August 11, 2016 02:02 PM UTC

Colorado GOP's Non-Response To Trump 2nd Amendment Remarks Another Fat Sack of "Not Good Enough"

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• by: Colorado Pols

9NEWS’ Brandon Rittiman tried to get Colorado Republicans on the record in response to hotly controversial remarks from GOP presidntial nominee Donald Trump this week, about the possibility of “Second Amendment people” stopping a potential President Hillary Clinton from “abolishing” the Second Amendment–you know, doing what “Second Amendment people” do. He didn’t have much success:

Ranking members of the GOP in Colorado stayed largely silent on Donald Trump’s latest controversial statement, which some have taken as an incitement of violence against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton…

Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Darryl Glenn declined to comment, his campaign staff told 9NEWS…

But state party chairman Steve House did reply.

“I take Trump at his word,” House said. “That he meant that 2nd Amendment supporters can unify and vote to defeat Hillary Clinton.”

Rittiman wasn’t able to reach Rep. Mike Coffman, whose on-again off-again distancing from Donald Trump has yet to include the critical words “I won’t vote for Trump.” According to the Colorado Statesman’s Ernest Luning, even now Coffman can’t bring himself to go the full measure:

“Once again, Donald Trump has made a reckless and irresponsible statement — it’s become a habit for him, and it has to stop,” Coffman told The Colorado Statesman. [Pols emphasis]

A spokesman for Coffman’s Democratic challenger, state Sen. Morgan Carroll, however, tore into Coffman for distancing himself from Trump without fully rejecting his party’s nominee.

At the same time, elected Republicans, candidates and party officials in Colorado declined to wade into the clash over Trump’s remarks, with most simply ignoring inquiries from The Statesman entirely.

At this point there’s an increasingly undeniable reason why Coffman and other Republicans can’t fully divest from Trump, and it’s one we’ve talked about repeatedly in relation to Coffman. No matter what Trump says, or how many Americans he offends with his out-of-control rhetoric, there is a large percentage of the Republican base that remains completely loyal to Trump. A memo yesterday from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) yesterday explains in clear terms:

After Mike Coffman (CO-06) released an ad saying he will “stand up to President Trump,” he was immediately asked the obvious follow up question: Does this mean that you won’t vote for Trump? His answer: Not necessarily.

The result: He got called out for not being straight with voters and trying to have it both ways, especially since his spokeswoman previously said that he would “obviously” support the Republican nominee…

The bottom line, according to the DCCC’s internal polls?

Mike Coffman needs to earn around 90% of the Republican vote in CO-06 in order to win. [Pols emphasis]

Overwhelmingly, these Republican base voters support Donald Trump for President. Hillary Clinton is beating Donald Trump by 14 points in CO-06 according to recent polls, but still 1 out of 3 voters in CO-06 have already decided to support Trump. Coffman needs every one of those votes to win.

Coffman, and many other swing-district Republicans like him, is very close to screwed. It’s basically impossible to envision Coffman winning re-election in November in a district where the opposing presidential candidate is leading by a whopping 14 points. At the same time, Coffman can’t fully divorce from his own presidential nominee without losing so much of his Republican base as to virtually assure defeat.

At this point, it’s very difficult to see the path forward for Coffman, other than continued half-measures and equivocal statements that satisfy no one. Trump has finally brought Mike Coffman’s own political contradictions to the surface, contradictions Coffman has sought to evade for many years.

For all of these reasons and more, Coffman’s game is closer to being up in 2016 than ever before.