Lauren Boebert

Speaking to a supportive crowd of over 11,000 people packed into an arena in Greeley on Friday, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she wanted to deliver a message to the city's Republican congressman, freshman Rep. Gabe Evans.

To no one’s surprise, House Republicans can’t seem to get their priorities in line. While some far-right Republicans are directing their attention to further punishing Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas—who was ejected from the chamber after dissenting during President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress—the GOP caucus should really turn its attention toward preventing a federal government shutdown.But leave it to the House Freedom Caucus to be too bogged down with scheming ways to show their fealty to Trump to work on averting a shutdown, which could furlough thousands of federal workers.Both chambers of Congress only have until midnight Friday to pass a funding bill, and House Republicans only released their 99-page measure to avert a shutdown this past Saturday. The bill, which would fund federal agencies through Sept. 30, would increase defense spending and cut non-defense discretionary spending.House Speaker Mike Johnson will bring the bill to the floor for a vote this week, likely on Tuesday, but we don’t know whether it will pass. Trump is publicly pressuring Republicans into voting for it, but Democrats will likely oppose it. At least one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, has already said he’d oppose the bill. And given the Republican’s razor-thin majority in the chamber, Johnson can’t afford to lose another GOP vote. Given this, one might think that Republicans would be working to whip up votes for the bill, but some of the more hardline caucus members have other priorities.Rep. Al Green, Democrat of Texas, dissents during President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025.According to Punchbowl News, Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, a member of the far-right House Freedom Conference, authored a bogus resolution calling Green’s actions “a breach of decorum” and suggesting that he “be removed from his committee assignments.”Removal from committee assignments is usually a punishment reserved for the worst of the worst. In 2021, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has a reputation for sharing baseless conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism, was stripped of her committee assignments after the discovery of her past statements endorsing the execution of Democrats, among other heinous things. Later that year, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, who made appearances at white nationalist events, also lost his assignments after he shared a violent animated video depicting him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.In comparison, this form of punishment is often used as petty retribution against Democrats. For example, Rep. Eric Swalwell and then-Rep. Adam Schiff, both of California, were booted from the House Intelligence Committee in 2023 as punishment for voting to eject Greene and Gosar from their committees and for their roles in the impeachment of Trump.Green’s worst offense is waving his cane in the air and declaring that Trump had “no mandate” to cut Medicaid, which he and other Republicans are pursuing to help pay for tax cuts for the rich. That’s not much different—or worse—than what happened in 2022 when Greene and fellow Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado relentlessly heckled former President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address. While Republicans certainly have a reputation for pettiness, there’s a sense that this new measure against Green won’t go anywhere. Johnson, for his part, reportedly thinks “that this measure should go away.”That’s probably because he’s more focused on appeasing Trump and avoiding a shutdown. It’d be a bad look for Johnson, Trump, and the GOP at large if the government shut down less than two months into his second term.The resolution against Green hasn’t formally been filed, but Republicans already feel like they won since they successfully censured him last week with the help of some traitorous Democrats.In any sense, the move to further punish Green and pass a bill through the chamber at breakneck speed shows how far Republicans will go to ensure that Dear Leader gets what he wants. But if anything, these moves don’t signify the GOP’s fealty to Trump so much as how truly terrified they are of him.Campaign Action

Republican lawmakers argue the Endangered Species Act was an overreach of federal authority.

The Colorado congresswoman also received a blunt reminder, or two.

Air Force fighter jets on Sunday intercepted a civilian aircraft flying in the temporarily restricted airspace near President Donald Trump’s Florida home.

