Lauren Boebert Still Hasn’t Deleted Tweet Defending Kanye

In the wake of Kanye West’s horrific media tour spouting love for Hitler, denying the Holocaust, and preaching naked antisemitism, many far-right members of the GOP are scrubbing their social media feeds of past praise for the rapper. A notable exception to that trend is Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) who has preserved her praise of the artist now known as Ye.

The Republican Party has little celebrity outside of hoary rockers like Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, and Lee Greenwood, so it wasn’t surprising when GOP figures hyped Ye after he riled Paris Fashion Week in early October by wearing a “White Lives Matter” sweatshirt, accompanied by the MAGA troll Candace Owens.

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That stunt, and Ye’s defense of it on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, drew cheers from GOP Twitter accounts — including the account of the GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee, controlled by Rep. Jim Jordan (R. Ohio), which tweeted love for a trio of then-heroes: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” Other far-right Republicans got in on the act, including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who tweeted: “Pray for Kanye West. They will throw everything they have at him simply for speaking the truth.”

Both of those tweets were deleted after Ye touted his love for Hitler on Alex Jones’ InfoWars, an appearance that came just days after he brought Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes to dinner with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

Boebert, however, has left standing a tweet that has aged like heavy cream in August. When MSNBC shared an Oct. 7 opinion piece, warning that Ye seemed determined to stake out “a legacy as a racist hatemonger,” Boebert leapt to his defense. She pronounced such criticism “pathetic” and praised Ye’s eloquence. “Since he spoke out against the ‘godless agenda’ that the media is pushing,” Boebert wrote, “they now pull out the old ‘hatemonger’ attack.”

The tweet followed a shoutout Boebert gave Ye on the day of his interview with Carlson. The rapper’s fiery proclamations of Christian faith clearly struck a chord with the lawmaker, who wrote “amen” to Ye saying he only performs for God.

Boebert’s office did not immediately respond to questions about why she hasn’t deleted her praise for Ye, even as the artist — and supposed 2024 presidential candidate — has become radioactive as one of the most prominent hatemongers in the country. Boebert previously denounced Ye’s new sidekick — the Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes — in a February interview with Politico, insisting: “I do not support white supremacists, like Nick Fuentes, period.”

Ye and the lawmaker do appear to share an ideology of Christian nationalism. Boebert is notorious for insisting at a religious service in Colorado in June that she’s “tired of this separation of church and state junk,” elaborating that the Christian “church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church.”

While Ye’s hateful comments towards Jews have rightfully grabbed headlines, he has also dropped sweeping pronouncements about the role of Jesus in public life. In his interview this week with Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes — in which Ye called on Jews to “forgive Hitler” — the rapper also insisted that non-Christians should have no role in shaping American public life:

Boebert, normally extremely outspoken, has been unusually quiet since the midterms. Despite serving in what should have been a “safe” Republican district, Boebert found herself in one of the tightest elections of 2022, eking out an unofficial victory by just a few hundred votes. While the Democrat, Adam Frisch, had conceded, the race has still not been called. It is currently undergoing a state-mandated recount.

If the Boebert clarifies her stance on Ye, or her tweets in his defense, this story will be updated.

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