State Rep. Ran Armagost (R-Berthoud) says the Colorado House will vote on a resolution to impeach Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, but that will only happen if state House Speaker Julie McCluskie (D-Dillon) allows it.
In a letter delivered to McCluskie last week, by Armagost and House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese (R-Colorado Springs), Republicans asked the Speaker to introduce a resolution calling for the impeachment of Griswold, alleging that Griswold is using her office for partisan purposes and is unfit for the job.
Asked on right-wing radio March 11 if the resolution will go to a vote, Armagost replied, “Yes, it will go to a vote.”
Armagost and other Republicans have expressed anger at Griswold for a string of alleged offenses, most recently for urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that Trump was an insurrectionist and therefore barred by the Constitution from appearing on Colorado’s presidential election ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Colorado court’s decision on the lawsuit, which was filed by a group of Colorado Republican and independent voters and which named Griswold as a defendant alongside Trump for putting him on the ballot in the first place.
“She gets all her messaging from all the extreme fringe organizations of the left, and that’s where it becomes an issue, because she always preaches ‘free and fair transparent elections,’ said Armagost on the radio. “Meanwhile she is challenging each and every person who questions her integrity and her ability to run things free and fairly. And she keeps on doing stuff like this that completely undermines what she is supposed to be doing as secretary of state. And when anyone questions it, you’re an ultra-MAGA Republican and/or you’re a conspiracy theorist. That’s how she weaponizes it and turns it against us.”
“The Colorado Republican Party continues to focus on conspiracies and political games,” said Griswald in a statement to media outlets. “I will not be intimidated by this baseless proceeding.”
In a CBS4 interview, GOP strategist Dick Wadhams called the impeachment effort “stupid” and a “waste of time.”
House Speaker McCluskie, used the same language to describe the Republicans’ request, calling it an “unwarranted waste of time,” in a statement to Colorado Politics in which she also expressed disappointment at seeing “House Republicans bow to the most extreme fringes of their party.”
“And I wish our Republicans would not be doing this… It’s another example of the malfeasance going on in the Colorado Republican Party right now,” said Wadhams, on CBS4. Wadhams recently revealed he won’t vote for Trump in the presidential election, if he’s on the Nov. ballot.
Pugliese and Armagost’s call for impeachment followed an even more unlikely removal demand from other MAGA Republicans; Congresswoman Lauren Boebert threatened to launch a statewide recall in an open letter signed by state GOP Chair Dave Williams and his fellow party officers. Such an effort would require gathering well over 600,000 signatures from Colorado voters. Similar attempts to remove Griswold and/or Gov. Jared Polis in 2020, 2021 and 2022 failed without turning in any valid signatures. Boebert is using her longshot recall threat to fundraise for her congressional campaign.
