Local news host: 'Perhaps Sen. Gardner played us' with military funding promise

Denver news anchor Kyle Clark skewered Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) on Monday night for failing to protect the state’s military funding from being stolen by Donald Trump to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

In March, Gardner promised constituents in Colorado that he would protect the state’s military installations from efforts to steal billions for a wall that Trump repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for.

But that promise came with a catch, Clark noted. Gardner promised no funding from 2019 would be taken, and the $8 million Trump is stealing from a space control construction project at Colorado’s Peterson Air Force Base is from 2018 funding.

“Perhaps President Trump played Senator Gardner — told him that the current year’s funding was safe and then yanked it from the previous year,” Clark mused. “Perhaps Senator Gardner played us — added that asterisk to his promise so it sounded like Colorado’s bases were protected when they really weren’t.”

At the end of the day, Gardner’s failure has the same impact on members of the military.

“But for the servicemembers in Colorado left waiting for the projects they were promised, whether President Trump played Senator Gardner or whether Senator Gardner played us: In the end, the result is the same.”

The takedown of Gardner on local television comes just a day after the Denver Post lambasted Gardner for his ineffective leadership in the Senate.

“We think it’s unfortunate Gardner can’t defend Colorado and the U.S. Constitution at the same time, or even one at a time, or just one or the other,” the Post editorial board wrote on Sunday.

Over and over again during the 2016 campaign, Trump vowed that Mexico would pay for a border wall. When he broke that promise, Trump decided to raid funds meant for military families, including day care centers and schools, to build the wall.

When he had the opportunity to stop Trump from stealing these funds, Gardner opted to side with Trump rather than military families. As a result, families in his home state — and many others around the country and world — are being forced to sacrifice even more in order for Trump to get his wall.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.