During Tuesday evening’s State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden brought up the issue of U.S. military veterans who have been exposed to toxic materials that are destroyed in what are known as “burn pits” on forward bases in places such as Iraq and may be responsible for the brain cancer which killed his son, Beau:
“One of those soldiers was my son, Major Beau Biden. I don’t know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near was the cause of his brain cancer, and disease of so many other troops. But I am committed to find out everything we can.”
As the president was speaking, Colorado GOP Congresswoman Lauren Boebert stood and shouted, “13 of them!” Boebert was apparently making reference to the 13 service members who were killed in a bombing during the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan last year.
That heckling enraged many people, including U.S. Army veteran Eileen Rivers, who excoriated Boebert in an op-ed she wrote for USA Today, noting that while we should welcome political disagreement, “there is also something wrong with reducing what should be thoughtful political discourse – done at the right time with real information – to a shameful and antagonizing heckle.”
Rivers went on to add:
“The congresswoman’s comments about a 20-year war perpetuated by leaders in both parties were misleading and lacked context. She not only lowered discourse, she disrespected the office of the presidency. I am a veteran. I spent four years of my life in the Army as an Arabic linguist. I come from a family of veterans. And I am angry.”
Most importantly, Rivers says she wants to make it clear that Lauren Boebert — who has never served a day in any branch of the military — is not the right messenger for such a message:
“When she stifled the president, she was also stifling me. Surely others who have lost loved ones felt that, too.
“Boebert does not speak for me. And neither do other members of the GOP who reinforced her sentiments on social media.”
Lauren Boebert is a pustule on the U.S. Congress. She needs to be excised by the voters in November.
