Was Boebert showing support for placekicker Brandon McManus or the two former Broncos named Brandon Marshall — either the supremely gifted but occasionally troubled wide receiver or the linebacker who stirred local controversy by supporting the decision of Colin Kaepernick, his former college teammate, to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem? Nope. Over the past couple of weeks, "Let's Go Brandon!" has become a coded phrase prized by MAGA supporters, because it translates to "Fuck Joe Biden."
The origin of the expression goes back to the October 2 NASCAR race at Alabama's Talladega Superspeedway. During an interview between driver Brandon Brown and NBC reporter Kelli Stavast, fans in the stands can be heard loudly repeating "Fuck Joe Biden" — but Stavast either mishears or misinterprets the words. She tells Brown, "As you can hear the chants from the crowd, 'Let's go, Brandon.'"
The moment quickly began to circulate on social media, as evidenced by this tweet:
"Let's Go Brandon!" also started popping up in Biden-ripping memes, and right-wing crowds have delighted in unleashing it at events such as a recent Houston Astros playoff game during which Texas Senator Ted Cruz was caught rooting for Brandon on video.yeah that’s not what they’re yelling pic.twitter.com/gd5zTu1yAU
— Jessica O’Donnell (@heckyessica) October 3, 2021
Boebert, whose Twitter page is currently topped by a pinned tweet from August 26 whose caption suggests "Joe Biden needs to resign.... Kamala and Nancy can follow him out the door!," is echoing others in the ultra-right crowd with her latest tweet — and the message has definitely hit the sweet spot with many supporters. While plenty of the comments on her "Let's Go Brandon!" tweet are negative, the post has more than 14,000 likes and has been retweeted in excess of 1,700 times.
We've reached out to Boebert's office in Washington, D.C., for comment. Among our questions: What would she say to those who find it disrespectful and unpatriotic for a member of Congress to essentially be saying "Fuck you" to the sitting commander in chief, and how would she react if an elected Democrat shared a photo that sent the same message to former President Donald Trump? If her office gets back to us, we'll update this post.
