March 16, 2020 05:26 PM UTC

What Happened to Cory Gardner's "Conservation Roundtable" With President Trump?

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• by: Erik Maulbetsch

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Last Thursday, while speaking with reporters at the White House, President Trump noted that his planned trip to Colorado on Friday with Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) was canceled. We now have a video clip of that statement: 

“I was going out to Nevada, as I said. I was going to Colorado, where we have Cory Gardner running and he’s doing a great job, by the way. He’s done a fantastic job, but we’ve postponed that. I think we’re gonna have Cory coming in here- maybe on Friday. We’re gonna do our event from the White House. We have a lot of things that we’re moving around because of what’s happening and because I want to be here.”

The only reported event on the President’s schedule was a high-dollar Denver fundraiser with Gardner. The possibility that Trump would hold the campaign fundraiser at the White House raised the eyebrows of numerous reporters, both nationally and locally.

The Gardner campaign, which has been notoriously reluctant to engage with the media, immediately released a statement. https://twitter.com/jmdobkin/status/1238149672016830465

No such non-campaign event had been previously announced. However, the $100,000 per couple fundraiser did include a “roundtable.”

It’s unclear if such a roundtable either took place already or is still in the planning stages. Neither Gardner’s office, nor his campaign have responded to inquires about the event. An email to the White House’s Office of Public Liaison was not immediately returned.

The Colorado Times Recorder has also reached out to two conservation organizations (Colorado Wildlife Fund and the Congressional Sportsmen Foundation), both cited by Gardner in a recent press release about securing funding for the Land & Water Conservation Fund. This article will be updated with any comments received.

More and more meetings and events are being canceled every day in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s certainly possible this roundtable has been postponed or canceled, but if that’s the case, no one is willing to say so.