Repeating a story from anonymous sources quoted in conservative media, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert falsely asserted Friday that Democrats are funding “crack pipes.”
The strange accusation was fact-checked as “false” by journalists after it was leveled by other Republicans.
Yet, Boebert repeated the falsehood Friday.
“Many other Democrats have backtracked on these terrible policies like defunding the police. They even are starting to backtrack from funding crack pipes,” Boebert said in a Feb. 11 appearance on KHOW’s Dan Caplis Show.
The confusion stems from a Feb. 7 article published by the Washington Free Beacon. Citing an anonymous spokesman from the Department of Health and Human Services, the conservative news outlet wrote that a program backed by the Biden administration “will provide pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and ‘any illicit substance.'”
…While some of the money from the Biden administration’s grant program is tabbed for supplies like sterile syringes and “safe smoking kits,” officials say distributing or funding crack pipes aren’t part of the program. Both the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services have said crack pipes were never part of the plan.
“The Biden-Harris administration has never authorized the use of federal funding for smoke pipes and will not in the future,” Sarah Lovenheim, the agency’s assistant secretary for public affairs, told USA TODAY in an email.
Boebert also said Democrats were backtracking on mask-wearing, falsely implying that Democrats said science “never changes.”
“You know masks? Those are getting ready to be gone all throughout America because the undeniable irrefutable science that never changes has changed,” said Boebert with a laugh.
The first-term Congresswoman has a history of false statements, including those about QAnon, Black Lives Matter, elections, Obamacare, and more.
Listen to Boebert on KHOW Feb. 11 here:
