oh my days

Is this Lauren Boebert’s dumbest tweet yet?

By · 11 comments · Updated on January 26, 2024
Rep. Lauren Boebert pledges to "lead with grace"
Rep. Lauren Boebert (Photo: Shutterstock)

Lauren Boebert famously dropped out of high school as a teenager. She later passed her GED shortly before becoming a US Representative for the state of Colorado. A tweet she posted yesterday had some wondering about her grasp of math and data analytics.

Title 42, the Trump-era pandemic public health restrictions used to turn back migrants at the Mexican border, expired on May 11. Some have been warning that the ending of the measure would lead to a big increase in migrants attempting to cross the border into the US.

Boebert has been going on about it for months. Last December she said, “With Title 42 ending, our nation is going to be overrun with illegals worse than at just about any other point in history. Remember, this is intentional and all part of Biden’s systematic destruction of America.”

Lauren Boebert tweets about the end of Title 42
(Screenshot)

After Title 42 ended last week, CNN reported on numbers crossing the border in the days immediately before and after. It reported, “a much narrower influx of migrants than expected … US authorities saw a 50% drop in the number of migrant encounters along the border over the previous two days compared to earlier in the week – before the policy, known as Title 42, ended.”

It printed a graphic to illustrate the numbers. Perhaps confusingly, the days ran in reverse order.

Perhaps this muddled Rep. Boebert. She tweeted an image of the numbers with the comment, “‘Still no surge’ says CNN as they show a surge on their graphic. How stupid do they think the American people are?”

Boebert’s “surge” questioned

Boebert’s tweet prompted plenty of head-scratching and eye-rolling.

If Boebert realized her explanation was wrong or, at the very least, unclear, she chose not to delete. 

Instead, she doubled down. 

She suggested she was simply highlighting the numbers attempting to cross in one week. 

Hmmmm. Migrant numbers on the Mexico-US border hit a peak of 206,000 in the month of November 2022. We’re unconvinced 40,000 in one week suggests a surge compared to recent numbers.

The end of Title 42

The reasons why numbers may have dropped are complex. 

Under the pandemic-era Title 42, introduced in March 2020, many border crossers were expelled to Mexico without a chance to seek asylum, leading to repeat attempts. 

However, the ending of Title 42 means tougher consequences for migrants crossing illegally. If caught, they face being deported and barred from the United States for five years if they do not qualify for asylum. 

That might explain the numbers increasing in the days leading up to May 11th. Not that that’s clear from Boebert’s tweets, if that’s even what she’s suggesting.

She’s been warning for months that the end of Title 42 would lead to a huge increase in migration. On Sunday she retweeted a photo of a migrant begging for money by the side of a road, warning, “This sight is only going to become more common as time goes on.”

When not mis-representing migrant statistics, Boebert spent the weekend using Mother’s Day to throw out yet more casual transphobia. 

Related:

Lauren Boebert uses upcoming birth of her first grandchild to bash trans people

Boebert says she will become a 36-year-old grandma this month after her eldest son got his teen girlfriend pregnant.

Lauren Boebert slams Pete Buttigieg as “unqualified” and the internet would like a word

Boebert attained her GED a few months before her election victory in 2020.

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