Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert has apologized publicly for the actions that caused her to be kicked out from a Beetlejuice performance at the DCPA last weekend.
“The past few days have been difficult and humbling, and I’m truly sorry for the unwanted attention my Sunday evening in Denver has brought to the community,” Boebert wrote in a prepared statement Friday. She blamed ongoing upheaval in her personal life in part for the incident.
“There’s no perfect blueprint for going through a public and difficult divorce, which over the past few months has made for a challenging personal time for me and my entire family. I’ve tried to handle it with strength and grace as best I can, but I simply fell short of my values on Sunday. That’s unacceptable and I’m sorry.”
Customers reported that Boebert and her partner were disrupting the performance by singing, vaping, using their phones, and disrupting other patrons. The two are seen on surveillance footage being led out of the cinema. One of them asked DCPA personnel, “Do you know who I am,” and “I will be contacting the mayor,” before agreeing to leave the theater, according to an incident report written by a Denver Police officer who had been called to the scene.
When word of the incident spread, Boebert initially attempted to make light of it.
“It’s true, I did thoroughly enjoy the AMAZING Beetlejuice at the Buell Theatre and I plead guilty to laughing and singing too loud!” Boebert Tweeted Tuesday. “Everyone should go see it if you get the chance this week and please let me know how it ends!”
Boebert and her staff, meanwhile, contended throughout the majority of the week that she had not vaped during the performance; nonetheless, this assertion was refuted by more surveillance footage on Friday.
She can be seen on the video talking to her friend as the lights were still on and people were taking their seats around Boebert. The video, first published by KUSA-TV, reveals that Boebert then reaches underneath her seat and briefly places an object to her mouth before blowing out a cloud of smoke or vapor.
In her statement, Boebert writes, “Whether it was the excitement of seeing a much-anticipated production or the natural anxiety of being in a new environment, I genuinely did not recall vaping that evening when I discussed the night’s events with my campaign team while confirming my enthusiasm for the musical. Regardless of my belief, it’s clear now that was not accurate; it was not my or my campaign’s intention to mislead, but we do understand the nature of how this looks.”
Boebert continues by saying that she and her team will need to regain the public’s confidence.
After skipping the vote on a debt ceiling agreement earlier this year, the congressman, serving her second term, was discovered in another alleged fraud. Despite camera footage showing her hurrying to the House chamber for the vote and a statement she gave claiming she was “unavoidably detained,” she called it a “no-show protest” in a video.
Boebert has had to apologize in front of the public twice while she’s been in government. After a video showing her making light of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s status as a terrorist surfaced during her first term, she expressed regret to the Muslim community.
Boebert narrowly defeated every other House member in her battle for reelection last year, winning by only 546 votes. The state party has already stated that it intends to invest a large amount of resources in trying to defeat her, making her seat a top target for Democrats next year. Boebert has a number of Republican primary rivals in addition to many open Democratic challenges.
