‘Here We Are Being Sworn At Instead Of Being Sworn In’: Boebert Rages After Closed-Door GOP Negotiations

Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert raged in a brief hallway presser Tuesday over the dramatically combative closed-door House GOP meeting over who will be the Republican pick for Speaker of the House, painting leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy as unreasonable and swearing at her and other House Freedom Caucus members.

The GOP’s morning meeting over the vote for Speaker turned into all-out war on Tuesday, and Twitter was flooded with reports from the meeting about members cursing at one another, making threats, and even suggesting that voting for one Republican over another was voting against America.

After a failed meeting with McCarthy, Boebert and Rep. Matt Gaetz drew a line in the sand, suggesting a Democrat would be preferable to McCarthy. Those supporting McCarthy have in turn accused Boebert and Gaetz of being selfish, childish attention-seekers.

After the closed-door GOP meeting broke up Tuesday, Boebert joined Gaetz and Rep. Andy Biggs to speak to reporters in the hallway about their reaction to the collapsed negotiations.

Boebert said that McCarthy was dismissive of their concerns, and that she and others who have been seeking concessions in the rules are being mischaracterized as selfish when all they want to do “what is fair for Americans.”

“Yesterday we had a deal that was not a selfish deal in any way for Kevin McCarthy to get him the gavel on the first ballot,” said Boebert. “And he eagerly dismissed us.”

She referenced the heated atmosphere in her closing comments.

“So, now, here we are being sworn at instead of being sworn in. And we could have had this solved months ago,” she said.

So I’ve said from the beginning that my hard line was the motion to vacate, single member motion to vacate. You cannot demand more responsibility and less accountability. And Kevin McCarthy was taking the path of Nancy Pelosi and following her precedents with the motion to vacate. We were just told when we left this door, we will give you single member motion to vacate.

Just today. That was the starting point for negotiations. That was the starting point to everything that we are wanting to transform the way Washington, D.C. operates. If you go to the American people and ask them if Congress is doing a good job, if they like the way things are run in Washington, D.C., you’re probably going to get a big hell no. We want to change the way things are done here. We didn’t offer up a personal wish list. We were told to provide lists of what members need to be seated on what committees. And we did exactly that.

And then there were amazing items that were listed as well for our border security, for term limits. Just bring the bill to the floor so we can have a vote on term limits. That’s what the majority of Americans want to see in Congress. We said that any amendment that reduces the national debt needs to be made in order. This is not a personal wish list. This is not something that is unreasonable. This is just for the American people. This is fair for the American people.

And so now here we are being sworn at instead of being sworn in. And we could have had this solved months ago.

Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.

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