Controversial Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert reacted furiously when a resolution to censure Democratic Rep. Stacey Plaskett over her text messages with Jeffrey Epstein was defeated.
Boebert's anger was not just reserved for Democrats but also for members of her own party.
According to reports, Boebert, who has petitioned for the release of the Epstein files and is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, pushed for the action against Plaskett and was seen “yelling” on the House floor and wagging her finger at Republicans who voted against the resolution.
Three Republican representatives and all Democrats voted “no” to the resolution, sparing Plaskett, who represents the US Virgin Islands in Congress as a non-voting delegate.
Plaskett appeared to be messaging with the late, disgraced financier in February 2019 before she questioned President Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, and asked Epstein for guidance in one message, the Washington Post reported.
The messages were included in the tranche of 20,000 documents released by the House Oversight Committee last week, though her name was redacted.
Epstein had links to the U.S. Virgin Islands and some of its public figures. He donated money to politicians, including Plaskett, according to a 2023 Business Insider expose. The pedophile financier’s primary residence was on the island of Little Saint James.
The failure of the resolution to censure Plaskett meant that the threat of a counter-censure by the Democrats against Florida congressman Cory Mills was abandoned.
Mills’ behaviour has been the subject of headlines recently after a Florida county judge granted a restraining order against him following a request by an ex-girlfriend who accused him of harassing her and threatening to release intimate photos after their breakup earlier this year. Mills has denied wrongdoing.
According to a report in The Hill, Boebert also went up to Mills at one point, pointed at him, and shouted at him.
Following the breakdown of the alleged partisan tit-for-tat censuring efforts, Anna Paulina Luna, another Florida Republican representative, tried to raise an inquiry from the floor to express her frustration with both parties’ conduct.
“I was wondering if the Speaker of the House of Representatives can explain why leadership on both sides, both Democrat and Republican, are cutting back-end deals to cover up public corruption in the House of Representatives for both Republican and Democrat members of Congress,” she asked.
Following her question, Boebert whooped in approval and yelled: “Get it, girl.”
Despite the vocal support from her colleague, Luna’s inquiry was rejected for failing to follow the correct protocols.
“Thank you very much, but I think the American people know what happened tonight,” Luna said.
Boebert is one of three Republican women, alongside Representatives Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who are together exerting pressure on the White House to release the Epstein files.
The firebrand conservative was summoned to the White House last week for what was reportedly a crisis meeting in the Situation Room to try to get her to remove her name from the petition, but she declined.
Days after the meeting, Trump changed his own position on the release of the files, turning 180 degrees from his stance that the Epstein case and the pleas of his victims for public disclosure were merely a “Democrat hoax”, to suddenly urging Republicans to pass the measure and saying he would sign it if it were also passed in the Senate.
Despite the Republican leadership’s efforts to halt the legislation that would force the release of the files, on Tuesday, an almost unanimous vote in the House now means the Department of Justice must make public all of its files on Epstein.
When, or if, all the files will ultimately be released remains unclear.
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