Republican Representative Lauren Boebert got into an online spat with a journalist over a recent video about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at U.S. airports.
The Trump administration deployed ICE agents to more than a dozen airports this week amid the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which has led to TSA staffing shortages and long security lines nationwide.
Boebert posted a video on Monday celebrating the move.
“So, President Trump sends ICE agents to the airports across the country, and while the rest of our country has three-plus-hour waits — thanks Democrats — Minneapolis airport’s TSA wait time right now is less than five minutes,” Boebert said in the video. “Called it.”
She captioned the clip: “You can’t make this stuff up!! ICE agents show up at airports, and suddenly TSA wait times in Minneapolis drop to less than five minutes! Called it!!”
Billy Binion, a reporter for Reason magazine, called out Boebert’s post on X.
“‘You can’t make this stuff up!!’ is a funny way to start this because Lauren Boebert did, in fact, make this stuff up,” he wrote. “ICE agents are not at the Minneapolis airport, where TSA lines have been consistently quick. We are living in an episode of Veep.”
A list of the impacted airports published Monday by CNN did not include the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. According to FOX 9, there also weren’t any signs of ICE agents at the airport on Monday morning. The Independent has contacted the DHS for more information.
Boebert responded to the journalist’s post on Tuesday, writing, “I never said they were? Keep trying, tho.”
“‘ICE agents show up at airports, and suddenly TSA wait times in Minneapolis drop to less than five minutes!’ Once again: ICE agents aren’t in Minneapolis, where wait times were always brief,” Binion replied. “They didn’t drop. Read your own post back to yourself slowly.”
“It’s not your fault. Our schools failed you,” Boebert wrote a few minutes later.
Binion then called the exchange “embarrassing.”
“I know we’re desensitized to this, but it’s still deeply unserious that many sitting members of Congress spend their taxpayer-funded salaries chasing attention on social media and lobbing juvenile insults at strangers,” he wrote.
Others shared similar reactions to Boebert’s video, including Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar.
“You just made this stuff up,” she wrote on X. “ICE agents have not been deployed into Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Our airport security wait times are normally quick and have been throughout the Republican shutdown. Insanity.”
CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski also called out Boebert’s post: “She did make it up.”
“What, exactly, did I make up, Andrew? Please be specific,” the lawmaker replied.
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