Lauren Boebert Blasted For Mocking Afghans Trying to Flee Taliban Rule

GOP congresswoman Lauren Boebert has been criticized for appearing to express support for the Taliban and also mocking footage showing several Afghans clinging to a U.S. military plane on Monday.

Boebert has been a vocal critic of President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan in a move that has seen Taliban insurgents seize control of much of the country over the past week.

However, her latest tweets have not sat well with many on social media, who were quick to take the freshman Representative to task over her choice of words.

The controversy began when the Colorado Republican tweeted: "The Taliban are the only people building back better," in apparent reference to Biden's economic recovery plan for the U.S.

Boebert's remark drew widespread anger and derision on Twitter.

Fred Wellman, a retired army officer and the executive director of the Lincoln Project, wrote: "The Taliban murdered over 2,448 US military members and you just spit on their graves you sick, twisted, malignant, rotten woman. You think this is clever? A gotcha of the "libs"? Our enemies aren't a punchline for your tweets. We will never forget your traitorous bulls***."

Fellow US Army veteran David Weissman was similarly scathing in his response, writing: "I'm not surprised that someone who helped coordinate the January 6th insurrection would be on the same side as the Taliban."

California congressman Eric Salwell echoed those remarks, commenting: "Makes sense. You tried to overthrow the US government so of course you support the overthrow of the Afghan government."

Statista graphic on how Afghanistan deteriorated.

VoteVets, an organization helping elect veterans to office under a mandate of progressive values, also slammed the tweet, writing "Delete your account."

Molly Jong-Fast, the editor of The Daily Beast, commented: "I can't believe you serve in congress," while former NBA star Rex Chapman branded Boebert a "traitor."

Several other users also unearthed some of Boebert's previous tweets calling for the U.S. to "end the endless wars" in regions like Afghanistan.

Despite the initial backlash, Boebert returned to Twitter, undaunted, to share a widely circulated video of a U.S. aircraft taking off with many Afghans clinging to the outside of the aircraft.

Several of the people filmed in the video later died after falling from the plane.

Sharing the video on Twitter, Boebert captioned the clip with an apparent joke: "At least they won't have to read 'mean tweets'..."

Boebert's comments drew a similarly furious response on Twitter, with the congresswoman criticized for showing a lack of compassion or empathy for the people shown in the video.

Some were also quick to note that Boebert was one of 16 members of Congress who on July 22 voted against evacuating the Afghan interpreters and their families who helped the U.S. during the conflict.

Boebert has so far failed to address the criticisms.

Newsweek has reached out to the congressperson for comment.

Updated 8/17/2021 10:43 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include a Newsweek/Statista chart, "How Afghanistan Deteriorated."