Hometown paper blasts senator for siding with Trump on fake emergency

On Thursday, the Denver Post called their 2014 endorsement of Sen. Cory Gardner “a mistake,” which they now regret. The scathing editorial came hours after Gardner’s no vote on a resolution to terminate Trump’s fake national emergency declaration.

“We endorsed Sen. Cory Gardner in 2014 because we believed he’d be a statesman,” the editorial begins, saying they expected Gardner to bring fresh leadership and ideas to the Senate.

“We see now that was a mistake — consider this our resolution of disapproval.”

Gardner joined most of his Republican colleagues in abandoning their oath to the Constitution to side with Trump on the issue of the southern border. Trump spent two years trying to convince Congress to fork over billions of dollars to build a wall he previously promised Mexico would pay for.

When Congress repeatedly rejected his demand, Trump decided to declare a national emergency at the border and steal money from troops and military families to build a wall, usurping Congress’s authority to allocate government spending.

The Senate voted 59-41 to terminate Trump’s declaration, with Gardner doing exactly what Trump told him to.

The entire fake emergency declaration was “a constitutional crisis and one of Colorado’s two senators has failed the test,” the board wrote.

Gardner’s vote on the fake emergency was not the first time he abandoned his principles in the Trump era. The Post also criticizes him for flip-flopping on his support of Trump.

In 2016, after a video surfaced of Trump bragging about being a sexual predator, Gardner said that he “cannot and will not support someone who brags about degrading and assaulting women.”nBut three years later, Gardner suddenly embraced someone who assaults women, gleefully endorsing Trump’s 2020 candidacy.

The endorsement of Trump did not sit well with the Post editorial board, but it was the vote on the fake emergency that they described as “the last straw.”

“We no longer know what principles guide the senator and regret giving him our support in a close race against Mark Udall.”

Gardner is already a top 2020 target for Democrats, who are eyeing his seat as one necessary to reclaim the Senate majority. In 2018, Democrats swept all statewide offices and took control of both legislative chambers, making the state look increasingly blue. And a poll in December 2018 put Gardner in “politically toxic territory,” said Ian Silverii, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, the group that commissioned the poll.

The Denver Post did not forswear endorsing Cory Gardner in his 2020 re-election campaign, but it seems unlikely. After all, whoever challenges him will almost certainly have more integrity and principles than Gardner.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.