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July 27, 2020 12:01 PM UTC

Boebert's Campaign Embraces Far-Right Militia Movement

  • 28 Comments
  • by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Freaked out yet? – Promoted by Colorado Pols)

As national intelligence reports and indictments show a dangerous increase in right-wing militia activity, gun rights activist turned Republican congressional candidate Lauren Boebert is embracing elements of the militia movement, going so far as to ask militia members to provide security for her campaign events.

According to a screenshot provided by a source, a member of the III% United Patriots militia posted a call on for volunteers to attend Boebert’s appearance in Pueblo today. The request noted that the campaign invited the militia directly.

Monday at 1pm, Lauren Boebert is gonna be in Pueblo. Some of us have been asked to run a small perimeter security detail for her. The event that raises more concern for her and myself is the flag waving that starts at 5:30pm Monday. There is a couple of events that are happening before that, one of which isn’t open to the public. I wasn’t going to go unless they invited us, which they did.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists III% United Patriots as one of several anti-government extremist militia groups active in Colorado. Boebert has been participating in events with militia members providing security for months now.

Last December, the day after announcing her candidacy, Boebert attended a “We Shall Not Comply” rally at the Colorado Capitol, organized to reject Colorado’s red flag law, which allows law enforcement officials to take guns from people deemed dangerous by a judge.

Following the rally, she posed for pictures with members of the American Patriots III% militia, also called “Three Percenters,” which said it was there to provide security.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the Colorado APIII% militia as an anti-government extremist group, noting that “generally, such groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order,” [and] engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing.” In a report published in June titled “The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States,” the Center for Strategic & International Studies describes Three Percenters as “a far-right paramilitary group that advocates gun rights and seeks to limit U.S. government authorities.”

In a June 14 tweet, Boebert proclaimed simply, “I am the militia.”

Boebert’s campaign website features a professionally staged photo of her with the Colorado “Boots on the Ground” Bikers for Trump group, which endorsed her. The photo includes at least one man wearing a “Three Percenter” patch and who also appeared in the photo of APIII% militia members.

Bikers for Trump also provided support and “security” for Boebert last year when she used her diner as a location for signing the failed recall petition targeting Governor Jared Polis.

RELATED: Boebert Apparently Broke Law By Allowing a Juvenile to Carry a Gun at Her Restaurant

In January of this year, Boebert traveled to a similar rally in opposition to gun safety legislation in Virginia. The event, which took place on Martin Luther King Day, grew to be a national gathering of militias, including some white supremacist groups that participated in the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally Charlottesville. Intelligence about credible threats led Governor Northam to declare a state of emergency.

In an interview with Brietbart outside the Virginia Capitol, Boebert rejected the argument that gun laws save lives.

“Have they saved lives? No. Criminals, by definition, break the law,” Boebert told Breitbart. “We already have gun laws in place. All you’re doing is restricting law-abiding citizens from defending their lives.”

More recently Boebert voiced support for the rights of militia members to shut down the Michigan Capitol, telling RealVail.com’s David O. Williams that while she wouldn’t participate in such an activity herself, she didn’t understand why the heavily armed men weren’t allowed on to the floor of the legislature. She reiterated her interpretation of the Second Amendment, saying:

“It is a protection against a tyrannical government, and so I don’t see that we would ever have to use our Second Amendment rights against our government, but that is what it’s for. It’s not for hunting. It’s not for target shooting or for sport.”

Experts can debate the nuances of the Second Amendment’s meaning, but using the threat of force to prevent legislators or the executive branch from conducting its business, such as occurred in Michigan, is not a common understanding of its purpose.

Boebert ran into her own legal troubles in late May, when she opened her restaurant in defiance of a Garfield County public health order issued to protect Coloradans from COVID-19. After the health department suspended Shooters Grill’s food service license, she held a “freedom rally” on May 23. Attendees included Bikers for Trump and at least two heavily armed men in military gear, whom Boebert posed with in front of the restaurant. Both men wore soldiers’ plate carriers and carried AR-15 style assault rifles equipped with suppressors.

Lauren Boebert poses with heavily armed men at her May 23 “Freedom Rally” in Rifle

Suppressors, or silencers, exist in legal gray area in Colorado. They are listed among the state’s illegal dangerous weapons, but a permitting loophole essentially prevents any enforcement of that law. They must be also be registered with the federal government.

