September 10, 2020 12:04 PM UTC

Ken Buck, COVIDiot To His Last Maskless Breath

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• by: Colorado Pols

Colorado GOP chairman/Rep. Ken Buck released an extended-length fundraising video for online consumption yesterday, and there’s no need to expound too much on the 2 minutes and 40 some-odd seconds in which Buck drones on predictably about his love for freedom and hatred of bad Washington, D.C. “others” (allegedly) in both parties–but we wanted to make sure readers see this particular nine seconds, which is, if you’ll allow us to be honest, all you need to see:

That’s Rep. Buck with Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams, and it goes like this:

BUCK: Sheriff, we need a mask around here?
REAMS: Not here.
BUCK: Why not?
REAMS: ‘Cause it’s America. It’s a free country.
BUCK: God bless America.
REAMS: Let’s go shoot.

There’s a lot we could say here, for example a reminder of how severely Weld County in particular was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic’s initial wave in March and April. In a normal world, this kind of contempt for suffering in a disaster like the ongoing global pandemic would be political suicide–but in Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which comprises a healthy plurality of the electorate in Colorado’s CD-4, even areas that have suffered greatly like Weld County are more likely to reward this behavior than punish it at the polls.

Buck’s second job as chair of the statewide Republican Party, however, makes him a liability to every candidate running in Colorado with an (R) after their name. Every Republican in this state needs to decide if this speaks for them–and if they don’t want it to, they’d better say something right away.

When 50,000 Americans were dead of COVID in late April and the virus was tearing through Weld County, Buck’s cavalier opposition to basic steps like mask wearing was unacceptable.

With almost 200,000 dead today, it’s just…sick.