Welcome back to another of CTR’s weekly roundups of news stories relating to political extremism. Congress is sharply divided on how to respond to the Trump Administration’s power grab that has included: shipping legal residents off to a prison in a foreign country without due process, trying to withhold funding from states for upholding state law, and unilaterally entering a trade war without input from Congress. Many of these national conversations have bled into Colorado political discourse. First up on the docket is an article by Jason Salzman on State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer, who some say is planning to run for governor, now defending Medicaid two years after saying that the federal government should cut the program and other entitlement programs. Owen Swallow reported on Rep. Lauren Boebert spreading misinformation about Colorado’s voter registration system, and Maria Tedesco wrote on the Republican members of the Colorado congressional delegation voting to undermine federal courts by ruling against the Trump administration. We are also highlighting an article from the Colorado Sun‘s Lucas Brady Woods on how Republicans in the Colorado State Legislature are appealing to Trump’s Attorney General to stop a newly signed gun law.
After Saying Budget Cuts Should Start With Medicaid, Kirkmeyer Now Flip Flops
State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer (R-Weld County) has positioned herself as trying to protect Medicaid from Democrats, but this is a new leaf for Kirkmeyer in terms of Medicaid. Two years ago, when Kirkmeyer was running for a seat in U.S. Congress, she was asked by conservative pundit Jon Caldara what the federal government should spend less on. Kirkmeyer replied, “I think we need to look at the entitlement programs and get a handle on them… I think we need to look at the whole Medicaid situation.”
Boebert Either Doesn’t Understand Voter Registration or Lied About It On the House Floor
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Windsor) has made her approval of the controversial SAVE Act widely known, speaking in favor of it on the House floor and singing its praise on right-wing talk radio. However, in her zealous support of the act, Boebert misconstrued Colorado voting laws, claiming that Democrats were registering undocumented residents to vote via the automatic driver’s license registration. This is not true. While undocumented people in Colorado can apply for an equivalent of a driver’s license, that system does not include automatic voter registration. In addition to spreading falsehoods about Colorado’s voting system, Boebert made it clear she didn’t fully understand what the SAVE Act would require of voters.
Mad at Trump’s Losses in Court, Colorado’s GOP Members of Congress Vote to Weaken Judges
Rather than reflect on the legality of the Trump administration’s executive orders in the wake of a string of setbacks in federal courts, U.S. House Republicans, including each GOP member of the Colorado delegation, voted to restrict district judges from issuing nationwide injunctions. According to legal scholars, like Doug Spencer, a law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, Congress does have clear authority over the courts. Either way, every Colorado Republican in the House voted to undermine the judicial branch for having the gall to act as a check to overreach by the executive branch.
Colorado Sun: Republicans in Colorado’s Legislature want Trump AG Pam Bondi to stop state’s new gun control law
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis recently signed a gun-control law that Republicans in the state legislature are not done in their attempts to thwart. Unable to convince their colleagues or the governor to oppose the bill, Republicans in the Colorado House of Representatives say they have taken a new tactic, asking U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to stop the law. “We have to do anything and everything we can to find out if there’s a way to overturn this,” said Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams, who spoke in favor of the move.
