Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) caused another problem for the Republican Party by heckling President Joe Biden during the State of the Union Address on Tuesday night. Now a US Army veteran is condemning her and the GOP.

Biden delivered the kind of address that we have not heard since 2016 when former President Obama was in office. Donald Trump’s address in 2020 was so ridiculously laden with lies and propaganda that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped a copy of it in half after he finished. However, Huse Democrats did not outright heckle or interrupt Trump the way Boebert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) repeatedly did.

As Biden spoke about combating cancer among veterans who served near burn pits, including his own son Beau who tragically passed away in 2015 due to brain cancer at the age of 46, Boebert screamed at Biden and drew a backlash of boos in the process. The blatant disrespectful outburst is something that should have resulted in Boebert being removed from the chamber and she should face serious consequences for it.

She not only disrespected Biden, but she also violated House etiquette and insulted our men and women in uniform and every family who has ever lost a service member.

US Army veteran Eileen Rivers wrote an op-ed for USA Today blasting Boebert and the GOP over the incident.

“In America, we welcome political disagreement,” Rivers wrote. “We’re working to protect Ukraine from Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man whose country jails protesters and poisons political dissidents. We stand united in our belief that Putin’s autocratic leadership is wrong. But 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.”

“The congresswoman’s comments about a 20-year war perpetuated by leaders in both parties were misleading and lacked context,” Rivers continued. “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.”

“When she stifled the president, she was also stifling me,” Rivers concluded. “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.”

Indeed, the GOP cannot afford to lose the votes of veterans and active members of the military. So, it’s outrageous that they would allow her outburst to go unpunished. Frankly, Republican leaders should have muzzled her and Greene prior to the address or barred them from attending. Had a Democrat heckled a Republican president, you can bet they would have thrown a fit about disrespect. The problem is that Republicans don’t care about this country, our veterans, or respect unless it’s their guy. They only care about their own power and agenda. They are the ones dividing this nation.

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