Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021, was an epic day. It was the first day at work for Colorado’s new U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Her family witnessed her morning oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
Boebert is a Trump loyalist dedicated to President Donald Trump winning the 2020 election through congressional intervention. She told Matt Mauro at KDVR: “I will be objecting to the electoral results on January 6th. We have 74-plus million people who do not believe this was a secure, free and fair election. Some of them sent me to be here to be their voice. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Taking his Sunday morning oath as a congressman for the fourth time was Ken Buck, who is Colorado Republican Party chairman. Sunday afternoon, Buck released a remarkable letter persuasively explaining why congressional intervention into the Electoral College is blatantly unconstitutional.
The former Weld County DA was hired in 1986 by Congressman Dick Cheney to work on the Iran-Contra investigation. Buck was also an assistant U.S. Attorney. He knows about oaths. Buck just informed Boebert she will be violating that oath she just took.
How apropos of the Stop the Steal slogan Trump took from Roger Stone. Buck, the former prosecutor, makes the case for congressional theft from the American people. Buck warned Trump, Boebert and America not “to unconstitutionally insert Congress into the center of the presidential election process – (because it) would amount to stealing power from the people and the states. It would, in effect, replace the electoral college with Congress.”
Trump will hate Buck’s letter. America’s president is in an awful mood. The Georgia Shakedown tape released Sunday evening is worse than Watergate.
Seems Trump made another not-so-perfect call on Saturday. Listen to all of this damnable call. We have a former reality star out of touch with reality.
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Colorado’s last Republican senator had the power to stop Trump’s madness, but he refused. Now it is too late.
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021, was Cory Gardner’s last day in Congress. Without even voting to override Trump’s veto of the defense spending bill last week, Gardner slunk from the Senate. Gardner’s former workplace was once esteemed. Now it is disgraced, laid low by Trump.
Former Sen. Gardner and his sorry colleagues refused to even hear evidence of Trump’s blatant bullying of Ukrainians to smear and cheat Joe Biden. Now these same Republican senators demand formation of a 15-member commission to hear evidence of Biden allegedly cheating Trump. That’s chutzpah!
This imagined electoral commission would then compel the production of documents, voting machines and witnesses for something called an “emergency audit” in all disputed states. Sen. Ted Cruz says it will take 10 days. Pure fantasy, but jet fuel for the crazy fire burning in Trump’s troubled brain.
Wise people will flee this runaway Trump train before it crashes. What a well-timed leap by Buck.
Expect Boebert to keep riding the Trump train. Boebert and Trump both enjoy tweeting conspiracy theories with hints of violence.
Respectable people like Sen. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Paul Ryan led the GOP eight short years ago. Props to Ryan for declaring Biden’s obvious legitimacy. Romney went further, excoriating his craven colleagues’ egregious political ploy, which threatens our democracy.
What side are you on? Democracy or autocracy? Sanity or insanity? New battles will be witnessed this week. Trump v. McConnell. Trump v. Buck. Boebert v. Buck.
Or will America come to its senses after the tape in which Trump sounds deranged? How can the GOP forgive Trump and his antics sabotaging the chances of Georgia Sens. Sonny Perdue and Kelly Loeffler?
It is not just the criminality of Trump’s call. It is also the bullying. And the interrupting. Trump’s disrespect toward his own accomplished lawyer Cleta Mitchell was awful.
The bullying and blackmailing tactics Trump utilizes are disgusting and blatant. Maybe this is the turning point. It was fun to hear Trump twice calling himself a schmuck. Nice Yiddish!
American voters collectively booted Trump out of our White House, and it was not that close. Anyone with power who gives oxygen to Trump’s Big Lie about a rigged election should long be remembered and reviled.
Meanwhile, Denver is getting prepped in the event of more disturbances stemming from the inauguration.
Damage could be much worse in our nation’s capital, where the president is promising that “it will be wild” and Trump’s Proud Boys are showing up in huge numbers and out of uniform.
Conspiracy theory peddlers at the Epoch Times have a giant billboard at 8th and Lincoln in Denver proclaiming in huge font, “EXPOSING ELECTION FRAUD.” More plywood is going up in downtown Denver.
Buckle up. Just like COVID-19, this could get worse before it gets better.
Craig Silverman is a former Denver chief deputy DA who also has worked in the media for decades. Craig is columnist at large for The Colorado Sun. He practices law at the Denver law firm of Springer & Steinberg, P.C. and is host of The Craig Silverman Show podcast.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy and submit columns, suggested writers and more to opinion@coloradosun.com.