August 08, 2019 12:35 PM UTC

No Comment Cory: A Snapshot of Silence

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Cory gets caught:

Surprising elected officials for interviews outside public events, rather than sitting down for thoughtful conversations isn’t how we like to do business. But when your representatives refuse to answer basic questions, this is the option that remains to seek answers.

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) August 8, 2019

—–
If you can find him, Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) generally won’t wade into specifics on any subject related to politics or public policy. This is weird, because discussing politics and public policy is pretty much the definition of his actual job.

Trying to figure out where Gardner stands on any issue of substance is a near-impossible task. Gardner’s favorite questions are of the rhetorical variety; the rest of them he just refuses to answer altogether. We’ve seen so many examples lately of Gardner declining to comment to reporters — or outright running away from them — that we started keeping a list.

Below we detail examples of Gardner and his office refusing to comment on a variety of subjects. This is just in the last month.

(Note: All emphasis/bolding is ours)

July 16, 2019

We’ve mentioned this before, but this segment from Kyle Clark of 9News is a perfect place to begin:

CLARK: We have been trying to get ahold of Colorado Senator Cory Gardner to discuss President Trump’s racist Tweets telling American Congresswomen of color they should go back where they came from. And today, we heard this from Gardner and his staff…

At this point Clark goes silent for several seconds.

CLARK: Yeah, we didn’t hear anything from them. They aren’t responding to us.

August 6, 2019

Deja vu!

CLARK: We’re still hoping to talk with Colorado’s Republican Senator Cory Gardner about this. His staff and his campaign team are not acknowledging our requests for an interview.

June 28, 2019

Alex Burness of the Colorado Independent actually saw Gardner in the flesh, but couldn’t get a comment:

At an event in Denver just now, I went up to Cory Gardner, looking to ask him about immigration and his lack of availability to the press and the public.

He smiled wide, talked about how we ran a story he didn’t like and zipped away.

— Alex Burness (@alex_burness) June 28, 2019

July 10, 2019

Westword tried in vain to get a response from Gardner for a story about a lawsuit seeking to dismantle the Affordable Care Act:

Democrats have pressed Gardner, widely viewed as the most vulnerable Republican senator in the 2020 election, to take a position on Texas v. Azar, but he has repeatedly declined to comment, most recently claiming in May that he hadn’t seen a brief filed by the Trump administration in support of the lawsuit. Gardner’s office did not respond on Tuesday to multiple inquiries regarding his views on the lawsuit.

July 17, 2019

Here’s the Associated Press on a story about reactions to President Trump’s racist tweets last month:

“I disagree with the president,” Gardner told Denver-area KOA NewsRadio. “I wouldn’t have sent these tweets.”

But asked by CNN later at the Capitol, he would not say whether he thought Trump’s tweets were racist. 

July 19, 2019

The Greeley Tribune would like to ask some questions about a pending visit from Vice President Mike Pence to raise money for Gardner:

Phone calls to spokespeople for Gardner regarding further details of Pence’s visit were not returned.

July 22, 2019

Marianne Goodland of the Colorado Springs Gazette had no luck reaching Gardner’s office in reaction to being called out by state Rep. Tom Sullivan:

A Gardner spokeswoman was asked for a comment in response to Sullivan’s comments about the senator but did not provide one. 

July 24, 2019

The Vail Daily had some questions about a controversial wilderness bill supported by Gardner:

A spokeswoman for Colorado Republican Gardner, who has yet to sponsor a significant wilderness bill during his time in office, did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

July 26, 2019

It’s not just you, Vail Daily. Here’s Westword making an attempt:

A spokesperson for Gardner did not respond to questions regarding his stance on the CORE Act or his plans to introduce a companion version of Tipton’s bill.

August 2, 2019

The Colorado Independent had some fundraising questions for Gardner:

Gardner’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

August 5, 2019

The Denver Post and the Boulder Daily Camera get bupkis:

Gardner condemned the weekend attacks in a statement but his office declined to comment on Trump’s red-flag idea Monday.

August 4 & 5, 2019

Bring us home, Kyle Clark:

We’ll discuss this acknowledgment by Senator Gardner should he agree to sit down for an interview with #9News in the future. #copolitics https://t.co/EeoziFhxZb

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) August 4, 2019

#9NEWS requested an interview with @SenCoryGardner to discuss mass shootings, domestic terrorism, and white supremacy. His office and his campaign did not respond to our requests. #copolitics

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) August 6, 2019