'Essential to him delivering his agenda for the American people'

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was formally condemned by his peers for interrupting President Donald Trump on Tuesday

The House on Thursday censured Rep. Al Green, passing a resolution that said the Texas Democrat's protest at President Donald Trump's lie-filled congressional address this week "was a breach of proper conduct."Worse, 10 House Democrats joined 214 Republicans to vote to censure Green. Green and another Democrat, Rep. Shomari Figures of Alabama, voted present. (Four other Democrats did not vote.)Johnson ejected Green from Trump's Tuesday speech after he stood in the chamber and said Trump had "no mandate" to cut Medicaid—which Trump and Republicans are trying to do in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.xxYouTube VideoThe vote came amid chaos on the House floor, with Green and other Democrats singing “We Shall Overcome” as House Speaker Mike Johnson read the resolution. After that, Democrats shouted about the double standard given to Green, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wore a MAGA hat during Tuesday’s speech, which is not allowed on the House floor.xDemocrats stand with Al Green after a vote to censure him passes. Mike Johnson bangs the gavel as they start to sing.— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-03-06T15:43:49.255Z“Two Greens violated the House rules, and one gets punished,” Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri told The Daily Beast.Additionally, Green’s protests were no less disruptive than those of Reps. Greene and Lauren Boebert during former President Joe Biden's State of the Union address in 2022. Both women repeatedly heckled Biden, standing and yelling as Biden was about to speak about his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.xxYouTube VideoBut neither was ejected from the chamber, as Johnson did to Green on Tuesday night."I saw the gentlelady from Georgia heckle the last president and have a whole heckling section there,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said Wednesday night during debate on the censure resolution. “We didn't try to censure them or kick them out of Congress or anything. We actually not only say we believe in free speech, we believe in free speech.”That's why it's preposterous that 10 House Democrats would vote to censure Green for standing up to Trump in the chamber.Just three of the 10 Democrats who voted to censure Green come from districts Trump carried in 2024—Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, and Tom Suozzi of New York.Suozzi said he thought Green’s protest was “inappropriate.”“I’m an old-school traditional type guy, I think we should be treating the president with deference,” Suozzi said.The rest come from districts Harris won in 2024, including Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Laura Gillen of New York, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Jared Moskowitz of Florida.The censure resolution was spearheaded by Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington, who had been in Trump’s crosshairs after he voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025.The censure resolution could be Newhouse’s way of getting back in Trump’s good graces, as Trump was enraged by Green’s protest.“The Democrats should lose the Midterms based on their behavior at last night’s Joint Address to Congress,” Trump wrote in a Wednesday Truth Social post, adding that he believed Democratic protests are the path to helping the GOP win in the 2026 midterms. “This could be, on analyzing the full tape of this Historic Event, your full CAMPAIGN TO VICTORY!” Trump added. “In other words, Republicans can take what happened last night, and win any Race in the Country. Good Luck!!!”Color us skeptical that mild Democratic protests at a speech nearly two years before the midterm elections will have any impact at all on the outcome.Green, for his part, said he has no regrets about his conduct."I think that on some questions, questions of conscience, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences. And I have said I will. I will suffer whatever the consequences are because I don't believe that in the richest country in the world, people should be without good health care,” Green said in a speech on the House floor. “I stood up for my constituents then. I'm standing up for them now. ... I would do it again.”Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

The House on Thursday voted to censure an unrepentant Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, for disrupting President Donald Trump's address to Congress.

A day after President Donald Trump gave his the first formal address to Congress of his second term, Colorado Springs U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank backed and defended Trump's policy decisions during an inaugural virtual town hall meeting.

