Lauren Boebert heckled Biden at the State of the Union as he talked about his son Beau, who died of brain cancer after serving in Iraq

• Boebert interrupted Biden during a particularly personal moment of his State of the Union address.
• Biden was discussing battlefield injuries and mentioned his son Beau, a veteran who died of brain cancer.

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert interrupted President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address on Tuesday as he spoke about how his son Beau's death may be linked to burn pit exposure during his deployment to Iraq.

"When they came home, many of the world's fittest and best trained warriors were never the same. Headaches. Numbness. Dizziness. A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin. I know," Biden said just before Boebert yelled out, briefly interrupting him.

"You put them in, 13 of them," Boebert, who is from Colorado, shouted in the chamber, according to multiple reporters in the chamber. A number of Democratic lawmakers booed the congresswoman.

"One of those soldiers was my son Major Beau Biden," Biden continued. "We don't know for sure if a burn pit was the cause of his brain cancer, or the diseases of so many of our troops. But I'm committed to finding out everything we can."

Boebert was referencing the 13 American troops who were killed in Afghanistan while trying to protect the Kabul airport last summer during the US's chaotic withdrawal.

Biden said many veterans, like his son, suffer from lifelong injuries, including cancer, after serving in combat. He said Beau may have developed his brain cancer as a result of exposure to toxins from burn pits in Iraq.

Lawmakers often applaud and sometimes boo during the speech, but interrupting the president directly is viewed as a major breach of decorum.

Like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Boebert has made a name for herself as a controversial, freshman conservative lawmaker. Boebert won her race on the image she built as the pro-gun owner of Shooters Grill in the town of Rifle, Colorado, where servers carried guns while carrying out orders.

Tuesday night's interruption immediately brought to mind Republican Rep. Joe Wilson yelling "you lie" during President Barack Obama's 2009 joint address to Congress. Wilson later received a formal House reprimand, an official condemnation of his actions.

A spokesperson for Boebert referred Insider to a tweet the congresswoman sent in which she doubled down on her remark following Biden's address.

—Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) March 2, 2022