Tenn. Congressman says he saw Rep. Boebert usher a group on a Capitol tour in days before insurrection

The accusations that one or more Republican members of Congress may have given tours of the Capitol building in advance of its invasion by hordes of rioting supporters of Donald Trump have been circulating since shortly after the domestic terrorists were cleared from the building.

While the idea that the violent demonstrators — some of whom erected gallows on the Capitol grounds and carried zip-ties with them presumably to capture and detain any member of Congress who disagreed with their contention that the election was stolen from Trump — may have had inside help in familiarizing themselves with the layout of the building they were about to smash their way into is shocking and indefensible, few Democrats have been willing to name names when it comes to whom they suspected may have been in on the plans.

This morning, Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN) became among the first to point a finger at a specific colleague in the House of Representatives whom he says he saw giving a tour of the Capitol to a group of unidentified people at a time when regulations prohibited them.

“Congressman Yarmuth refreshed my recollection yesterday,” Cohen said on CNN. “We saw congressman Boebert taking a group of people for a tour sometime after the 3rd and before the 6th. I don’t remember the date, [but] we were walking in a tunnel. We saw her and commented who she was, and she had a large group with her,” he remembered.

The Tennessee legislator’s statement is significant, given that the gun-toting, QAnon-believing congresswoman from Colorado has already vehemently denied having given any such tour when Congressman Sean Maloney (D-NY) merely implied that she could have been the member of the House whom he could confirm had given a tour to a group of insurrectionists.

Congresswoman Boebert’s firey reply to Rep. Maloney bristled at the allegations being made against her.

“Yesterday, on national television, Congressman Sean Maloney made false and baseless conspiracy claims about me that led to death threats and hundreds of vile phone calls and emails. His comments were extremely offensive, shameful and dangerous. There was not an ounce of truth to anything he claimed about me. His allegations are an embarrassment to the House of Representatives and he should correct his false assertions on the record as soon as possible,” Boebert said in an official press release.

“All of Rep. Maloney’s implications are categorically false. Congresswoman Boebert complies with all applicable firearm laws and regulations. Rep. Boebert did not conspire with criminals that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. Congresswoman Boebert never gave a tour of the U.S. Capitol to any outside group or ‘insurrectionists.’ In fact, the only people she ever had in the Capitol with her were her young children, husband, mom, aunt and uncle. Her mother was the only one of those family members in Washington D.C. on the 6th. During the riots, the Congresswoman’s mother was locked in a secure location, not in the U.S. Capitol, with her staff and never left their sight,” the press release goes on to say.

While Congressman Cohen can positively swear that he saw his rebellious GOP colleague giving a tour of the Capitol Building, he could not make any positive identification of any of her tour guests as people who were actively involved in the insurrection and invasion, since he simply noted their presence in passing before any of the violent events of January 6th took place.

Still, the cognitive dissonance between the testimony of Representatives Cohen and Yarmouth that they saw Boebert giving a tour to a group of people and the congresswoman’s own fervent denials raises questions about just where the truth lies.

You can watch a clip of Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen on CNN discussing his eyewitness account of seeing Rep. Boebert in the days before the insurrection in the excerpt below.

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Original reporting by Travis Gettys at RawStory.

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Vinnie Longobardo

is the Managing Editor of Washington Press and a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile, & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.