The many, puzzling contradictions of CD3 candidate Boebert

Editor’s note: A version of this story first appeared in the Colorado Times Recorder, as did an analysis of Lauren Boebert’s many contradictions:

After deciding to run for Congress because she believed her Republican Congressman wasn’t conservative enough, even though he was co-chair of the Colorado Trump Campaign, Lauren Boebert is now saying she’s not as far right as the media is portraying her.

“It is amazing how the media will let people describe you as far-right,” KCOL radio host Jimmy Lakey told Boebert Thursday. “And yet let [Boebert’s Democratic opponent] self-describe as an independent when the facts on the table show she is anything but independent. And by my definition, you’re anything but far-right.”

“Exactly. It’s incredible,” replied Boebert on air. “And, you know, I don’t know what’s extreme about standing for the Constitution of the United States, getting back to the roots that we were founded on, loving people and showing them compassion and creating opportunities for them.”

In fact, Boebert advocates for a right-wing agenda that in some cases goes beyond Trump’s. This includes her stances on mask-wearing (strictly optional), climate change (a narrative that allows the government to make money), abortion (Ban it.), Obamacare (Repeal it.), immigration (against immigrant farm labor), QAnon (followed multiple QAnon channels but says she’s not a follower), and more.

Boebert’s attempt to portray herself as more centrist comes after Russell George, a former Republican Speaker of the House in Colorado, published an opinion piece in the Grand Junction Sentinel endorsing Boebert’s Democratic opponent, Diane Mitsch Bush.

Bush “knows what it means to put people above their party because she has done it before,” according to Russell, who lives in Boebert’s home town of Rifle.

Boebert’s office did not return an email seeking to know a specific issue on which Boebert’s stance would not be characterized as far right and why the media should not portray her as far-right.

Boebert criticized her Republican primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, for not fighting for conservatives in Congress, saying “There is a battle for the heart and soul of our country right now. And I am running to be the one that steps up for conservative values.”

Boebert faces Mitsch Bush in the congressional district spanning southern and western Colorado, including the western two-thirds of Eagle County.

Will Boebert’s contradictions on QAnon, Obamacare, arrests, and more matter to voters?

Colorado congressional candidate Lauren Boebert concluded a television interview Wednesday with her oft-repeated line that she’s not a “follower of QAnon.”

Yet, she followed multiple QAnon channels on her YouTube account, which she deleted as her beliefs about QAnon came under scrutiny by journalists.

Boebert is clearly not alone among politicians when it comes to trying to Etch-a-Sketch her background.

But, with almost no interest in discussing policy issues, her misrepresentations and obfuscations become more glaring.

For example, in the same interview yesterday, Boebert said she wouldn’t say if she’d dismantle Obamacare, explaining in the vaguest of phraseology that she’ll “see what happens when I get to Congress.”

In fact, she secured her spot on the ballot by blasting her Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, for failing to kill Obamacare–and she’s on record opposing it.

Instead of accepting full responsibility for sickening 80 people with tainted sliders at the Rifle rodeo, she tried to blame fecal matter on the bleachers, even though Garfield County had conducted an exhaustive investigation showing that Boebert’s sliders were the “culprit.”

Similarly, Boebert brushes off her arrest record with: “I didn’t pay the ticket. But I got it paid. One hundred dollars. And I even got a pretty mugshot out of it.”

But it wasn’t the ticket that resulted in the mugshots, it was the failure to show up in court multiple times.

Boebert also once said underage servers at her diner, Shooters Grill, are not allowed to carry guns.

But one 17-year-old server featured in a news report posted on Boebert’s website says Boebert “allows me to” carry a gun, even though it’s illegal in Colorado to do so.

Boebert will throw out facts that just don’t check out. For example, she claimed Black Lives Matter protesters were bussed to Rifle for a rally earlier this year. But there’s no evidence for this.

Does all this add up to a credibility problem that will seep into voters’ minds as they decide between Boebert and her Democratic opponent, Diane Mitsch Bush?

The fact is, Trump carried the district by over 10 points in 2016, and he’s cut very much in the mold of Boebert, with swirling contradictions and staff who try to piece together the policy details.