A Washington congressman has introduced a resolution to censure Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas for standing up and protesting during Donald Trump’s long-winded speech to Congress on Tuesday night.Dan Newhouse, one of only two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, beat the far-right Freedom Caucus and Troy Nehls of Texas to the punch after they announced plans to push for Green’s censure. Newhouse introduced his resolution as "privileged," which requires the House to vote on the resolution within two days.“Whereas, the conduct of the Representative from Texas disrupted the proceedings of the joint address and was a breach of proper conduct;” the resolution reads. “[A]nd whereas, after numerous disruptions the representative from Texas had to be removed from the chamber by the Sergeant-at-arms; Now, therefore, be it resolved that Representative Al Green be censured.”Rep. Al Green disrupted Donald Trump’s addresses a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025. Green stood up and shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicaid” after Trump boasted about his nonexistent electoral mandate. Strangely enough, Newhouse and his fellow Republicans had nothing to say about the crass theatrics during former President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in 2022, when GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia stood up and heckled with glee. You might even remember the “proper conduct” of Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who shouted “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress in 2009. Speaking of “proper,” it bears mentioning that Congress revised its 181-year-old hat ban in 2018 to allow religious headwear and head coverings worn for medical reasons. That didn’t stop notorious troll Marjorie Taylor Greene from sporting a MAGA-inspired red cap during Tuesday night’s snoozefest. So unless Greene claims she needs to wear the hat because her conspiracy-filled brain is a medical condition—she violated the rules of the chamber, too.“The president said he had a mandate, and I was making it clear to the president that he has no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Green told reporters in the hallway after his protest. “I have people who are very fearful. These are poor people, and they have only Medicaid in their lives when it comes to their health care.”“I've said, I'll accept the punishment,” he added. “But it's worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president's desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.” xxYouTube VideoJust two minutes after Green was removed from the chamber for speaking out, Trump made an ironic claim.“I’ve brought back free speech,” he crowed.Green’s protest and subsequent removal were impactful in comparison to other Democrats’ choices to hold up signs and wear pink suits. He garnered the most headlines and once again exposed Republicans’ utter hypocrisy. Campaign Action

For a brief period, while the rest of the government is gathered together, a designated survivor is kept away to ensure someone in the line of succession stays alive.

As congressional Republicans look to slash government spending by more than $1 trillion, Colorado health care and political leaders are ringing the alarm over what that could mean for Medicaid in the state.

This might all be nothing, but it sounds like it could be something.

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based Western Energy Alliance, has been nominated to lead the Bureau of Land Management.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday named Kathleen Sgamma, the longtime president of a Colorado-based oil and gas advocacy organization, to head the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that manages federal lands and oversees the federal government's fossil fuel leasing...

Arizona Republican Karrin Taylor Robson launched her comeback gubernatorial bid on Wednesday, setting up a likely showdown between her and another pro-Trump Republican running.

'I will burn this system to the ground'

The lawmaker aired her claims on the House floor, speaking of "some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable."

"Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." — James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822

The Democratic National Committee won't have former two-time Colorado congressional candidate Adam Frisch around to nudge party leadership toward a conversation he says Democrats need to have if its candidates hope to win back power nationally and in the country's...

The congresswoman compared herself to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert in a fierce takedown of the new regime.

Politicians in Russia have lined up to applaud the decision to freeze the aid agency's work and potentially combine it with the State Department