Over the past year, Colorado has seen a variety of anti-government activism, much of it also pushing a pro-gun message, in response to the legislature passing a bipartisan “red flag” extreme risk protection order and Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) issuance of statewide public health orders related to COVID-19.

The same “We Shall Not Comply” message has proved equally popular to rally conservative opposition to both policies. With it inevitably comes references to tyranny and revolution which makes for effective political rhetoric, but also concerning activity when paired with deadly weapons.

A voicemail request for comment left with the Boebert campaign was not immediately returned. This article will be updated with any response received.

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28 thoughts on “Boebert’s Campaign Embraces Far-Right Militia Movement”

    2. It is to be hoped that Mitsch Bush is campaigning among people can can actually vote in the third cd

      I already sent her $100.  Will send another in August and another in September.

       

        1. Well, don’t forget Aspen, Telleuride, and the other tourist towns.  There are a lot of sane folks in Colorado west.  But yes, I’d work Pueblo like mad.  There was a day that the phrase “Pueblo Democrat” was like ” Sterling Silver” — proof of the real thing!

            1. Also Gunnison, Garfield and the valley. But none of them matter if she doesn't dominate Pueblo. How do you think Tipton got re-elected so many times? The Ds took Pueblo for granted and he worked it hard. This year, he took Mesa County for granted in the primary and it bit him in the butt.

  2. It’s like we live in a militarized zone.  Is that what she is campaigning for?

    There has to more oppo research on her, she was married at 17 – did she actually graduate from high school?

    1. Yes, Okie. Class of 2004, under her maiden name, Roberts. No college, and she started making babies with Jayson Boebert right away.

      Unfortunately, the kind of oppo research on her  – that she has no post-secondary education, that her first child may have been conceived at 17 (or 18, depending on the interview) with a man 6 years her senior – is the kind of stuff that Democrats don't really like to get busy with, because it's too religion-based and judgmental. But it does explain the otherwise baffling waffling on her actual birth year and birthdate. 

      Also that she described herself in an Ebuzz interview as "multiracial". Dems aren't going to exploit that, although certain segments of the GOP base might not care for it.

      Most of the women in my extended family on both sides were pregnant when married, including myself, so I don't judge on that. And plenty of young moms were good parents.

      No, I think the best oppo on Lauren Opal Boebert nee Roberts are the things she is famous for doing as an adult:

      Giving food poisoning to 80 people through a booth at the rodeo in 2017.

      Open-carrying, even letting a juvenile carry in her restaurant.

      Supporting the Q Anon craziness.

      Embracing Trump. Etc.

      And Pueblo? Boebert's already grinding it hard. Diane, where are you?

       

      1. My sense … the "oppo research" which ought to resonate is

         * never having been in a public service position at the local, county, state or federal level.  Without an informed sense of process or procedure, how helpful will she be to getting things accomplished in DC?

         * issuing such stirring media releases as:

        Lauren Boebert issued the following statement regarding today's
        announcement of a statewide mask order by Colorado's Governor Jared Polis:
        “Here we go again! Colorado’s Governor Polis is on the march, attacking our personal liberties while dictating mandates from the top down. Government’s job is to inform, not to strip our freedoms away and treat us like wards of the state. How lucky for the mothers of nine-year-olds who will still have the freedom to make such decisions for their children.”

      1. Well, yes. Since her oldest, Tyler, was 4 in 2009 ( per this article about the birth of their 3rd), that means that if he was born in ‘05, he was well on the way when they married in June 05. 
         

        And I really don’t care. Unless she starts preaching about how all Democrats are sexually immoral and permissive, or she starts haranguing against basic sex ed in schools. Or if she starts promoting the Q Anon Pedophiles in Government crap.
         

        Technically, a 23 year old man who dates a 17 year old is a……(drumroll) pedophile. That’s my theory on why LOB’s birthdate and birth year keep changing. Colorado voter info has her birthdate as December 1986. The CO Sec State would have had to see an official document to register her as a voter, so I trust that date ( 12/86). That would mean when she started dating Jayson in ‘03, she was 16 or 17, but she was 18 when they married in 05.
         

