Ken Buck Blew Off Almost All The Impeachment Hearings

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by: Colorado Pols

Colorado GOP chairman Rep. Ken Buck (R).

Late last month as readers will recall, several dozen Republican members of Congress charged into a secure facility in the basement of the U.S. Capitol to “protest” the so-called “secret closed-door hearings” then underway in the early phase of the House’s impeachment inquiry–a process that has now moved on to explosive public hearings that have reconfirmed the worst of the allegations against President Donald Trump.

Rep. Ken Buck supported the “raid” by the House GOP of the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) in the basement of the Capitol, even though that support quickly backfired on Buck since as a member of the House Judiciary Committee Buck was allowed to participate in the very hearings he complained were inaccessible. With that Buck became more of a hypocritical figure than a sympathetic one, doing his best to help de-legitimize the House GOP’s unsteady defense of Trump against the impeachment process.

And as the Colorado Independent reports, Buck’s ditching of impeachment hearings he could have participated in was no isolated incident:

Congressman Ken Buck has railed against the closed-door impeachment proceedings led by U.S. House Democrats in recent months. The process is “occurring outside of the full view of the American people,” he wrote in an October op-ed in Fox News, before the public impeachment hearings began.

But the Colorado Republican — the only member of the state’s congressional delegation with access to those closed-door briefings — appears to have skipped the vast majority of them.

An analysis of transcripts from the 15 closed-door depositions that have been released by House lawmakers shows that Buck was present at just one, the testimony of William Taylor, acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, on Oct. 22. [Pols emphasis]

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the congressman from Weld County was among the 47 Republicans who had access to the depositions.

Ironically, it was the highly damaging testimony from acting ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor on October 22nd that prompted Minority Whip Steve Scalise to lead the charge of Republican members into the SCIF the following day, hoping to create a diversion from Taylor’s testimony. Rep. Buck himself appears to have not wanted to risk his own security clearance by joining in an unsanctioned “occupation” of a secure facility he already had access to, but promulgating the fiction that these hearings were any less open to Republicans in Congress than Democrats is an inexcusable deception Ken Buck has knowingly engaged in.

In this deception Rep. Buck is far from alone, but he’s our local case in point.

12 thoughts on “Ken Buck Blew Off Almost All The Impeachment Hearings”

kwtree says:

November 22, 2019 at 1:11 pm

With his 28% absentee rate, Buck barely shows up for work anyway.

That’s from Govtrack.us. Buck missed 28% of votes from April to June of this year, and 6% overall, which is much worse than the average Congresscritter.

For comparison, Neguse missed 1 vote all year, .2%.
Tipton missed .5% of all roll call votes this year.

Degette missed about 1% of all roll call votes this year.

Lamborn missed about 2.5% of all votes this year.

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1. MADCO says:
  
  November 22, 2019 at 1:53 pm
  
  that's kind of harsh-
  first, Senator Buck had to be in Colorado to not run the CO GOP. that takes time
  
  Also – how you gonna show up and be in attendance, when your goal is to act the fool in the hallway and storm the room you were supposed to be in already? He can't be in two places at once, right?
  
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2. RepealAndReplace says:
  
  November 23, 2019 at 12:46 pm
  
  There are two ways to look at this.
  
  Yes, they are paid to be there and shouldn't draw a paycheck if they are not showing up.
  
  OTOH, I only wish Gardner would blow off 28% of roll call votes in the Senate.
  
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Conserv. Head Banger says:

November 22, 2019 at 2:45 pm

How does Ken Buck now spell RECALL ???

F A I L U R E

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Nasty Woman says:

November 22, 2019 at 3:32 pm

The greedy old perverts practice a form of willful ignorance. They do not read the Mueller report, even though they have access to the full report. They do not read documents, including the stripped bare thing that SFB handed out of his phone call to Ukraine. They do not attend hearings.

Their reasoning is silly and stupid. When asked about anything they rely on deniability of knowing any facts. Of course some are absolutely brick stupid, like their cult leader SFB, but others like Buck have to find some way to not be able to answer questions or make decisions.

Buck wants to be a SFB supporter to keep his seat. But, there is no one out there that could beat him even if he did say something.

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1. Conserv. Head Banger says:
  
  November 22, 2019 at 3:39 pm
  
  "some are absolutely brick stupid……" Devin Nunes and "Gym" Jordan come quickly to mind.
  
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  1. Nasty Woman says:
    
    November 22, 2019 at 5:19 pm
    
    I offer Doug Lamborn for Colorado brick works. Anyone knows what he is doing it D.C.? That is if he is there.
    
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kwtree says:

November 22, 2019 at 5:39 pm

If you look at Lamborn’s govtrack record, you can see that he has been busy denying funding to sick kids (CHIP), denying funding to National Public Radio, and Corporation for Public Broadcasting, denying admission to the US of any U N members who had engaged in espionage against the US ( so most of Trump’s friends from Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, etc), denying funding to the Palestinian Authority, etc. So lots of denying and naysaying.

In 12 years in Congress, Lamborn has sponsored 7 bills that became law…some of them naming of Federal buildings, commemorative coins, etc.

Repping EPCO values!!

His official website shows him lamenting “lackluster”impeachment hearings, and just to show he does like fancy words that start with L, he “lambastes” (sic) Democrats Impeachment Resolution. https://lamborn.house.gov/media

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gertie97 says:

November 22, 2019 at 6:36 pm

Until the voters in Dumbphuckistan get tired of it, Buck and his ilk are in.

Please note, I live in a similar district and Tipton is the same thing.

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1. Voyageur says:
  
  November 22, 2019 at 10:16 pm
  
  I actually rate Tipton a notch or two above Buck. Fortunately while my farm and roots are in Phillips County, I vote in Denver where the competent and caring Diana DeGette takes very good care of me.
  
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  1. gertie97 says:
    
    November 23, 2019 at 9:28 am
    
    Lucky you, V. Over here, we haven't had decent representation since Salazar, Campbell, and before him, Strang and Kogovsek.
    
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    1. Mr. L. Prosser says:
      
      November 23, 2019 at 10:04 am
      
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