It took just over an hour and a half for the Colorado Republican Party's state central committee to decide it wasn't going to conduct any business on Thursday night.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, Republican of Colorado, seemed to suggest that the national minimum wage should be lowered, claiming that the high teenage unemployment rate is due to it being too expensive for companies to hire young people.Boebert made the comment in response to a tweet from Rep. Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky.“No taxes on workers under 18 yrs old. I love it because: 1. They need experience to pick a college major. 2. They need to develop a work ethic. 3. The economy needs more workers. 4. They don’t get to vote,” Massie said.Boebert replied, "So many of our youth have lost the opportunity to enter the workforce due to high minimum wage requirements,” she wrote. “High taxes, insurance, and paid leave requirements are a few of many issues as well. Small business owners are unable to invest in first-time workers or provide them with skills training for their future."xSo many of our youth have lost the opportunity to enter the workforce due to high minimum wage requirements. High taxes, insurance, and paid leave requirements are a few of many issues as well. Small business owners are unable to invest in first-time workers or provide them...— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) January 26, 2025The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 an hour since 2009. If someone worked 40 hours a week for all 52 weeks in the year and took no days off, they would only earn $15,080—a salary below the poverty line and impossible for anyone to live on. In Boebert's state of Colorado, the minimum wage is $14.81.Boebert has long argued that the minimum wage is too high.In 2022, she claimed that a higher minimum wage would have prevented her from getting her first job at McDonald’s when she was 15 years old.xLauren Boebert says raising the minimum wage “robs” young people and stops businesses wanting to “invest” in them. pic.twitter.com/O29375PzLn— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) August 9, 2022Opposing a livable minimum wage is bad politics, as polling shows that voters overwhelmingly believe that the federal minimum wage is too low and should be raised.A Data for Progress poll from April 2024 found that 86% of voters believe the federal minimum wage should be increased. That number is nearly identical between Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Similarly, Civiqs’ poll on minimum wage found that just 5% of voters believe the federal minimum wage should be lower than $7.25 an hour, as Boebert seems to suggest. But a number of Republicans, including President Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent, are against increasing the federal minimum wage.Bessent, a billionaire hedge fund manager, said during his confirmation hearing that he doesn’t think it’s time to increase the federal minimum wage.“I believe that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue,” he said.While it is true that the unemployment rate is the highest for workers between the ages of 16 and 17, it isn't because the minimum wage is too high.Rather, it's because the labor force participation rate is currently higher, and older workers with more experience and skills are getting jobs over inexperienced youth, according to an S&P Global report.But that fact doesn’t seem to matter to Boebert.Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

Rep. Thomas Massie said a Boy Scout suggested a policy of no taxes for workers under 18. The congressman indicated that he loves the proposal.

President Trump’s decision to pardon hundreds of protesters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — including many accused of assaulting police officers — is dividing House Republicans, with some lawmakers touting the day-one decree and others criticizing it as ill-advised. Trump’s blanket pardon for roughly 1,500 rioters in the hours after he was [...]

Donald Trump and his GOP defenders are trying to rewrite history of the violent and deadly insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, all in an effort to inoculate Trump from criticism after he pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists, including hundreds who violently assaulted law enforcement officers.In an interview with Fox News sycophant Sean Hannity that aired Wednesday night, Trump defended his unpopular pardons by falsely declaring that the law enforcement assaults "were very minor incidents."xTrump on January 6 insurrectionists who assaulted police: "They were very minor incidents."— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-01-23T02:48:57.376ZAlso on Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson announced the creation of a new committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack, giving Republicans an avenue to spread disinformation about who was responsible despite it being Trump's fault.“We are establishing this select subcommittee to continue our efforts to uncover the full truth that is owed to the American people,” Johnson said in a statement, as if we don't have hours of video tape showing what happened and hours of interviews with witnesses who say Trump is to blame. CNN reported that it is Trump himself who asked for the committee, so it's no surprise that lap dog Johnson acquiesced to Dear Leader's command.Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, went to the jail in Washington, D.C., where many of the violent offenders were being held and declared she wanted to be the first to give them a tour of the Capitol they had defiled four years earlier.Right-wing white supremacist Stewart RhodesOne of the men released from that prison has already been rearrested on gun charges. Great going, guys! So much for making the streets safer.Right-wing white supremacist Stewart Rhodes, whose sentence Trump commuted, was also already seen at the Capitol on Wednesday, and met with Florida GOP Rep. Gus Bilirakis. Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 18 years in prison, was caught on tape after the insurrection saying, "My only regret is they should have brought rifles. We should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I'd hang fucking Pelosi from the lamppost."“I think it’s new and interesting that they’re using the front door this time,” Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, a member of the now-defunct committee that probed the Jan. 6 attack, told The Associated Press.Judges who oversaw the trials of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists are aghast at Trump's pardons, issuing blistering statements decrying the decision.Judge Tanya Chutkan, who oversaw Trump’s federal case on his effort to steal the 2020 election, wrote in a decision dismissing the case against one of the insurrectionists that Trump’s pardons “cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.”The Fraternal Order of Police, the union that endorsed Trump’s reelection bid, also slammed Trump’s move, saying in a statement that the union “firmly believe[s] that those convicted of such crimes should serve their full sentences.” If only they had a hint ahead of time that Trump was going to pardon violent cop assaulters. But few Republicans are speaking out, and are instead either playing dumb or playing a ridiculous whataboutism game to avoid having to criticize Trump's vile decision."We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forwards,” Johnson said on Wednesday, adding that he wasn’t going to “second guess” Trump’s pardons—as if his job doesn’t include oversight of the executive.But it sure doesn’t seem like launching a committee to reopen the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack in order to try to convince Americans that they didn’t see what they saw is a forward-looking move. Thank you to the Daily Kos community who continues to fight so hard with Daily Kos. Your reader support means everything. We will continue to have you covered and keep you informed, so please donate just $3 to help support the work we do.

