On a slow news day, I can count on the Colorado Republican Party to provide material for this column.
Last week, the party’s Twitter account hyped a video conversation between Dave Williams, chair of the state’s GOP, and Laura Loomer, a self-described white nationalist and islamophobe, her words, not mine. Loomer routinely spreads loony conspiracy theories about mass shootings and elections including her own loss in a Florida congressional primary race. Naturally, she blamed election fraud and has refused to concede.
Loomer was banned from ride-share services Lyft and Uber after a daylong Twitter harangue against Muslims. She tweeted that she will not “support another Islamic immigrant driver” and tagged both companies in the post. Smart. Loomer has also accused Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and other Democrats of scheming to institute Sharia law in Minnesota.
Banned from Twitter for extremist posts, she sued the social media giant and the Council on American-Islamic Relationships which she claimed colluded with Twitter to have her removed. She lost her case and had to pay over $124,000 in court costs to those she falsely impugned.
Loomer has proved too insane for the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman who believes Jewish bankers light wildfires with space lasers. MTG warned former President Trump’s reelection campaign against hiring Loomer, which they were considering, because the congresswoman believes the white nationalist is too deranged and too dishonest for the job. That’s saying something.
A couple days after tweeting about the Loomer-Williams interview, the Colorado Republican Party welcomed Kari Lake, failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate, as the party’s annual fundraising dinner speaker. Lake, an election conspiracy theorist, has yet to concede her loss to Katie Hobbs in 2022 blaming election fraud sans evidence. She attempted to overturn the election results in court but thus far has lost every case. Lake is being sued for defamation by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Rich for falsehoods she spread about him after the 2020 presidential election that made him a target of death threats.
Lake has accused Gov. Hobbs and other elected Democrats of taking bribes from drug cartels and pushed for the imprisonment of Hobbs and journalists for unspecified election crimes. Humdrum as conspiracy theories go, the accusation lacks a certain, je ne sais quoi. However, Lake did recently release a song titled “81 Million Votes, My A**.” No mere retread of old 2020 conspiracy theory material, it’s a catchy song! This kind of creative crackpottery should give her an edge with election deniers.
As for her own election prospects, if at first you don’t succeed, try cheating; failing that try again. Lake is now running for Senate though trailing behind Independent Senator Krysten Sinema and Democrat Ruben Gallego in early polling. She also appears to be in a “death race” with Marjorie Taylor Greene to be Trump’s number two according to a Rolling Stone source. Greene called Lake a grifter and a scammer.
As for the Colorado Republican Party, they deserve props for consistency. In one week they promoted two unhinged election conspiracy theorists who have lost elections, refused to concede their losses, impugned innocent people, filed frivolous lawsuits, and raised money by brazenly lying to their fellow Americans. I’m not a public relations expert, but this seems non compos mentis, that is, mad, cray-cray, barmy, nuts. Their association with the Colorado Republican Party discredits the party of Lincoln and Reagan. It’s like Williams and company want Colorado to go a deeper shade of blue.
Stupid is always fair game for pundits and partisans and they’re handing Democrats material just when they need it. Democrats’ far-left brethren are marching down the street screaming the genocidal chant “from the river to the sea.” Tent cities still blight urban landscapes in Democrat-run cities. Prices continue to rise thanks to unconstrained federal spending. The Democrat’s 2024 presidential candidate struggles to speak a cogent sentence. How about letting their crazy shine for a moment?
Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.
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