November 28, 2023 10:53 AM UTC

Ken Buck STILL Won't Say Lauren Boebert's Name

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• by: Colorado Pols

Politico’s Kelly Garrity reports on another appearance by retiring GOP Rep. “KenSNBC” Buck, condemning once again fellow Republicans who are still promulgating the “Big Lie” that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election as has become a regular refrain for Buck–this time on Face the Nation Sunday:

“Everybody who thinks that the election was stolen or talks about the election being stolen is lying to America,” the Colorado Republican said during an interview in CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Buck didn’t stop there.

“Everyone who makes the argument that January 6 was, you know, an unguided tour of the Capitol is lying to America. Everyone who says that the prisoners who are being prosecuted right now for their involvement in January 6, that they are somehow political prisoners or that they didn’t commit crimes, those folks are lying to America.”

As readers know, Rep. Buck has been increasingly vocal in his condemnation of Big Liars in the runup to and especially since his announcement that he would not seek another term representing Colorado’s safest Republican seat in Congress. After joining the “Gaetz Eight” chaos agents who voted to toss former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Buck imposed rejection of the “Big Lie” as a litmus test for McCarthy’s successor.

That is, until Buck folded under pressure and signaled he would support election denier Rep. Steve Scalise. And then Buck fell in line behind Mike Johnson despite Johnson’s own role in the 2020 coup plot. As we originally pointed out when Buck announced his support for Johnson, before Buck became a born-again defender of the 2020 elections he too signed on to Johnson’s controversial amicus brief supporting Texas’ failed case to challenge Pennsylvania election law:

“I signed on to that brief also and I believe that going through the courts to challenge an election is absolutely proper and it’s been done dozens of times in American history. What’s wrong is to try to stop a legal function, a legislative function like counting the votes in an election, as happened on January 6,” he said.

The problem with this excuse is that although Buck has since come to believe that the 2020 presidential election was legitimate, soaking up media attention garnered in response and developing Buck’s “mavericky” cable news-friendly persona, Mike Johnson has never publicly conceded that Joe Biden is the rightful President of the United States. In addition, Johnson’s statements about the 2020 presidential election went way beyond the scope of the amicus brief Buck co-signed, helping spread Sidney Powell and Joe Oltmann’s crackpot theories about Dominion Voting Systems and dead Venezuelan dictators.

Splitting hairs to defend the election denier Buck nonetheless backed to be Speaker seriously compromises the integrity of the new image Buck has manufactured ahead of his expected transition from lawmaker to full-time cable news talking head. But from a local point of view, no less damaging to Buck’s credibility is the fact that his criticisms apply to fellow Coloradan and unrepentant 2020 election denier Rep. Lauren Boebert as much as to Johnson, Scalise, and everybody else Buck says is “lying to America.”

It’s very simple: if Buck expected anyone to trust his newfound integrity, it would apply to everyone. Buck’s pocketing of his principles at clutch moments in the GOP’s chaotic year in the majority, and refusal to challenge Boebert’s own election denial for fear of further endangering her re-election, shows that the right thing is not Buck’s only motivator.

Even on his way out the door, Buck is running cover for the election deniers he plans to leave behind.