At this year’s edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) participated in a panel pushing for so-called gun rights, and she had some… interesting things to say. At one point, she defended the Republican Party against accusations that it’s the “party of no,” insisting that, in reality, the GOP is merely saying “no” to the “noes” of the Democratic Party, which is such an oddly convoluted way to say it. Besides, her allegation that Democrats “don’t want… freedom of speech” is simply false.
As she put it:
‘The funny thing is, Republicans are called the “party of no,” but we’re saying no to all of their noes. They don’t want you to be able to protect yourself. They don’t want you to have freedom of speech. They don’t want you to have freedom of religion. In Colorado, they don’t want us to have our public lands. They are the party of no. We are saying no, we are saying a big hell no to all of their noes.’
Watch her comments below:
"The Republican Party is called the party of no, but we're saying no to their noes." Rep @laurenboebert #CPAC2021 #AmericaUnCanceled pic.twitter.com/oxXDS21jWa
— CPAC 2021 (@CPAC) February 27, 2021
Boebert’s allegation that Democrats are opposed to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, among other things, does not substantively reflect reality. Republicans like Boebert, who is a controversial first-term Congresswoman, have extrapolated some kind of Democratic conspiracy against these rights from things like ex-President Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter. In reality, steps like Trump’s ban don’t represent some kind of anti-conservative conspiracy — his followers stormed the U.S. Capitol building and murderously hunted Trump’s political opponents. Banning Trump from Twitter is just about the least that anyone could do, and ignoring the very real underpinning for actions like the Trump Twitter ban is ridiculous. There is no cancel culture conspiracy here.
As part of Boebert’s panel discussion, the National Rifle Association’s Dana Loesch led the panelists in a complaint-fest against supposed Democratic plans to tackle so-called ghost guns, limit magazine capacity, allow for lawsuits against gun manufacturers, and ban semi-automatic weapons (which, to be clear, have been banned in the United States in the recent past, although that ban expired).
Boebert commented as follows:
‘They mention assault rifles in this. I hate that term. I hate it so much. An AR is not an assault rifle; it’s an Armalite rifle, period. Assault is a behavior, and a gun is an object. So anything that they do, they can do to hijack the language, to abuse the terms, to take control is what they’re going to do, and I can’t wait ’til we take that gavel from Speaker Pelosi in 2022.’
Noting that “AR” in the name of the AR-15 rifle doesn’t stand for “assault rifle” is such an ignorantly pointless argument. Pretending like the weapons aren’t used for assaults that might not even be possible without the guns is a farce.
Check out her comments below:
.@DLoesch, @RepAndyBiggsAZ, Rep @laurenboeber and, @RepVernonJones discuss what can be done to stop the current administration's attack on the Second Amendment. #CPAC2021 #AmericaUnCanceled pic.twitter.com/3wKQ2px8II
— CPAC 2021 (@CPAC) February 27, 2021
