On Sunday (November 20), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-Colo.) message mourning the victims of late Saturday’s (November 19) deadly shooting at a Colorado LGBTQ nightclub.
Ocasio-Cortez joined in with other Democrats when she commented alongside others to demand Boebert take accountability for promoting anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, fueling attacks against the LGBTQ community throughout the year.
The New York Democrat criticized Boebert for playing “a major role in elevating anti-LGBT+ hate rhetoric and anti-trans lies,” continuing that Boebert had blocked “common sense” gun control laws.
Ocasio-Cortez continued that Boebert couldn’t “thoughts and prayers” her way out of her culpability; instead, calling for the Colorado Republican to “Look inward and change.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s comments came in response to a tweet Bobert made on Sunday morning, in which she stated, “The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful,” adding that victims and their families were in her prayers and calling for “lawless violence… to end and end quickly.”
Boebert was referencing the mass shooting at Club Q, a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub that killed five and injured 25 more.
Many of those who criticized Boebert did so because she had been a proponent of the right to bear arms.
The Colorado Republican has long drawn criticism from Democrats for her views on guns, including a 2021 ad campaign that purportedly showed her carrying a handgun around Capitol Hill.
Boebert also co-owned a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Colorado, for eight years with her husband Jayson, which closed earlier in the year following the landlord’s refusal to renew the restaurant’s lease.
The Republican lawmaker has also received backlash for referring to the LGBT community as “groomers,” using it in the context that the group was grooming children.
Boebert’s list of run-ins with the LGBT community also extends to her denial of transgender people and her condemnation of drag performances, many of which have caused tremendous backlash from Democrats.
