August 15, 2017 12:56 PM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (August 15)

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• by: Colorado Pols

That’s not the eclipse — you just forgot to take off your sunglasses. It’s time to Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► After more than a year of refusing to meet with his constituents in a solo town hall setting, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) today is holding three separate town hall events around the Front Range. We’re covering Gardner’s big day here, from his event in Colorado Springs this morning to Greeley and then Lakewood later today. So far, things have not gone so good for Gardner.

Gardner’s third and final town hall of the day today is at Colorado Christian University; event hosts say that public protests will not be permitted.

► President Trump finally got around to condemning white supremacists with an awkward statement at the White House on Monday. Most observers saw Trump’s comments as “too little, too late” after the weekend bloodshed in Charlottesville, Virginia. For his part, Trump is ratcheting up his victimhood rhetoric and taking new shots at the media for not making him look good. As the New York Times reports:

Shortly before leaving the capital, Mr. Trump attacked the news media for blowing the episode out of proportion.

“Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied…truly bad people!” he wrote Monday evening…

…Even Mr. Trump’s allies worried that his measured remarks, delivered two days after dozens of public figures issued more forceful denunciations of the violence in Virginia, came too late to reverse the self-inflicted damage on his moral standing as president.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump said the rioting was initiated by “many sides.” His comments prompted nearly universal criticism and spurred several of his top advisers, including his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, to press the president to issue a more forceful rebuke.

It’s is possible probable that President Trump just does not possess the “empathy” gene.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► President Trump is really mad that business leaders are ditching him at a rapid pace. 

► Republican gubernatorial candidate George Brauchler can’t seem to get out of his own way. Brauchler’s stump-speech staple about asking for a pay cut when he was first elected district attorney in 2012 conveniently skips the fact that he later asked for a sizable raise in salary.

► Senator Cory Gardner often says that he supports repealing Obamacare because he wants to reduce healthcare costs. This doesn’t jibe with his recent votes that would significantly INCREASE healthcare costs for Americans.

► Voters are heading to the polls in Alabama today to determine the runoff candidates for the right to hold the former Senate seat of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill the seat until a new election could be held, faces trouble from two well-known Republican opponents. President Trump is a public supporter of Strange (you can say that again).

► Lawmakers are turning up the pressure on the White House to get rid of known White Nationalist sympathizers such as Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. 

► A big White Nationalist conference is coming to Colorado Springs. As the Colorado Springs Independent reports:

A white nationalist organization with ties to the Charlottesville, Va., demonstration and subsequent death of one woman and injury of at least 19 others is coming to Colorado Springs.

VDare, a group based in Litchfield, Conn., whose name stems from Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World in 1587, is charging $225 to register in advance for the conference, planned for April 19-22 at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.

► A Colorado healthcare advocacy group is encouraging the state to push back on requests from insurance companies to significantly raise rates in 2018.

► Four Democratic candidates running for Congress in CD-7 are anxiously awaiting news about whether or not Rep. Ed Perlmutter will run for re-election after all.

► The “Colorado Water Plan” might be twice as expensive as was first thought. Not that we can go without water or anything.

► The Denver City Council unanimously approved a slate of new bond proposals for the November ballot.

► Go find your own Internet, Daily Stormer.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The head of the Republican “Senate Leadership Fund” is expressing interest in a potential U.S. Senate candidacy for Kid Rock in Michigan. What does this have to do with Colorado? Well, Sen. Cory Gardner is the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which means he’s going to get asked similar questions very soon. 

► Weld County Commissioners are pushing ahead with an effort to get rid of a county oversight board that was being too oversighty for their tastes.

ICYMI

► Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will join Sen. Cory Gardner in Denver on Thursday for a fundraiser benefitting the NRSC.

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