The 2024 Colorado Republican State Assembly in Pueblo this weekend showcased the priorities of the party heading into the November election — banning gender-affirming care for trans people, continuing to deny the validity of the 2020 election, downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection, antagonism toward migrants and immigration, and full-throated support for former President Donald Trump. The keynote speakers for the event included Christina Bobb, the former Trump lawyer and subject of a Department of Justice investigation into obstruction of justice connected to Trump’s handling of classified documents, and U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for alleged sexual misconduct with an underage girl.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize the election was stolen in 2020,” said Bobb, to enthusiastic cheers from the Colorado delegates and party members. “Donald Trump won that.”
The demonstrably false claim that the 2020 election was stolen or impacted by widespread voter fraud has been rejected by courts, state governments and members of Trump’s own former administration. The claims of widespread voter fraud and rigged elections contributed to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, where, according to the DOJ, about 140 police officers were injured while defending the Capitol.
“We have to continue to fight for J6ers who are doing unreasonable, unfair prison sentences right now,” said attorney and radio personality Randy Corporon, who was elected unopposed as Colorado’s RNC Committeeman. “I’m an attorney, and I’ve had a lot of calls from people who’ve been contacted by the FBI. They’re still doing it, so if you get a call from the FBI, do not talk to them.”
As of January 2024, more than 1,265 defendants have been charged in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“I’m especially troubled by the accounts of some members of Congress that Jan. 6 was just a day of tourists walking through the Capitol,” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said during a 2021 court hearing in Washington. “I don’t know what planet these people are on … The attempt by some congressmen to rewrite history and say this was all just tourists walking through the Capitol is just utter nonsense.”
Bobb claimed that Democrats are planning to commit election fraud in 2024. “The RNC is in good shape,” she said. “The Democrats fear us because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be bringing in illegal aliens, trying to register everybody to vote. They wouldn’t be pushing the mail-in ballots. They wouldn’t be trying to get rid of voter ID. They wouldn’t be doing all of that if they thought they could win outright. They know they can’t beat us, and so they are trying to rig it.”
Gaetz joked about the ongoing migrant crisis. “You heard there was that earthquake in New York?” he asked the audience. “It was very frightening to people. It was disruptive to commerce. It damaged businesses. When local leaders heard about the effects of the earthquake in New York City, they offered it asylum. They thought they could be a sanctuary for earthquakes. I’ll tell you this, inviting the third world’s asylums and prisons into your state or into your city does not make your community a sanctuary. It makes it a hellhole.”
In between speakers, the assembly watched a video from recently disbarred attorney John Eastman and Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams, urging donations for the Colorado GOP’s lawsuit against open primaries.
“We need to raise about $50,000 for the next two months, so we can cover court costs and attorney’s fees, while providing valuable information and data to the court that demonstrates how this open primary law unfairly harms the Republican Party and violates our First Amendment freedom of association rights,” said Williams.
“One of the reasons the Republican Party nationwide is in trouble is there’s so many people in its leadership that, like the status quo or aren’t willing to fight to challenge the status quo, and our government is increasingly shutting down our speech rights, our election rights, enacting tyrannically against our fellow citizens,” said Eastman. “Please chip in and donate whatever you can. The way we stop that — a necessary first step is to ensure that Republicans get to nominate their own people, people of principle, and not have their primary elections infiltrated by unaffiliated voters. That’s why this election challenge is so extremely important.”
Gaetz also warned the Colorado GOP about the importance of ideological purity. “Just like if a man dresses up like a woman, I’m not calling him a woman — if a Democrat dresses up in drag as a Republican, I’m going to call them out for being the Democrat they are,” he said.
The assembly also heard from Darcy Schoening about efforts to ban gender-affirming care for minors.
“Listen, we know that this is a winning issue,” said Darcy Schoening, echoing the 2022 sentiments of failed Senate candidate Eli Bremer. “We have Republicans and Democrats coming to us from across the state of Colorado saying it has gone too far. Gender ideology has gone too far. When we have become a sanctuary state for removing young girls’ arms to build fake genitalia so that they can identify as males, it’s gone too far. So that is why we created our ballot initiative, ‘Let Kids be Kids.’ Prohibit gender transitioning, whether by medication or by surgery, of minors.”
Schoening’s claims about “removing young girls’ arms” is false, and part of the trend among anti-trans activists, like Rich Guggenheim of Gays Against Groomers, of using sensational post-op photos to score political points. Phalloplasty, the gender-affirming surgery for transgender men, does involve the use of skin grafts, usually taken from the forearm, but that does not result in the “removal” of the limb. Phalloplasty is also not generally offered to patients under 18. A 2018 study of 7,905 transgender patients, 1,047 of whom underwent surgical procedures from 2009 to 2015, noted the average patient age was 29.8 years. A 2019 study of 940 phalloplasty patients noted the average patient age was 32.9 years.
The Colorado GOP also adopted a resolution opposing gender-affirming care for minors. “Resolution number four: parental rights and stopping transgender assaults against children,” announced Williams. “All in favor of parental rights and making sure children aren’t violated by puberty blockers or surgical mutilation. Please rise. Yes. All those opposed and wanting to indoctrinate our children with crazy gender woke ideology, please- I’m not seeing any takers. Resolution number four is adopted.”
Additional resolutions included removal of Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. “She’s the most awful, awful secretary of state to ever grace this wonderful state,” said Williams, who also addressed the press during that vote. “The media make note of this, we know you’re not going to write something good about it, but we don’t care, right? Let the media know you don’t care what they think. Media, make sure you quote that.”
Colorado legislators will hear testimony tomorrow afternoon on an impeachment resolution brought by House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese and Rep. Ryan Armagost in the House Judiciary Committee.
Williams’ disdain for the press was on full display as Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish was removed from the assembly by a Pueblo County Sheriff’s deputy. Williams told the Pueblo Chieftain that Fish and the Sun are “nothing more than an extension of the Democratic Party and we don’t need them coming to our convention.”
