The Drama Between Lauren Boebert & Chasten Buttigieg, Explained

Lauren Boebert often finds herself at loggerheads with members of her own party, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that she's often in the crosshairs of her political rivals. The controversial congresswoman is known for speaking bluntly about some Democrats, but when she took on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for taking paternity leave in 2021, the latter's husband, Chasten Buttigieg, didn't leave it there.

While Pete was on paternity leave, Boebert took to her YouTube channel to complain about his absence during what she deemed an incredibly inconvenient time, given the national supply chain crisis the United States was facing at the time. "Mayor Pete was on a two-month maternity, paternity, whatever the heck you want to call it — leave. The guy was gone," Boebert said. "Because why? He was trying to figure out how to chest feed." She boasted that she gave birth to one of her kids in her truck, adding, "Ain't nobody got time for two and a half months of maternity leave."

Given her previous comments, it was rather ironic when Boebert took to X, formerly Twitter, the following year in a Father's Day post in which she declared, "The role of the father is absolutely fundamental to the family and to society as a whole." At this point, Chasten seemed to have had enough, and replied, "Our two-month-old son was on a ventilator at the children's hospital when you attacked my husband for being with his family. I watched him take calls and Zooms from our hospital room all day, managing crisis after crisis while our son's heart monitor beeped in the background." This wasn't the last time Chasten took Boebert on, and the two have continued to butt heads.

It seemed that criticizing his husband permanently put Lauren Boebert on Chasten Buttigieg's radar, and when the Colorado congresswoman took to X to condemn the tragic mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs in 2022, Chasten was quick to criticize her.

"The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful. This morning the victims & their families are in my prayers. This lawless violence needs to end and end quickly," Boebert wrote. In the comments, Chasten responded, "You encourage this type of hatred. Get off Twitter and start looking inward." Chasten was likely referring to Boebert's anti-LGBTQ+ messaging which often takes center stage on her social media accounts, as well as her stance on gun control. Just a few months prior to the shooting, Boebert took to X and wrote, "Sending a message to all the drag queens out there: stay away from the children in Colorado's Third District!"

Given her anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and the fact that Boebert is against gun control, her condolences to the victims of the club shooting rang quite hollow. Most in the comment section seemed to agree with Chasten's view. "How do you type with so much blood on your hands?" one person wrote. "What are you doing about it?" someone else questioned. "You are a walking ad for mass shootings, combined with hateful rhetoric that flames the fire," another weighed in, referring to a Christmas family portrait Boebert posted online of her and her kids holding rifles.