President Joe Biden on Wednesday will seek to contrast his economic vision with that of so-called “MAGA” Republicans, including Republican firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert, during a visit to her Colorado district, according to an administration official.
Biden will visit CS Wind, the world’s largest wind tower manufacturer, where he’ll point to the company’s new $200 million Pueblo, Colorado, facility expansion – an expansion both the company and the Biden administration have directly attributed to passage of 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Biden and Boebert have clashed in the past and the trip to the conservative congresswoman’s district comes as she faces a tough reelection bid in 2024. Earlier this year, Democrat Aaron Frisch – who narrowly lost to the incumbent Boebert in 2022’s midterm elections – announced he would again mount a campaign to unseat her in 2024.
The official said the president will use his remarks Wednesday “to highlight how Bidenomics is creating jobs and opportunities in Colorado’s third congressional district and communities across the country.” He’ll also hit Boebert and her party for opposing passage of the IRA. At the time, the Colorado Republican called the legislation “dangerous for America,” and voting against it “the easiest no vote yet.”
In remarks during a campaign fundraiser Tuesday night, Biden previewed his visit to Pueblo. According to a pool report, the president told supporters in Colorado that Boebert – whom he called “one of the leaders of the MAGA right” – “not only voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, she called it garbage.”
Biden’s trip to Pueblo won’t be the first time the president has brought the fight with House Republicans to their front doors. In the last year, Biden’s visited districts in South Carolina, New York and Virginia to highlight lawmakers who’ve sought to block his domestic agenda. But it comes as Americans rate the president poorly on his handling of the economy. In a Gallup poll released Tuesday, just 32% of those polled approve of his handling of the economy.
As the Republican presidential primary field narrows, Biden has increased attacks on his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, and his “MAGA Republican” allies in Congress, going so far as to warn supporters during a Washington, DC, fundraiser last month that “Trump and the MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy this democracy.”
The trip to Pueblo was originally scheduled for last month as part of Biden’s “Invest in America” tour aimed at highlighting the administration’s legislative achievements while contrasting them with House Republicans’ agenda.
But the spiraling conflict following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel prompted the White House to postpone the trip while the president attended national security meetings at the White House and later visited Israel.
The visit coincides with a new report from the Treasury Department outlining the impact of the IRA — 14 investments totaling $985.5 million have been announced in Colorado since the law’s passage last year, with 99% of investment dollars headed to counties with below-average wages.
In a fact sheet shared with CNN ahead of Biden’s visit, the administration also took care to tout a series of investments in the district, including a new solar field, expanded high-speed internet for the area, a Main Street revitalization project in Delta, Colorado, and a pipeline project all made possible under the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“These investments and jobs wouldn’t be possible without President Biden and Congressional Democrats,” the official told CNN Tuesday. “And it’s important for Americans to know that if Republicans in Congress—including self-identified MAGA Republican Representative Lauren Boebert—want to undermine their communities by taking those investments and opportunities away.”
The president has been at odds with Boebert in the past – in 2022, she interrupted Biden’s State of the Union address as he paid tribute to members of the armed forces who were sickened by burn pits, including his son Beau Biden who died from brain cancer in 2015. The Colorado Republican shouted, “You put them there—13 of them,” in an apparent reference to soldiers killed during the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
The congresswoman drew negative headlines in September after she was escorted out of a Denver production of “Beetlejuice: The Musical,” following complaints she and a companion were “vaping, singing, causing a disturbance.”
CNN’s Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
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