Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert's failed attempt at a gotcha moment during a House Committee meeting was perfectly summarized by California Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell.
On Wednesday, Boebert went off on a bizarre rant trying to set up Democratic Washington, D.C. Council member Charles Allen regarding public urination laws as part of the District of Columbia's attempt at a first code update in 120 years.
During the House hearing , titled, “Overdue Oversight of the Capital City," the far-right conspiracy theorist addressed Allen and mentioned how he led the charge to reform the Federal District's crime laws back in November.
After Allen–who chaired the D.C. judiciary committee which considered D.C.'s criminal code revisions–reminded Boebert the code revisions were not the law since it was overturned by Congress earlier this month, the gun-toting lawmaker asked Allen if he decriminalized peeing in public.
You can watch her feeble attempt to own the Democrats in her line of questioning that went off the rails in the clip below.
"Mr. Allen," she asked, “Did you or did you not decriminalize public urination in Washington, D.C.?”
Allen responded:
"No, we did not."
Boebert pressed further:
"Did you not lead the charge to do so?"
To which Allen replied:
“No. The revised criminal code left that as a criminal charge.”
His responses seemed to go over her head. Boebert pressed again:
“Did you lead the charge to decriminalize public urination in Washington, D.C.?”
But Allen's response did not change.
“No Ma’am," he said.
As he began to elaborate, Boebert interrupted him and repeated the same question.
“Did you ever vote in favor of decriminalizing public urination in Washington D.C.?”
Allen stressed that public urination was still categorized as a criminal offense and confirmed that he voted to keep it as such.
Social media users collectively eye-rolled over the time suck displayed on the House floor.
In response to Boebert being so fixated on her peeing agenda, Swalwell shaded her for being an embarrassing time waster.
The former candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries shared a clip of her confronting Allen and tweeted:
"More Boebert cringe. My takeaway: public urination is a criminal offense."
"Luckily for Lauren, public humiliation is not."
Swalwell was backed up by other Twitter users who mocked the disgraced Congresswoman.
During her prodding of Allen in the House committee meeting, Boebert claimed to “have records” showing the Council member favored “allowing public urination.”
When she asked him if it was something he intended to pursue in the future, Allen said:
“No. The legislation you’re referring to came from the criminal code reform commission that changed public urination from a criminal to a civil offense."
"The council then changed that, to maintain it as a criminal offense at the request of the mayor.”
Basically, nothing changed and Allen's response was the same as it was the first time he answered her question.
You can watch the full exchange here.
After Boebert yielded her time, Becca Balint–a Democrat from Vermont–addressed the witnesses and said:
“Rather than addressing a number of serious concerns our constituents have, [Republicans] are choosing to waste our time talking about public urination."
When Balint asked, "Do you have anything additional you want to say about public urination?,” Boebert chimed in with, "I do," but was immediately shut down and was told:
“No, not you. It’s not your time. It’s a question to these people.”
Democratic Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin responded with the following comment in conclusion.
“This has been a degraded, tawdry discourse today, with obsessive questioning about public urination.”
“I hope the public doesn’t see this hearing and regard all of it as an episode of public urination in which the people of Washington are the ones getting rained on.”
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