Colorado Gov. Jared Polis was censured by his own party in a truly historic vote. It’s certainly the first time in modern history that the Democrats censured their own governor, and it may actually be the first one since Colorado’s statehood. And it was well deserved.
Polis’s decision to grant clemency to Tina Peters will probably cast a huge shadow over his entire tenure as governor, to the point where it may be hard for his critics to see anything else. To this date, Peters has expressed zero remorse for her actions and has even cited Polis’ censure as evidence of a continuing cover-up of what happened in the 2020 Election. In other words, Peters is going to continue to lie about Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.
Polis will likely cite the length of Peters’s sentence, and that an appeals court had essentially agreed with him that it was too harsh. But her recalcitrance is part of what Polis (and the appeals court) missed: Peters is unrepentant and continues to assert that she did nothing wrong. It is a basic principle of American law that if you do not express remorse for your crimes and openly indicate that you will commit the same crimes again, the public has a right not to be exposed to you.
Recently, Peters openly said that she would “never back down … never give up … and never give in.” In any other instance, a person making such statements would never be a candidate for clemency or a pardon; Polis instead decided to give Peters special treatment.
Polis has tried to defend his actions by saying Peters’ actions were not related to the 2020 Election. He also said that Peters did not compromise any actual election equipment and that – despite her protests – she ultimately certified Joe Biden’s win. None of that is true. But a more cynical person could read between the lines and guess why Polis commuted her sentence: To satiate Donald Trump.
President Trump has spent a good chunk of his new term calling for Peters’s release and has been punishing Colorado over her imprisonment. Polis will probably tell himself he can take the temporary unpopularity in order to secure a win for his home state. Shortly after Polis commuted Peters’s sentence, the Trump administration released $40 million in frozen funds that were previously allocated to Colorado. Maybe Polis will tell himself that Trump’s extortion is over now that Peters has been released, and it was all worth it in the end. But when you make a deal with the devil, it’s not the devil who changes; it’s you.
It isn’t in Donald Trump’s nature to call a truce; just ask ABC News. After the 2024 Election, ABC News settled a lawsuit with Donald Trump for $15 million after Trump sued over statements George Stephanopoulos made on air. Since then, Trump has repeatedly and openly attacked the network, elevating his attacks to the point where ABC briefly suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show, and that’s before you get to the continuing veiled threats from his FCC director, Brendon Carr. The $15 million settlement wasn’t enough for Trump because he expected favorable treatment from ABC going forward.
Trump is so mercurial that a new slight could put Colorado in his sights again, and then who knows if it will be Polis or even U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) being forced into cutting another deal. All Polis’ capitulation has done is show Trump that if he squeezes enough, someone will give in to the pressure.
But on a deeper level, Polis’s actions hint at a fundamental misunderstanding of our country’s current problems. For people who truly care about democracy, the fair and democratic result of the 2024 Election was pretty devastating. Trump’s victory rewarded him for his repeated lies about our elections, which have resulted in roughly 36 peaceful transfers of power since America’s founding. Trump – through his extrajudicial efforts to overturn the election, refusal to concede, and January 6th – robbed us of what would have been a 37th peaceful transfer of power. Instead, he merely transferred power to his successor and left the “peace” by the wayside.
Whether Polis realizes it or not, Tina Peters is a part of that horrible and historic moment. And Polis’ censure by Colorado Democrats sends a clear message: We do not have to forget what Trump did or pretend that it was all a part of normal politics.
Peters’ actions cost Mesa County $1.4 million, a paltry sum when compared to Jared Polis’s net worth, which is more than Mesa County’s entire operating budget. But his grant of clemency to Peters has cost us much more: A continuing distrust in our democratic process and a normalization of what Donald Trump did after the 2020 Election.
David Podhaskie is a legal writer and editor who lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife, two daughters, and a dog named Doris. He writes The Jackal (www.thejackl.co), a newsletter about law and politics.
