-ish person at the NRA — talks a lot about how fear and anger were primary fundraising mechanisms for them and other conservative causes. And he notes how Trump was a master at it.
Who could’ve predicted January 6th??
“Selling the fear — real or imagined — never gets old.”
There are a ton of fascinating anecdotes in this book — a Trump lunch with LaPierre and Cox at the WH where Trump obsesses over the menu, a meeting with Bannon where he asks how the WH can repay the NRA — but the overall theme is grift, mismanagement, and the politics of fear.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) had something on him. I believe it was a gun because a cop made a side holster motion to another cop. They refuse to let him in.
He goes toward the elevators, asks a member to take something from him, the member says he doesn’t have a license.
I also heard Andy Harris say he told his staff to remind him.
Andy Harris comes back, puts his cell phone and key on the desk, steps through the magnetometer, doesn’t set it off, and is now on the House floor.
This was entirely predictable, because the House GOP’s fealty to Trump is completely genuine at this point, and honestly, good on Liz Cheney for voting her conscience.
Like, voters aren’t *calling out* for Liz Cheney to be removed as the House Republican Conference Chair.
This is just a bunch of aggrieved men going ‘HOW DARE SHE???!?!??’
House Republicans: Donald Trump shouldn’t be impeached. It was just a little insurrection.
Also House Republicans: LIZ CHENEY MUST BE REMOVED FROM HER POSITION SHE OPPOSED OUR PRESIDENT SHE DOESN’T REPRESENT US IN HER MEANINGLESS POSITION AS CONFERENCE CHAIR THIS IS TYRANNY!!!