November 27, 2018 03:54 PM UTC

Colorado Trump Backer Warns Gardner to Apply an Even Tighter Bear Hug to the President

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• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

The chair of a large Trump-backing organization hopped on conservative KNUS radio yesterday and warned U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) that he’d better put an even tighter embrace around Trump.

“I think he’d better start supporting the President’s issues when it comes to border security, and fighting against illegal immigration, and supporting the president on all of the important issues that the president got elected on, but specifically illegal immigration,” said former Colorado Springs lawmaker Ted Harvey, who chairs the Committee to Defend the President.

I left a phone message for Harvey asking why he’s critical of Gardner, given Gardner’s 91 percent pro-Trump voting record, including Gardner’s major votes for three Trump-backed bills to kill Obamacare and his vote for the Trump tax bill.

Harvey didn’t immediately respond, but the former director of Colorado’s Republican Party, Dick Wadhams, countered Harvey’s position in a recent KNUS interview, saying Gardner has always been there for Trump.

“Okay, [Gardner] voted for, and was a day in, day out defender of the tax cuts,” Wadhams said recently on KNUS. “He has been a defender of deregulation. He’s been the defender of Trump’s foreign policy. So, tell me, where has Cory fallen down, as U. S. Senator for Trump?”

Commenting on this month’s election, Harvey said on KNUS that Republican candidate for governor Walker Stapleton had “no campaign” because he didn’t “run on any of the major issues that mobilize grassroots conservatives to get out and work their butts off to win an election.”

And U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora was “demoralizing” die-hard Republicans in his district by “actively campaigning against the president.”

“We are going to have to find candidates who will passionately and articulately defend the conservative platform, and, I would argue, defend the president and the policies that he is pushing,” continued Harvey on air. “And then we will have the opportunity to win elections.”

Harvey has long taken a hard line on illegal immigration, once saying he opposed a path to citizenship (and in-state tuition) for undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children.

Harvey founded the Committee to Defend the President, which was first set up as the Stop Hillary PAC.

Listen to Harvey on KNUS’ Chuck and Julie Show Nov. 26: