Welcome to For The Record, the Colorado Times Recorder’s new series where you can hear public figures in their own words. We’ll give you the clip and the context, so you can listen for yourself.
A recently-announced candidate in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District says he has fantasized about a crowd of fifty thousand gathering at the state capitol in “righteous anger” to “peaceably and patriotically” paralyze the legislature’s activity, just as Trump asked his followers to do on Jan. 6.
After weeks of speculation, Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) author and former state representative Douglas Bruce made it official: he is entering the crowded Republican primary for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District.
Bruce’s campaign website and platform both prominently mention that he is the author of TABOR; true to form, it says that if elected, Bruce will “never raise taxes or debt.” The platform also contains a laundry list of conservative buzz-phrases, including “Respect Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.”
Those two sentiments came together for Bruce in a December 2023 interview on the KHNC radio show “Swamp Fight.” During the interview, Bruce spoke at length about his opposition to Democrat-led property tax reform efforts such as Proposition HH.
But Bruce went further, describing what he called his “fantasy” scenario. He said he “would love to see” fifty thousand protesters descend on the state capitol in defense of TABOR and in opposition to Democratic tax policy. He then indirectly likened this scenario to the Jan. 6 capitol insurrection, saying it would be carried out “Peaceably and patriotically, as Donald Trump said.”
Shortly before rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told them to march “peacefully and patriotically.” His defenders often reference these words to claim that he was not attempting to incite violence.
Bruce: “Yeah, but my fantasy. After they didn’t get away in the election with HH, they didn’t get away with fixing the problem in the special session later on in November. What I would love to see — I don’t expect it, but people have to decide if they want to continue. If we have a righteous anger, a righteous anger. I’m not talking about anything violent, right? But a righteous anger. Where we would have 50,000 or more people come down to the Capitol one particular day and simply paralyze the activity under the dome. Peaceably. Peaceably and patriotically, as Donald Trump said.”
Listen to Bruce’s full interview here. Bruce’s comments talking about his desire for a protest at the state capitol begin at 37:03.
Despite frequently pitching himself as a champion of tax policy, Bruce was arrested for felony tax evasion in 2011, for which he was ultimately convicted in 2012.
