Colorado’s GOP — with one notable exception — have embraced criminals and violence

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Remember when Republicans were tough on crime? That time has passed. This week the party of law and order couldn’t bring itself to denounce lawlessness and disorder for fear of angering President Donald Trump and his supporters.

In Colorado, not a single Republican state senator voted for a resolution condemning “the pardons of those involved in the January 6, 2021, insurrection against the United States of America; and …the firing of dedicated, selfless FBI agents assigned to said insurrection cases, who committed their careers to the defense of our nation and its sovereignty.”

Did the back-the-blue party forget that 174 Capitol Police officers were injured and 15 hospitalized defending the lives of lawmakers just like them? Trump pardoned more than 1,500 rioters, at least 20 of them from Colorado, men like Patrick Montgomery of Littleton who faced evidence in his trial that he kicked an officer in the chest, Jeffrey Sabol of Kittredge who was accused of draging an officer into the mob, and Jonathan Grace of Colorado Springs who was shown in court to have linked arms other insurrectionists crushed an officer between a shield and the door. To complete the miscarriage of justice, Trump is now seeking to fire or otherwise punish the FBI officers who did their jobs.

The resolution in Colorado now heads to the House of Representatives. Hopefully, a few Republicans will be comfortable acknowledging that violence against officers of the law is wrong and shouldn’t be excused.

Thus far, only Congressman Jeff Hurd of the 3rd Congressional District has backed the blue. He said last month, “I’m deeply disappointed by the pardons for those who assaulted law enforcement officers and those who fought to stop the constitutional certification of the 2020 election.” This week, the Colorado state GOP sniped at Hurd on Twitter for breaking with the largely silent Republican congressional contingent. Hurd didn’t get the memo: when it comes to Trump the GOP is soft-on-crime.

Hurd’s colleague Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, who supported the pardons, offered to give convicts guided tours of the Capitol. That way they can inspect the repairs. The rioters’ handiwork cost taxpayers $2.7 million.

Staying consistent, the Jefferson County Republican Party just elected a convicted felon and election denier Rich Wyatt to replace chairwoman Nancy Pallozzi. Pallozzi led last year’s efforts to oust state party chairman Dave Williams after he urged Coloradans to burn pride flags. She decided not to run again. Wyatt, who served time for tax fraud and conspiracy to deal firearms without a license, told an ultra-right podcast in 2022, “It’s almost time to switch from ballots to bullets. Because that’s what wins the hearts and minds. There’s no arguing with a bullet. You can argue about ballots, but you can’t argue with bullets.”

If the words seem strangely kind of familiar, that’s because they’re a macabre twist on those spoken by President Abe Lincoln in a July 4, 1861 speech to Congress. Lincoln said, “ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.”

Is the head of a county GOP advocating turning to violence if a party fails to win enough ballots? That’s what the January 6 rioters did and the police officers who tried to stop them still bear the scars.

Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.

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Colorado’s GOP — with one notable exception — have embraced criminals and violence

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