In her Denver Post column yesterday, Krista Kafer is correct when she says that the Colorado Republican Party needs to “elevate” leaders who aren’t tainted by Trump.
“The party also must resuscitate its image by elevating leaders untainted by Trump, election conspiracy theories, or other asininity,” writes Kafer, a conservative. “Unfortunately, thus far contenders to replace Kristi Burton Brown for the GOP chair check those boxes.”
But who does Kafer see on the GOP bench who’s allegedly untainted by Trump?
She throws out the name of KNUS radio host George Brauchler, a former Arapahoe County District Attorney who was beaten by Democrat Phil Weiser in a 2018 race to be Colorado’s top attorney.
You can say some good things about Brauchler (e.g., his rejection of election conspiracies) but being untainted by Trump isn’t one of them.
He’s clearly struggled with the question at times, as he did during a conversation with his daughter he recounted to podcast host Craig Silverman during an Oct. 2021 interview.
As reported by the Colorado Times Recorder at the time:
On Silverman’s podcast, Brauchler told how his daughter Amanda had asked him at the time whether what Trump had said was okay. Brauchler assured Amanda that it was most certainly not okay. Her next question was ominous when Brauchler understood the implications of his answer to his 14-year old daughter: “Are you going to vote for him?”
“And that will stick with me forever,” Brauchler said, “not because she won’t be a Republican, but because that awkward moment between a father and a daughter where I got stuck in this position, having to explain something I should have never, ever been asked to explain to my daughter. And that is, how can someone who says such horrible, ugly things about women still be worthy of being president of the United States? But there it was! And it’s in my head, and it will be there till I go to my grave.”
Brauchler’s point at the time was that, despite all Trump’s flaws, he still voted for him. Eighteen months later, despite an insurrection and Trump’s relentless attacks on our democracy, it appears nothing’s changed.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Brauchler went out of his way to promise to vote for Trump again if Trump is the Republican Party’s nominee for president in 2024.
“And for those of you who are like, ‘Oh, Brauchler’s a never Trumper,’ you know that’s not true, because I voted for him twice, and if he’s the Republican nominee, I’m going to end up voting for him again because the alternative is just unthinkable,” Brauchler told his audience on Feb. 3, echoing what his past praise of the former president.
Kafer wrote that the “GOP needs someone like George Brauchler.”
In Colorado, if you look at the trends, you’re on safe ground saying that’s probably not true. Safer to say he’d Wyoming needs him.