        So if she plans on being a Holy Hypocrite, things could get ugly real fast. Otherwise, I’d say her sex life and kids are off limits for oppo research. . 

  4. It appears she has her GED.

    “ Fortunately there are options – I have my Colorado high school GED…”

    https://twitter.com/laurenboebert/status/1263178325641637895?s=21

    According to one commentator, she admitted this year to not having one so it may be that she got it as recently as March 2020. 

    “ you must have got your GED sometime between now and the Pitkin County  Republican breakfast in March (2020) when you told us you DIDN’T have one?”

    1. Rifle High School wouldn’t be the only school that lets graduates “walk”, and get an empty diploma case for appearance’s sake, even if the “ graduate” hasn’t completed all credits yet. 

      So Lauren Opal Roberts (her name as a high school senior), may well have needed to finish a few credit hours to get her GED. There are programs for credit recovery. There are community colleges that help students get a GED or learn ESL. Or to get college credit. These programs existed even in 2004. They target young people, young parents, rural kids, poor kids,  first in family to go to college kids. 

      They are all “government funded,” and hence, evil incarnate in Lauren’s moral vision.

      More power to her for going back to school. The GED test itself isn’t difficult for a literate English speaker. She could easily have taken and passed it in a few months. 

      It will at least have given her some civics background, and now she knows some Constitutional amendments besides the second. 
       

      But she doesn’t belong in Congress without having taken time to develop intellectually, to research rigorously and read closely, to consider arguments and points of view outside her bubble. Most professional jobs require at least a two year degree. A GED won’t cut it.  She’s just not ready. 

      1. Kw, Boebert's lack of education is a major selling point for her in the land of the ignorant and proud of it. The big Republican vote totals some from Mesa, Montrose and Delta counties, where the gene pool has no deep end. Boebert thrives in such an environment.

         

        1. I don't mind that her schoolin' ended with a GED and a track record of entrpreneurin'

          I mind that she seems to have taken the wrong lessons from either.
          Maybe she is a really good person and character will win out. Maybe.

          1. Intellectual laziness is not related to educational accomplishment. Some geniuses can't afford to go to school. Many so-called educated people couldn't think their way out of a paper bag.

            Bqebert is who she is. The support she gets to become a congresscritter is disappointing…and scary.

  5. I somehow missed the article on Daily Kos, naming

    Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day: Lauren Boebert

    After she won the primary, the media decided to ask Boebert about her support for the Qanon conspiracy theory, expecting that she might back off now that she had to come to the center for the general election in November… but she reaffirmed it saying she believed “parts” of the theory and that “Qanon means a lot of things to a lot of different people”.

    That may be the case, but the reality is, it’s all  insane bulls***.  

    Nothing particularly new in the article … but it puts her into some rare company.

  6. Straight outta the Trump playbook. She's an idiot, yes, but like Trump an idiot who knows that the media (including Pols) love an idiot because that's news that sells.

    The solution is simple in both cases: stop covering every move/Tweet and their fire goes out. DB is right. The more we twattle about Boebert, the less anyone pays attention to Diane MB.

    Keep it up, and we'll likely get to call Boebert Rep. Boebert (R-ifle).

  7. There is no oppo research that matters – except maybe she loves Trump

    I don't sense Trump is bigly popular in CD3.  But maybe

    Otherwise everything here is more an issue for D's

    R's and anti gov't voters in general will love that she will own the libs
     

    They will think she's annoying and a real problem for Ds. Why this is a good thing is a bothersome reality of American politics.

    Lack of experience? What, like Pelosi?
    Lack of education? Who cares?
    Apparently loves guns and money? At least she 's not no lawyer
    etc, etc

    1. Trump is bigly popular among Rs on the Western Slope. So are guns. So is telling off Polis. So is willful ignorance. Some former small business Rs have gone unaffiliated, but that doesn't mean they'll flock to the Ds.

      The Rs have the voter registration edge in the 3rd CD. Mitsch Bush needs to camp in Pueblo and remind them why they still are Democrats or Boebert could win this.

    2. Why this is a good thing is a bothersome reality of American politics.

       

      The answer can be found on a fourth grade playground. Spite figures heavily in the motives of conservatives. Well, these non-CHB conservatives, anyway.

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