A freshman House Republican is denying an accusation that she led tours of the Capitol in the days leading up to the insurrection earlier this month.
Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee claimed Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado gave a tour to “a large group” in the days leading up the riot that led to five deaths and dozens of arrests at the time Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory, but the freshman lawmaker denied the accusation.
“I did not give any tours between Jan 3rd and 6th,” Boebert told USA Today on Monday after Cohen made the claim in an interview on CNN earlier that day. Her office did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
“Only thing that I’ve seen, [Rep. John] Yarmuth refreshed my recollection yesterday, we saw [Rep.] Boebert taking a group of people for a tour sometime after the 3rd [of Jan.] and before the 6th. I don’t remember the day. … She had a large group with her,” Cohen said. “Now whether they were people that were involved in the insurrection or not, I do not know. She was a freshman, she might have had a large number of people coming to be with her on this historic occasion and just wanting to give them the opportunity to have a tour.”
Cohen added that he had no evidence to prove that any of the people who supposedly went on a tour with her from Jan. 3-6 participated in the Capitol riot, but he said, “It is pretty clear that her team is the team — she’s not on the home team. She was with the visitors.”
Despite her short tenure in Congress, Boebert has made a handful of headlines. The first-term congresswoman, who has repeated election conspiracy theories and has been tied to the QAnon conspiracy theory, objected to Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6.
“Madame Speaker, I have constituents outside this building right now. I promised my voters to be their voice!” Boebert said on the House floor, objecting to the counting of Arizona’s Electoral College votes. “Are we not a government of, by, and for the people? They know that this election was not right, and as their representative, I am sent here to represent them. I will not allow the people to be ignored.”
Cohen was not the first Democratic lawmaker to accuse GOP counterparts of being complicit in the attack in the time since the insurgence on the Capitol.
Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan claimed that some Republican members of Congress were giving suspicious tours to groups the day before the Capitol breach. Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey said in a Facebook livestream that some lawmakers led groups of people on a “reconnaissance” tour through the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned lawmakers that members of Congress who “aided and abetted” the attack could face prosecution.
“If, in fact, it is found that members of Congress are accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution for that,” she said.
