Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) struggled to defend her voting record in Congress when pressed by her Democratic opponent Trisha Calvarese during Tuesday night’s debate.
In a statement posted after the debate Calvarese said Boebert “melted down” on the stage and accused her of “disrespect[ing] veterans” as well as “working against lowering the cost of critical prescription drugs” and “missing critical votes”.
Calvarese also included clips of her pressing the Republican lawmaker on opposing legislation which would allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug costs like the ones that extended her father’s life.
“You voted to keep the medication high and out of reach for millions of seniors that gave me four extra years of life with my father,” Calvarese said.
Calvarese also criticized Boebert for opposing the PACT Act, which expanded the range of benefits available to former service personnel who were exposed to dangerous toxins, often via burn pits, during their time in the military.
“I think if you’re going to be ‘America First,’ you can’t put the veterans last,” Calvarese said.
“You voted against care for veterans exposed to cancer-causing toxins and burn pits during war,” she said. “So we definitely have different priorities because I believe we should take care of our veterans, always.”
Boebert defended her record by arguing that she wouldn’t vote “for something that we only had 24 hours to read that’s over 2,000 pages long.”
The lawmaker also claimed she couldn’t suggest amendments for the bill and was not willing to spend “a billion dollars forever because we couldn’t get a couple of pieces of language right in the legislation.”
Tuesday’s debate was the only one scheduled between the two candidates, and it was not televised.
Calvarese has invited Boebert to take part in another debate, to be televised, at the Buell Theatre, the same location where Boebert was kicked out of last year during a performance of the musical Beetlejuice for vaping, singing, taking flash photos and allegedly groping her date.
Boebert hasn’t committed to the second debate telling Denver7: “Apparently she’s feeling that she didn’t do very well if she’s already looking for a second.”
Boebert currently represents Colorado’s 3rd congressional district in the US House. But she switched to the more conservative 4th district amid a series of embarrassing scandals that threatened to end her political career.
