May 13, 2026 10:26 AM UTC

"Rock" Bottoms' Desperate Quest For Attention Mars Session's End

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Denver Post’s Seth Klamann and Nick Coltrain dutifully report from the Colorado House floor where the clock is ticking down and even the most dispassionate and deliberative nerves are frayed, and yesterday the marginal third candidate for governor Rep. Scott Bottoms once again managed to make a disgraceful spectacle during a debate that reportedly almost came to blows:

A Republican lawmaker from Colorado Springs referred to George Floyd as a “thug” this morning and claimed the Minnesota man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee against his neck, was killed by a drug overdose.

The comments from Rep. Scott Bottoms came amid floor debate on Senate Bill 190. The measure would require the prompt release of video or audio footage that captures the deadly use of force by law enforcement, and police would be required to contact the family of the person killed and offer them access to the footage. The bill would also block officers investigating a police killing from making public comments about the case that may prejudice any future legal proceedings or inquiries.

As Colorado Newsline reports, Bottoms managed to bring debate over Senate Bill 190 to a halt repeatedly with unparliamentary direct attacks on other lawmakers and the chair during this debate, followed by an absurd revisionist recounting of the death of George Floyd in 2020–accomplishing the dubious goal of making the morning about himself:

Tensions were high in the House chamber during the bill’s debate, and the chair called a break after Rep. Scott Bottoms, a Colorado Springs Republican, called George Floyd a “thug” and said the Minneapolis man died from a drug overdose.

Floyd’s death and widely-shared video footage of the incident was a catalyst in the massive wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism in the summer of 2020. Two medical examiners found his death to be homicide by asphyxiation, and that Floyd’s heart disease and drug use contributed to his death but did not primarily cause it. The police officer involved was convicted of murder in 2021.

English spoke about Floyd and “senseless murders by the hands of the police” during an impassioned floor speech while introducing the bill.

Bottoms, who is running for governor this year, criticized her rhetoric and then made the comment about Floyd, prompting multiple recesses as House leadership worked to lower the temperature in the room. Debate continued for about one more hour and then the bill passed on a voice vote.

The Post reports that at one point, House sergeants had to step between lawmakers to keep things from getting out of hand. That of course would have suited Bottoms’ purposes just fine, since the whole purpose of this deplorable exercise was to drag eyeballs kicking and screaming to a third-rate candidate for governor. If it’s necessary, there is ample documentation proving the cause of George Floyd’s death, determined to be the police officer who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for nine and a half minutes. Having to restate these basic facts is itself frustrating, an undue validation of Bottoms’ slander.

But the fact that Bottoms is completely wrong in his outrageous assertions is of secondary importance to why this repulsive episode occurred on the next-to-last day of the legislative session at all. These are Rep. Bottoms’ final days in the chamber barring an unexpected special session, and since Bottoms is presently on course to place a distant third in the June 30th gubernatorial primary, soon the only audience he will have to offend will be in the pews each Sunday at his decidedly less-than-mega church in Colorado Springs.

Having brought us once again to “Rock Bottoms,” we console ourselves by remembering it’s almost over for him.