Former Colorado gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis acknowledges that Congresswoman Lauren Boebert messed up in the Buell Theater, where she vaped near a pregnant woman, flipped off staff, and carried on with her date to the pleasure of comedians worldwide.
But McInnis, whose demise in the 2010 Colorado Republican primary put Democratic control of Colorado into an unexpected high gear, thinks Democrats get a pass when they “sin,” like he says Boebert did at the Sept. 10 performance of “Beetlejuice” at the Buell Theater.
“There’s a clear, strong bias by the national media,” McInnis told Colorado Sun columnist and podcaster Craig Silverman Oct. 6. “There are exceptions, of course, the Wall Street Journal, etc., etc. But there’s a strong bias towards who can sin and who cannot sin. It’s not a judicial system that’s theoretically supposed to be fair at all. The Lauren Boebert situation is exactly the same. She messes up in the theater. That gets all kinds of stuff. The guy that ran against her has a problem with when he was on city council, an alleged bribe or whatever.”
McInnis is implying that the media should have given equal treatment to the allegations that Boebert’s 2020 Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch, had an affair and was blackmailed over it.
The trouble with this comparison is, the allegations were never proven and were denied by Frisch. A review by credible news outlets showed the evidence to be nonexistent or circumstantial. Conversely, the video of Boebert in the theater was arguably too clear, leading the Congresswoman to admit to her behavior in the theater, including vaping, and taking steps toward a public apology.
McInnis didn’t say if he thought the news media would have ignored Frisch if he’d vaped, flipped off theater staff, and grabbed his date at the theater.
This isn’t the first time McInnis has blamed a politician’s bad behavior on the news media. When McInnis was accused of plagiarism during his 2010 gubernatorial race — a scandal that sunk his campaign and paved the way for then-Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper to become governor — McInnis blamed his troubles on The Denver Post (and on his research assistant).
McInnis later apologized and went on to be elected to the Mesa County Board of Commissioners, leaving that position this year due to term limits this. He was previously a state legislator and U.S. congressman.
