"Want to talk about the theater thing?": Boebert fumbles debate question about "Beetlejuice" affair

Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert, attempting to escape voters from Colorado's 3rd district who nearly voted her out in 2022, is vying for her party's nomination in the adjacent 4th district instead. But the conservative firebrand still can't seem to escape her notorious 2023 incident at a "Beetlejuice" performance, when she and a date were kicked out for unruly behavior, The Daily Beast reports.

“Do you want to talk about the theater thing?” asked KUSA’s Kyle Clark, moderating a debate last Thursday between her and her much less famous Republican primary opponents.

“Uh, sure,” Boebert responded. “So, Kyle, I — I certainly have owned out, uh, I owned up to my night out in Denver.”

The alleged claim of responsibility to which Boebert was referring was a tweet in which she sarcastically pleaded "guilty to laughing and singing too loud," while denying that she committed any other transgressions of theater etiquette. Boebert was forced to backtrack from her initial downplaying of the incident after the local NBC affiliated obtained and published the theater's surveillance footage of her vaping, taking selfies with her camera's flash on, engaging in a grope-fest with her date and giving an usher the middle finger on her way out.

"Um," Boebert continued at the debate, “and you know I — I’ve gone on that public apology tour and I’m grateful for the mercy and grace that has been shown. But I’m — I’m not going to continue to live life in shame and, um, be beat up by this. And, you know, I would like to go back to my record.”

But Clark wouldn't let her off easily.

“I just want to make sure. Did you apologize for the behavior that went on with you and your date?” he asked, bulling over her attempts to interrupt him. “Or — pardon me — or did you apologize for lying to voters about what you did that night and the disrespect you showed to service workers that night? What specifically were you apologizing for?”

Boebert, clearly flustered and attempting to feel for an opening to attack, denied that she flipped off the usher and accused the media of taking her behavior "out of context." She then tried to suggest that Clark was hypocritical for once saying "how disgusting it is to record someone without their knowledge" in a podcast interview.

As Boebert continued to ramble, Clark decided to honor Boebert's wishes to move on to her legislative record and turned to the other candidates, who happily piled on.

The experience of last Thursday's debate was apparently too much for the embattled congresswoman. She decided not to show up for the next debate, which took place 48 hours later, leaving her opponents to take figurative shots at an empty podium.