Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, accused Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) of encouraging the hate that led to Saturday’s deadly shooting in Colorado and told her to “Get off Twitter.”
Five people were killed and at least 25 were injured after a shooter, believed to be 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday night.
Boebert acknowledged the shooting in her home state shortly after news broke and called for an end to the violence.
“The news out of Colorado Springs is absolutely awful,” she tweeted on Sunday morning. “This morning the victims & their families are in my prayers. This lawless violence needs to end and end quickly.”
Chasten Buttigieg tweeted in response, “You encourage this type of hatred. Get off Twitter and start looking inward.”
In a separate tweet, Buttigieg directly linked the GOP to violent rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.
“Republicans continue to run on and spread anti-LGBTQ ideology and hatred while refusing to lift a finger on gun violence. This is preventable, but only if they start seeing LGBTQ people as equals, and themselves as leaders,” he wrote.
Other Democrats joined Buttigieg in accusing Boebert of hypocrisy, including Rep.-elect Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the first openly LGBTQ+ immigrant elected to Congress.
“I am furious that members of Congress like Boebert have the f—ing audacity to say anything when they spread this hate constantly,” he tweeted.