Despite winning one of the closest U.S. House races in the country, Colorado Congressman Gabe Evans isn’t leveling even the most gentle criticism at President Donald Trump — or disagreeing with the president at all.
In an aborted interview with 9News last Thursday, Evans continued with his emerging pattern of not speaking ill of Trump — or critiquing his policies. The station caught up with Evans, a Republican, in Denver and asked him what he thought of Trump “pre-judging the cause” of last month’s airplane crash in Washington D.C. and of the president “saying it could have something to do with the race and gender of the people involved.”
Evans should have “unique insights,” 9News Kyle Clark stated on air, since Evans was in the military and flew a Black Hawk helicopter, which is the type that was involved in the crash.
But Evans, who was endorsed by Trump, declined to comment to 9News.
Sometimes Evans seems to be critical of Trump, signaling that he might disagree with him, but he contorts his statements so as not to utter “Trump.” For example, asked directly in January whether he agreed with Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 insurrectionists, Evans seemed to imply that he was against the pardons but didn’t say so — and was careful not to criticize Trump for issuing the pardons.
“I think the American people sent us here to be forward-looking and to solve the big problems like securing the border and getting the cost of living under control,” Evans said on Colorado’s Morning News, a KOA radio show, in January. “But since you brought that one up, I think, you know, I’ve always been very consistent in saying, ‘You shouldn’t assault law enforcement officers.’ … no, we should not assault police officers.”
In the same KOA interview, host Jeana Gondek asked Evans for his “overall stance” on Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.
“I don’t think birthright citizenship is the problem here,” said Evans without mentioning Trump.
That omission caught the attention of co-host Marty Lenz, who followed up with, “Will you express those concerns to the president, if you think he’s off the mark with that or at least missing the point with that?”
Evans acted as if he hadn’t heard the word “president” in the question, telling Lenz, “Again, I think the American people want us to focus on the big issues, and right now the big issues that are driving so many of the big problems we’ve seen in our country and our society over the last four years is a wide openn border. So for me, my top concern is, how do we make sure that we get the border back under control and we get the border secured. And I think a lot of these other secondary issues will resolve themselves if we are able to delier — and we will deliver — on that promise.”
In addition to dodging direct questions from reporters about his stance on multiple actions by Trump, Evans’ office also gives journalists the runaround, saying the congressman has no comment (as in the case of the gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development) or will respond later.
Conversely, in interviews, Evans has spoken positively about Trump on immigration and other matters.
One Colorado Republican congressman, who won his congressional seat by a more comfortable margin than Evans, has already criticized Trump. U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd won his race last year by a 5% margin over Adam Frisch — as opposed to Evans, who won by a margin of less than 1% (2,449 votes) over incumbent Democrat Yadira Caraveo.
Hurd has already spoken out against Trump, saying that his pardons of Jan. 6 rioters were wrong.
Hurd told Colorado Public Radio that he was “deeply disappointed” in the pardons “for those who assaulted law enforcement officers and for those who fought to stop the constitutional certification of the 2020 election.”
“I’m a rule of law Republican,” Hurd told CPR reporter Megan Verlee last month. “January 6 was a dark day in American history, and it was an assault on our republic and the peaceful transfer of power.”
The two other congressional Republicans from Colorado, Lauren Boebert and Jeff Crank, appear to have been uncritical of Trump in public statements — like Evans has been. They won their deep red districts by 11.6% and 13.8% margins, respectively.
In 2018, then-Congressman Mike Coffman, a Republican running in a district that favored Democrats, tried to define himself as an anti-Trump Republican. He lost his race that year to Democrat Jason Crow. So did Cory Gardner, who embraced Trump in a similar fashion as Evans is doing now.
Still, Evans’ district is among a handful that Trump won by such a narrow margin (less than 2 points) — and were won by Biden in 2020 — that they will be targets for Democrats next year. Others include Reps. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Tom Barrett (R-MI), Tom Kean Jr. (R-NJ), and Jen Kiggans (R-VA).
