Did you hear? Last night, Republicans failed in their flimsy publicity attempt to limit Democracy in their attempted impeachment resolution of Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Here are the 5 takeaways:
MAGA Republicans, like impeachment resolution co-sponsor Gabe Evans, hoped the impeachment hearing would motivate their base for the next election. Instead, they created a public relations disaster for themselves. With only a micro-minority, Republicans failed miserably in their frivolous impeachment publicity stunt – failing to produce ANY substantive claims against Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Colorado Republicans failed to coherently explain wide-ranging allegations of misconduct unrelated to the resolution, and ultimately descended into hypocritical innuendo from some of Colorado’s infamous election deniers and conspiracy theorists. [1]
Republicans were unprepared and unable to answer hard questions about their resolution. Proponents of the resolution spent most of the hearing disparaging Secretary of State Griswold on subjects irrelevant and unrelated to the allegations in the impeachment resolution. At least two witnesses confessed they hadn’t even read the document before testifying. When repeatedly asked to outline the specific crimes that allegedly warranted impeachment, Republicans embarrassingly could not do so. [2]
Secretary Griswold was fearless, and her response to the allegations left Republicans stammering. In addition to setting the facts straight about Griswold’s role in the Trump v. Anderson case and her compliance with court orders at every step in the process, Secretary Griswold recentered the hearing on the real issue: as the Colorado Supreme Court determined and the U.S. Supreme Court did not strike down, Donald Trump is an oath-breaking insurrectionist. Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election resulted in a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. [3]
Republican “witnesses” included some of Colorado’s most notorious MAGA election deniers and conspiracy theorists. The star witness for the sponsors of the impeachment resolution was former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who pursued numerous unfounded conspiracy theories about Colorado’s elections that derailed his political career, before joining Donald Trump’s team of lawyers seeking to overturn presidential election results in other states. One of the most brazenly partisan Secretaries of State in Colorado history, Gessler feebly attempted to portray himself as some sort of nonpartisan and accused Griswold of the partisanship Gessler showed throughout his term as Secretary of State. Gessler’s former deputy Suzanne Taheri joined Gessler to make unsubstantiated claims about Griswold’s office unrelated to the impeachment resolution. [4]
Rep. Gabe Evans aggressively participated in this failed impeachment stunt. Freshman Rep. Evans, a self-declared MAGA Republican candidate in Colorado’s Eighth Congressional District, dominated the questioning from House Judiciary Committee Republicans of witnesses, engaging in a lengthy exchange with U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn that bordered on disrespectful. Evans, who evasively answered “no-ish” when asked if the 2020 presidential election was stolen and proudly affirmed his support for Trump in the primary, continued his sad attempt to demonstrate his MAGA credentials yesterday. Make no mistake, Evans came out swinging for Donald Trump and full of angry rhetoric during yesterday’s hearing. Colorado residents should not soon forget it. [5] [6]
Stay tuned for more updates throughout the legislative session and campaign season.