Denver TV news anchor Kyle Clark had a particularly blistering response.

Three Republican members of Colorado's congressional delegation are calling on Gov. Jared Polis to match his rhetoric with actions when it comes to state cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Colorado's Republican House caucus in Washington and Republicans at the state Capitol in Denver are seeing eye-to-eye on the news that Canadian wolves were brought into the state over the weekend, and all were critical of the latest relocation efforts.

Thanks to one and all who have read my columns over the past 12 months. Next year promises to be a rough ride for democracy, so let’s hang in there and make the best of it.

More than 30 House Republicans voted against the government funding bill to avert a shutdown on Friday night. The legislation cleared the lower chamber with a 366-34-1 vote, surpassing the two-thirds requirement needed as the Republican House leadership brought it up under the suspension of the rules process. Every member of the Democratic caucus, outside [...]

As the deadline to avoid a government shutdown nears, a senior House Republican said the GOP is still "looking at different options."

If a bill isn't passed by midnight, non-essential work in the federal government will shut down, and essential workers will go unpaid until funding is approved.

Donald Trump insists that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal

Donald Trump insists that a debt ceiling increase be included in any deal.

Greene declared her latest conspiracy theory in a post to X, where it was hit with a corrective community note

Welcome to Briefly, Colorado Politics' daily news briefing. Here's what's happening today:

WASHINGTON – LSU's Baton Rouge campus and the St. Charles Parish community of Montz are set to get a single zip code if the U.S. Senate takes up legislation the House approved on a voice vote Wednesday.

A report by the Congressional Budget Office indicates these unauthorized programs received $516 billion in funding for fiscal year 2024.

Reps. Burgess Owens of Utah, left, and Tim Walberg of Michigan are seeking the chairmanship of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photos)

The assistant energy secretary refuted the significance of the claim, saying the decision to pause LNG was based on multiple reports.

Colorado U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert broke new ground over the weekend when she became the first sitting member of Congress to offer personalized messages on Cameo. But her profile was inactive by early Monday evening.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) briefly offered videos on Cameo, a website on which public figures sell personalized videos to fans, before the page went offline amid questions about whether it would have violated House ethics rules. An introductory video from Boebert was visible on Cameo as of Monday morning, and a screenshot posted by a [...]

Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., plans to introduce a measure to abolish the ATF which then-Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., previously introduced in 2023.

A post made on X claims that President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former HUD secretary Ben Carson as U.S. Surgeon General. 🚨BREAKING: President Trump expected to pick Ben Carson as the nation’s top doctor, the U.S. Surgeon General. — Trent Leisy (@realTrentLeisy) November 17, 2024 Verdict: Misleading Carson has already announced that he will not be serving [...]

There is no evidence to suggest anyone has been chosen for the position at the time of writing.

Colorado Republican Gabe Evans accomplished something rare last week when he unseated the congressional incumbent in the state's newest district, flipping the seat two years after its creation while putting the GOP one member closer to keeping its slim majority...