Representative Lauren Boebert said that Speaker Mike Johnson’s failed Continuing Resolution (CR) bill would “screw our country more times over than a Diddy freak off.”
Appearing on Steve Bannon‘s War Room podcast on Wednesday, the Colorado lawmaker expressed her frustrations with the stopgap funding measure, which included the controversial Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
“The SAVE Act is a great bill that would secure our elections from illegal aliens voting in there, require voter ID,” Boebert told host Mike Davis, who is filling in for Bannon while he serves a prison sentence.
“But this CR, this continuing resolution that we’re going to vote on today, it’s going to screw our country more times over than a Diddy freak off, so I am not voting for this,” Boebert said.
Rep. Lauren Boebert in Windsor, Colorado, on June 25, 2024. Boebert said that Speaker Mike Johnson’s failed Continuing Resolution (CR) bill would “screw our country more times over than a Diddy freak off.”
David Zalubowski/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“We’ve got to stop funding this chaos, this madness.”
Newsweek has contacted Boebert by email and Johnson by phone for comment.
Boebert’s comparison of Johnson‘s CR to a “Diddy freak off” referred to the recent allegations against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who has been charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Federal prosecutors have accused Combs of orchestrating extended sexual performances that the rapper called freak offs, involving drugs, coercion and commercial sex workers, often electronically recorded for his own purposes.
Boebert was one of 14 Republicans who voted against CR, which would have extended government funding for another six months and included the SAVE Act to require voter ID in federal elections.
The bill, which was rejected in a 202-220 vote, was an attempt to avoid a government shutdown before March 2025.
While Democrats opposed the bill for the inclusion of the SAVE Act, Boebert and other Republicans argued that it does not go far enough in curbing government spending.
“I’m tired of the rubber-stamping,” Boebert said in the podcast episode.
Fellow conservative Representatives Matt Gaetz and Nancy Mace were among those who also voted against the bill, echoing concerns about spending and government overreach.
Representative Thomas Massie went as far as calling Johnson’s proposal “insincere and unserious,” reflecting a broader tension within the Republican Party, as lawmakers on the right grapple with how to address both fiscal issues and controversial policies like voter ID requirements, while holding only a razor-thin majority in the House.
However, critics, including most Democrats, argue that the SAVE Act imposes unnecessary burdens on voters, given that noncitizens are already prohibited from voting in federal elections.
Nevertheless, former President Donald Trump has continued to push claims of widespread election fraud, encouraging Republicans to reject any CR that doesn’t include the SAVE Act in full.
