Senior Republican dodges questions on Boebert heckling at State of the Union address

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House oversight committee ranking member James Comer on Wednesday avoided answering a question about his colleague Lauren Boebert’s interruption of President Biden’s first State of the Union address by claiming to have seen similar behavior from Democrats.

Mr Biden was speaking about his late son Beau Biden’s death, which he believes was caused by burn pits overseas encountered when his son was serving in the Army.

As the president spoke of the flag-draped coffin his son had been in at his funeral, Ms Boebert — a first term congresswoman — shouted out: "You put them there — 13 of them”.

Her remark was a reference to the 13 soldiers killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Republicans have sought to weaponise their deaths against Mr Biden.

Asked whether it was appropriate to interrupt the president while appearing on MSNBNC, Mr Comer initially avoided the question before being pressed again by anchor Kristen Welker.

“It’s certainly not my style,” he said before claiming he’d heard similar behaviour from Democrats during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Pressed further on when he’d heard a Democrat interrupt one of Mr Trump’s speeches, Mr Comer could not answer.