Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert erupted on the House floor Tuesday night after a push to censure Democratic Rep. Stacey Plaskett collapsed, a defeat that exposed widening fractures inside her own party and underscored how deeply the politics of the Epstein scandal have burrowed into Congress.

The resolution, driven largely by Boebert and other members of the House Freedom Caucus, failed after all Democrats and three Republicans voted against it. The effort stemmed from a batch of 20,000 documents released by the House Oversight Committee last week that included redacted text messages Plaskett appeared to exchange with Jeffrey Epstein in 2019, shortly before she questioned Michael Cohen during his testimony to Congress.

Plaskett, who represents the U.S. Virgin Islands as a non-voting delegate, has long faced scrutiny over her ties to the territory where Epstein lived, donated money, and moved in elite political circles. But the failure of the censure effort did more than leave Plaskett unscathed — it ignited fury on the Republican side.

Multiple outlets reported that Boebert appeared visibly angry and was seen yelling at Republicans who voted against the measure, at one point wagging her finger and confronting lawmakers on her own side of the aisle. The tension sharpened when the collapse of the Plaskett censure also ended the threat of a Democratic counter-censure aimed at Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills, whose personal conduct has drawn headlines in recent weeks. Mills has denied wrongdoing after a Florida judge granted his ex-girlfriend a restraining order, citing threats and alleged harassment.

According to The Hill, Boebert approached Mills during the chaos, pointed at him, and shouted — another sign of how volatile the internal dynamic has become as the House continues to wrestle with the aftermath of this year’s record-setting shutdown and the weight of public pressure around the Epstein files.

Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna attempted to voice her own frustration, rising on the floor to question whether Republican and Democratic leaders had cut “back-end deals” to shield members from accountability. Her inquiry was ruled out of order. Boebert cheered her on, shouting, “Get it, girl,” from across the chamber.

The evening’s meltdown unfolded against a larger backdrop: Boebert, along with Reps. Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene, has become one of the most aggressive Republican voices pressuring the White House to release the full Epstein files. She was summoned to the White House last week for what sources described as a tense Situation Room meeting in which senior officials urged her to withdraw her name from a petition demanding disclosure. She refused.

Days later, President Donald Trump reversed his own position, swinging from dismissing the case as a “Democrat hoax” to urging Republicans to approve the measure requiring the Justice Department to make the files public. On Tuesday, the House voted nearly unanimously to do so — a dramatic shift for an issue that has consumed the political fringe for years and now sits at the center of congressional politics.

What comes next is less clear. The bill obligates the Justice Department to release its Epstein materials, but timelines and the scope of redactions remain undefined. For Boebert and her allies, that uncertainty is precisely why they say they’re not backing down.

If anything, the fight on the House floor showed how far they’re willing to push it.