The already chippy Republican primary for the Colorado congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert dialed up a few notches on Friday as the incumbent and one of her GOP challengers hurled insults over each other’s tone.

In response to a statement issued Thursday by state Sen. Don Coram that accused Boebert of “spewing garbage” during an encounter with a group of Orthodox Jews at the U.S. Capitol earlier that day, Boebert invoked an attack her campaign mounted last week accusing Coram of corruption. She also claimed the Montrose Republican had reneged on his pledge not to run a negative campaign.

Coram returned fire by suggesting that Boebert is a liar.

The latest round of mudslinging kicked off Thursday after BuzzFeed News reported Boebert had asked a group of Capitol visitors wearing yarmulkes and led by a rabbi with a traditional beard whether they were conducting “reconnaissance.”

It was a joke, Boebert later told the news outlet, alluding to allegations by Democrats last year that Boebert had led “reconnaissance” tours of the Capitol before the Jan. 6 attack. Boebert strongly denies the allegations, and last summer a congressional ethics panel dropped an investigation into a complaint brought by a Democratic colleague over the claim.

The BuzzFeed story provoked peals of outrage, including a suggestion by the New York congressman the group had been visiting that Boebert’s remarks were reckless considering last weekend’s standoff at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, where a gunman held hostages, including a rabbi.

Saying Boebert was acting like “an out-of-touch celebrity” and referencing the hostage crisis at the Texas synagogue, Coram slammed his opponent’s comments as “not only disgusting but unacceptable” and said the incident is one reason he is running against her.

“Corrupt Coram pledged days ago not to run a negative campaign,” Boebert told Colorado Politics in an email Friday morning, using a pejorative nickname she unveiled in a series of ads alleging Coram leveraged his position to advance business interests that could have reaped millions of dollars growing hemp.

Added Boebert: “My, how quickly that changed when his multi-year scheme to enrich himself using his public office was exposed.”

Coram rejected what he termed Boebert’s “desperate attack” and called the particulars as “lies, lies and damn lies.”

On Friday, Coram lobbed a similar response to Boebert’s latest barrage. 

“Telling the truth is not negative campaigning,” Coram said in a text message to Colorado Politics. “She should try it.”

Meanwhile, Marina Zimmerman, the Archuleta County Republican who launched a primary challenge to Boebert last spring, ramped up her criticism of the incumbent.

In a Friday morning tweet referencing the BuzzFeed story, Zimmerman called on House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to “take a stronger party-line stance against anti-semitism.”

“No more lazy efforts, and no more feeding the beast,” Zimmerman added.