Lauren Boebert still eager to 'blow to smithereens' House metal detectors

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on Thursday hailed Republicans' removal of metal detectors from outside the House chamber, and bragged of her vow last year to blow them up.

"Was that a problem?" she asked sarcastically in an interview with right-winger Benny Johnson on "The Benny Show" podcast.

Boebert said that maybe she can still find the metal detectors in storage, drag them out and "make the American people happy, give them what they want," and blow the metal detectors "to smithereens."

The metal detectors were ordered installed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for protection after the siege of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when police were beaten with metal poles by rioters, who also hunted for lawmakers, and called for then-Vice President Mike Pence to be "hanged."

RELATED: Lauren Boebert explains her 'heated debate' with Marjorie Taylor Greene after ladies room spat

A number of Republicans, including Boebert and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) were fined — and criticized — when they blew past the metal detectors.

Boebert urged the wait staff at her now defunct Shooters Grill restaurant in Rifle, Colo., to pack heat while working. She has vowed in the past to carry her own personal Glock on the Hill and around Washington, D.C.

The House metal detectors were ordered removed in January by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

“When I arrived in Congress ... Nancy Pelosi put this hunk of garbage outside of the House chambers for members of Congress to go through,” Boebert said in a video in front of a metal detector as they were being taken down then.

Boebert also responded for the first time on "The Benny Show" to reactions to her tweeted meme of a map of the United States that omitted the states of Hawaii and Alaska (and Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands). She posted the meme to "show the only place my taxes should go" — which apparently don't include any place outside of the lower 48.

"Oh I forgot Alaska and Hawaii," she laughed on the podcast.

Johnson called the meme "A+."