Lauren Boebert’s Beetlejuice debacle is a wonderful demonstration of conservative hypocrisy and nothing speaks louder on that than Fox News’ lack of coverage of the event.
Despite Boebert being a darling of the news conglomerate, not a single show on the network appeared to have covered her behavior in the week-plus after she was removed from a Denver theater for disrupting a performance of the musical.
The network finally addressed the ordeal on its late-night “comedy” show Gutfeld! Monday night, more than a week after the inciting incident. The host downplayed the seriousness of Boebert’s actions and claimed “liberals” were overreacting to the lawmaker engaging in sexual acts in the presence of children, despite Republicans’ obsession with “protecting children” from sexual situations. He also threw in some crude sexual jokes, homophobia, and a nonsensical Hunter Biden reference for good measure.
Meanwhile, some Twitter users, like statistician and frequent internet punching bag Nate Silver, have tried to play the centrist card by saying they don’t care about Boebert’s behavior, equating it to Senator John Fetterman attending Congress in a sweatshirt and basketball shorts.
Thankfully, others have pointed out the false equivalence, noting the ridiculousness of equating disruptive and inappropriate public behavior with going to work in a hoodie and shorts.
Boebert has tried to defend her actions as having taken place while she was a “private citizen” and not a congresswoman, which feels especially ironic given the conservative scrutiny of Hunter Biden, a man who doesn’t hold public office in the first place.
The lack of conservative pushback is especially telling after the past year. In a time when trans people’s rights are explicitly under attack for “fear” of how it will affect children who see them existing happily in public, Boebert has received no pushback from her conservative allies for her inappropriate public behavior. Conservatives have accused LGBTQ+ people of grooming or being sexually explicit around children and adolescents just by existing. Yet when Boebert inappropriately touches her date at a musical for young adults? Crickets.
Unfortunately, it looks as though there will be very little in the way of consequences, accountability, or general reflection on Boebert / the larger force of conservative hypocrisy.
Still, it is a good reminder that Boebert is up for re-election next fall and democrats Sol Sandoval, Alex Walker, and Adam Frisch are all running against her for Colorado’s 3rd District.
(featured image: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
