October 12, 2023 12:07 PM UTC

Ken Buck Folds Like A Cheap Suit For Steve Scalise

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• by: Colorado Pols

Following yesterday’s House GOP “candidate forum” featuring two contenders to replace ousted former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado refused to support either Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan due to their inability in Buck’s view to clearly state for the record that Joe Biden was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election.

For taking this momentarily principled stand, Buck was rewarded with another round of laudatory press coverage of the kind he has regularly enjoyed in recent months for “challenging the party establishment,” such as the Washington Post’s Philip Bump:

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) had a question for the two Republicans leading the race to succeed Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House speaker: Who won the 2020 election?

That’s not really how it was phrased; Politico’s sources in the closed-door meeting where it was offered put it as, “Did Donald Trump win the 2020 election?” But that was the gist. Buck was asking the potential next leader of the House whether he would side with reality — Trump lost — or with the mirage of fraud and theft that Trump has been so relentless about presenting…

“If we don’t have the moral clarity to decide whether President Biden won or not,” he said, “we don’t have the moral clarity to rule in this country, period.”

Axios:

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said he voted “present” during the GOP’s internal speaker nomination poll because neither House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) nor Rep Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) would clearly say if they believe the 2020 election was legitimate.

Why it matters: Though Scalise ultimately won the Republican Party’s nomination, he may fail to get the 217 votes needed to clinch the gavel if he can’t win over holdout lawmakers like Buck…

Well folks, that was yesterday. And here is Ken Buck this morning:

We did our due diligence, and nowhere have we found an updated statement from Steve Scalise admitting that the 2020 presidential election was fairly decided. Scalise and Jordan both voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and neither of them has recanted despite Donald Trump’s allegations of election fraud having been repeatedly proven baseless. If either Scalise or Jordan were to announce a change of heart on this subject it would be huge news.

If Buck falls in line to support Scalise without a clear concession on what was a dealbreaker less than 24 hours ago, it’s a humiliating cave-in that should receive just as much attention as Buck received yesterday for “standing his ground.” Buck has developed a pattern of paying lip service to a sensible outcome, be it accepting election results or funding the government, and then “Buckpedaling” his way out of actually helping to solve the problem.

Thanks for the principles while Buck briefly had them. If you blinked you might have missed it.