Boebert calls ‘Beetlejuice’ backlash a ‘distraction’ amid GOP spending fight

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) denounced attacks on her character after she was kicked out of a theater last week as a “distraction” from government funding efforts.

“This whole week has been a total distraction,” Boebert said in a Fox News interview Friday. “We are on the verge of a government shutdown.”

“We have muscle memory in Washington, D.C. — bipartisan muscle memory — of those who want to do business as normal,” she added. “That’s why we are $33 trillion in debt.”

Boebert was removed from a production of “Beetlejuice” in Denver last week after she was caught vaping in the theater, disturbing other guests and appearing to suggestively touch her date.

Video from the incident showed the congresswoman later arguing with theater security and flipping them off before leaving.

Boebert called the incident “heartbreaking,” and difficult for her family.

“It’s something that is taxing on my whole family,” she said on Friday. “To have this broadcast to the whole world — something that was in the dark — is certainly heartbreaking to watch, to see and I have apologized to my constituents and will continue to do so.”

The controversy comes as Boebert is one of the faces of conservative efforts to tank government funding bills. The government is set to run out of money at the end of the month, and Boebert is part of a group of conservative Republicans who have voted against efforts to pass funding measures put up by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

Boebert said the group, which includes Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and others, “are doing the real work to avoid a government shutdown.”