President Joe Biden gave his first official State of the Union address last night. He focused heavily on Ukraine and Russia, talked about prescription drug prices, mentioned reproductive rights (and transgender rights!) but, as usual, refused to actually say the word “abortion.” Overall, it was a fine speech.
Still, Republicans found things to be mad about. They loudly booed when Biden brought up the American Rescue Plan, which aimed to offer direct relief to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A bit later, Rep. Lauren Boebert there tried to take things a step further and full-on heckle Biden at one point, which resulted in getting herself booed by those around her.
There’s no good time to heckle a president during the State of the Union. This is not a call-and-response event. But Boebert chose a truly terrible moment to try to interject.
Biden was talking about providing healthcare for veterans and the long-term effects of “breathing in toxic smoke from ‘burn pits’ that incinerated wastes of war—medical and hazard material, jet fuel, and more.” Some vets, he said, end up with “a cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin. I know.”
At that point, Boebert yelled out, “You put them there, 13 of them,” referencing 13 service members who were killed in a bomb attack in Kabul last summer during the Afghanistan withdrawal.
What she yelled over was Biden explaining his personal connection to the issue. “One of those soldiers was my son Major Beau Biden,” he said as Boebert yelled.
Biden seemed to look in Boebert’s direction but didn’t address the outburst. He continued: “We don’t know for sure if a burn pit was the cause of his brain cancer, or the diseases of so many of our troops. But I’m committed to finding out everything we can.”
Boebert was reportedly met with loud boos from those around her, which you could hear a bit of on the television broadcast.
According to The Daily Beast’s Matt Fuller, this wasn’t the only heckling Boebert did (though it was clearly the worst).
Again, heckling is not encouraged at this event, or even, usually, tolerated. In 2009, Republican Representative Joe Wilson famously yelled “You lie” during Barack Obama’s speech while the president was talking about Obamacare details. Wilson publicly apologized and also called the White House to apologize personally (although he then went on to use the moment for campaign fundraising). He was also reprimanded by the House.
Some people are asking whether House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is likely to do anything about Boebert’s outbursts, which is doubtful. He only supports official censures for truly unforgivable offenses like … choosing to serve on the January 6 committee.
McCarthy won’t even condemn the rampant white nationalism within his party, he’s probably not going to do anything about Boebert heckling the president’s dead son.
(image: Saul Loeb – Pool/Getty Images)
