February 06, 2020 12:55 PM UTC

Celebratin' Trump Skatin' On The State House Floor

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• by: Colorado Pols

Via GOP Rep. Matt Soper, Colorado House Republicans had themselves an extemporaneous party on the floor of the chamber today to celebrate the acquittal yesterday of President Donald Trump:

Rep. Soper exults less than eloquently:

The rights of the innocence [sic] were upheld. The House Republican caucus celebrated the exoneration of President Trump.

Long live the “rights of the innocence!” A couple of points though, first being that as a lawyer–even a lawyer with poor grammar–Rep. Soper should know that acquittal and “exoneration” are meaningfully distinct from one another, that is they are not synonymous and can’t be used interchangeably. We realize that Republicans right to the top are having trouble with this distinction recently.

The other problem is it was our understanding that overtly political demonstrations of this kind were not allowed inside the walls of the state capitol. Back in 2018 when a portrait of Vladimir Putin was planted where Donald Trump’s should have been in the capitol rotunda as a prank, then-Senate President Kevin Grantham was highly uptight about the supposed breach of decorum:

Grantham says he was not sure it was real at first, but says they are no looking into how it happened.

“This is basically a political statement and political demonstration within the capitol. It is simply not allowed,” he said. [Pols emphasis]

So much for that we guess!

But if at any point between now in November Colorado Republicans find it strategic to put daylight between themselves and an unpopular President who has already cost them one election, here’s a photo that will make that more or less impossible. We’ll see in November how much the House GOP minority regrets it.