{"id":43349,"date":"2021-12-08T19:47:57","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T02:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boebert-challenger-calls-on-congresswoman-to-resign-over-islamophobic-comments\/"},"modified":"2021-12-09T02:47:57","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T02:47:57","slug":"boebert-challenger-calls-on-congresswoman-to-resign-over-islamophobic-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/boebert-challenger-calls-on-congresswoman-to-resign-over-islamophobic-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Boebert challenger calls on congresswoman to resign over Islamophobic comments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado state Rep. Donald Valdez, D-La Jara, is pictured in the House during the first day of Colorado&#x2019;s 73rd legislative session at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver on Jan. 13.<\/span>Andy Colwell\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Democratic candidate for Colorado\u2019s 3rd Congressional District and state Rep. Donald Valdez called on Rep. Lauren Boebert to resign, after her suggestion over a Thanksgiving visit home<\/a> that a Muslim colleague in Congress could be a suicide bomber.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of taking the opportunity to speak on legislation she is putting forth to help her constituents, she went on a bigoted, anti-Islamic rant against Congresswoman Omar,\u201d Valdez said at a Tuesday morning news conference in Pueblo.<\/p>\n

A video posted on Twitter<\/a> at the end of November shows Boebert suggesting that if Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., wore a backpack, Capitol police would suspect her of being a suicide bomber.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis latest stunt is just another chapter in a long book of disqualifying actions,\u201d Valdez said. \u201cShe is unfit to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Valdez coupled his call for Boebert\u2019s resignation with comments about her lack of engagement on issues that affect rural Colorado, such as infrastructure, broadband access and climate change mitigation. Boebert voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was recently signed into law and will infuse billions of dollars into the state\u2019s roads, bridges and water infrastructure.<\/p>\n

He said that she is more concerned with her own celebrity than the issues that rural Coloradans in the district face.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have no interest in solving problems. When you resign, you can do whatever the hell you want,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as a leader and representative in the U.S. Congress, one must represent the people of their congressional districts \u2013 our farmers and ranchers, our teachers, our doctors, our nurses, our small business owners, but more importantly the next generation who desperately need our help to continue to survive every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boebert did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Valdez is in a crowded field of Democratic candidates running to unseat Boebert next November. He is the only candidate so far to explicitly and publicly call for her resignation after her comments about Omar, though many of his competitors have denounced Boebert\u2019s rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Sol Sandoval, another Democratic 3rd District candidate from Pueblo, told The Pueblo Chieftain<\/em><\/a> that it is \u201creally heartbreaking to witness someone who is supposed to be representing us, someone who is supposed to be unifying the district have such hateful and divisive speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colin Wilhelm, a Democratic candidate for the 3rd District from Glenwood Springs, sent a letter to Omar<\/a> apologizing for Boebert\u2019s behavior, writing that her remarks do not \u201creflect the views or beliefs of the vast majority of western and southern Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018This latest stunt is just another chapter in a long book of disqualifying actions\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[981,28,1126],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-3rd-congressional-district","tag-headlines","tag-politics-general"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43349"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}