Rep. Eric Swalwell mocked Rep. Lauren Boebert with a tweet after she claimed that he "only acts tough on Twitter."
The Republican congresswoman from Colorado spoke about Swalwell, a California Democrat, during a recent appearance on former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's talk show on TBN.
Branding the congressman "Eric Smells Not So Well," Boebert speculated that he may avoid conversations with her because she is "intimidating."
"Well unfortunately he only acts tough on Twitter," Boebert said.
"So I've actually tried to have conversations with 'Eric Smells Not So Well' and it doesn't, it doesn't really work out. He beelines away from me. And so maybe I'm intimidating, not sure, but he actually compared me to the horrible mass shooter in Highland Park."
https://t.co/9YRFdU4Ewq pic.twitter.com/a6MXLvMcje
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) July 17, 2022
Swalwell hit back at Boebert's comments with a gif from the 2009 film He's Just Not That Into You, where Justin Long's character Alex tells Ginnifer Goodwin's Gini: "Don't call him. He doesn't like you."
On Huckabee's show, she was referencing a tweet Swalwell posted in the aftermath of a July 4 mass shooting at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, that killed seven people.
"Let's start drawing straight lines," he wrote alongside an image of a smiling Boebert wielding a rifle and another of the suspect in that shooting.
Boebert responded at the time, calling Swalwell a "failed presidential candidate" and referenced his contact several years ago with a suspected Chinese spy.
"Now he's comparing me to a deranged murderer," she wrote. "When will Democrats condemn HIS dangerous rhetoric?"
In the aftermath of the Highland Park shooting, Swalwell also told his followers to "stop blaming the NRA for mass shootings" because it shields Republican lawmakers from accountability.
"The NRA may fund candidates but the NRA does not have a vote in Congress. *ELECTED* Republican members of Congress do. And they keep voting against our kids and voting for their killers," Swalwell wrote in a thread on Twitter.
"Blaming the NRA shields those who actually have a vote. It also kind of suggests that 'but for' the NRA these Republicans would do the right thing. Why give them that alibi? Let's start naming names. And the NRA is not a name. The NRA is not on the ballot this November.
"But hundreds of Republicans who choose killers over our kids are on the ballot. Blame them. Choose our kids. Not their killers."
Newsweek has contacted Swalwell and Boebert's offices for comment.
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