Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has a surprising theory about why Republicans lost the midterms, and she laughed off the most obvious fix.
In an exclusive video recorded Tuesday, Boebert scoffed when a reporter asked whether the party needs to moderate. "No, we're definitely moderate enough," she said. Pressed on whether she believed Republicans lost because they were too moderate, she didn't back down.
"I always think that we're too moderate," Boebert told Raw Story.
She began by spreading the blame around. "I think we hurt ourselves in a lot of ways," Boebert said. "A lot of it was messaging. A lot of it was us not passing good enough legislation. A lot of it was the Senate. So there's a lot of variables here."
When a reporter pointed out that Republicans "lost from Kansas to Texas," Boebert argued the defeats cut across the party's ideological lines.
"There's a lot of different types of Republicans that lost," she said. "You've got a lot of older conservatives, and you've got the Fitzpatricks and the Lawlers."
Boebert was referring to Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), two of the best-known moderates in the House GOP conference. Rather than treat those losses as a reason to change course, she insisted the problem ran the other way.
The conversation then turned to foreign policy. Asked whether Republicans had been too moderate on Iran, Boebert let out a small laugh before answering.
"I was very frustrated with the war," she said.
Boebert offered little in the way of an agenda for the weeks ahead. Asked what her priority would be with six weeks left, she set a modest bar.
"I would love to just pass a decent bill," Boebert said.
The remark echoed one of the explanations she gave at the top of the exchange, when she acknowledged that Republicans had not passed "good enough legislation" before voters went to the polls.