By Jeff Mason
DENVER President Joe Biden will tout his economic and clean energy policies on Wednesday in Colorado while taking on right-wing Republican U.S. lawmaker Lauren Boebert, a close ally of former President Donald Trump.
Biden, who blamed Trump at a fundraising event in Denver on Tuesday for taking away women's right to an abortion, will visit a wind tower manufacturer in Pueblo, part of Boebert's congressional district.
Biden, a Democrat running for reelection next year, has presided over a stronger-than-expected U.S. economy and big federal investments in infrastructure and clean energy, but the clean energy industry is now struggling with high costs.
Facing weak opinion polls, Biden has turned to more directly taking on Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, as unfit for the presidency and a threat to American democracy.
Boebert, who the White House calls a "self-described MAGA Republican," referencing Trump's Make America Great Again agenda, will serve as a surrogate target for those attacks on Wednesday.
The second-term congresswoman, who was recently criticized by fellow Republicans after being ousted from a Denver theater for disruptive behavior, faces a tough reelection battle against Democrat Adam Frisch, who has outraised her.
Boebert introduced a failed impeachment vote against Biden earlier this year, tried to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election, and made a show of carrying a gun inside the U.S. Capitol in her early days in Congress.
At the wind tower manufacturer, Biden will speak about clean energy investments and "highlight how self-described MAGA Republicans like Representative Lauren Boebert are threatening those investments, jobs, and opportunities," the White House said.
Biden, who will not attend a U.N. gathering on climate change later this year, set a goal of deploying 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind along U.S. coastlines this decade to fight climate change. That may be unattainable due to soaring costs and supply chain delays, Reuters reported in September.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Heather Timmons and Jonathan Oatis)