During this Saturday’s Colorado Republican assembly, which saw election-conspiracist candidates like Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters and Rep. Ron Hanks (R-Cañon City) get top billing on June’s primary ballot, Rep. Patrick Neville (R-Castle Rock), seconded a motion to nominate FEC United founder Joe Oltmann for governor.
The United American Defense Force (UADF), a controversial Colorado group may be an illegal militia, prohibited by provisions in both Colorado statute and the U.S. Constitution, according to a national legal expert.
Another campaign finance complaint has been leveled against the El Paso County, CO, Republican Party, this one accusing Chair Vickie Tonkins of performing a “knowingly fraudulent filing” of a $1,000 donation to conservative activist group FEC United, which promotes election conspiracies.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in August, 2020, after Wisconsin teen Kyle Rittenhouse, was first accused of murdering a protester in Kenosha. We’re republishing it now as Rittenhouse’s trial moves forward and as the Colorado militia group, the United American Defense Force (UADF), continues to appear at public gatherings in Colorado, including recent school board meetings in Cherry Creek, Colorado Springs, and Douglas County. John “TIG” Tiegen, who made the “Nice F@&k shot, Kyle” comment, is a former Trump spokesman and the leader of UADF, which is the armed division of the far-right group FEC United, founded by election conspiracist Joe Oltmann and previously headed by Colorado Republican Party leader Kristi Burton Brown.
The academic concept of Critical Race Theory (CRT), the Republican Party’s latest boogeyman, is drawing angry conservatives, apparently including members of far-right militias, to school board meetings across Colorado.
FEC United, a new conservative political group, organized the Oct. 10 “Patriot Muster” rally in Denver’s Civic Center Park. The event turned deadly immediately after its conclusion when a private security guard hired by 9News to protect its reporters shot and killed a rally attendee who pepper sprayed him.
A “Team Trump Bus” is touring northern Colorado today, and on it is John “TIG” Tiegen, who tweeted his unvarnished support for Kyle Rittenhouse, the Wisconsin teen accused of shooting three people at Kenosha protests yesterday.
John “TIG” Tiegen, who launched Trump’s re-election in Colorado in November, is organizing an aggressive protest Sunday to defend a restaurant that welcomed throngs of maskless customers last weekend.
