June 21, 2018 07:42 AM UTC

Seriously, Is Everything About Walker Stapleton a Lie?

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

9NEWS political reporters Kyle Clark and Brandon Rittiman have been in rare form over the past few weeks, positively demolishing a persistent false claim from GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Walker Stapleton that he was the “only” state Treasurer to support the Trump tax cut bill. Stapleton’s obstinate refusal to make the simple edit required to correct this demonstrably false claim, arrogantly doubling down when confronted about it in a recent debate, resulted in 9NEWS affixing the rarely-used label of “liar” to Stapleton–since by that point there was no way to conclude this was anything other than knowing, deliberate deception.

Last night, 9NEWS debunked still another Stapleton campaign ad claim–and this one looks even worse:

Republican front runner Walker Stapleton is campaigning on the idea that he’s a “fourth-generation Coloradan.”

The claim is in Stapleton’s campaign videos, in the bio on his website and has been used by media outlets in their editorials.

But is it an accurate description of his lineage?

In a word, no.

Stapleton was born on the East Coast and grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, according to numerous public records 9NEWS reviewed.

The current state treasurer and gubernatorial hopeful moved to Colorado in 2003 when he was 29 years old… [Pols emphasis]

A campaign spokesman argued Stapleton, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all called Colorado home at some point in their lives.

Obviously, for someone to claim they are a “fourth-generation Coloradan” when they were not born in Colorado, when they moved to Colorado as an adult, and their father wasn’t born in Colorado either, contradicts with the commonly-agreed definition of the term. Stapleton’s grandfather was born in the Centennial State, but that’s only because his father Ben Stapleton of Ku Klux Klan infamy (born in Kentucky) was the mayor of Denver. In short, Walker Stapleton can in no way be accurately called a “fourth-generation Coloradan”–and if he is, the term is meaningless.

It’s likely this fact-check is too late to affect the mail-in GOP primary, which Stapleton is widely expected to win. But between this and the totally self-inflicted damage Stapleton took over his silly lie about the Trump tax cuts, Stapleton has a severe credibility problem going into the general election.

At this point, it would be a mistake to accept anything Walker Stapleton says at face value.