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March 08, 2022 08:43 AM UTC

Wadhams Wants Candidates With the 'Guts' To Say 'Fraud Didn't Happen' But Praises Some Who Dodge the Question

  • 18 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(A collection of contradictions — Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Colorado Republican Dick Wadhams, the moderator of a GOP candidate forum Thursday, hops up and down and insists that Colorado voters will consider Republican candidates “credible” only if the candidates say the 2020 election wasn’t stolen. He wants candidates with the “guts” to say, “Fraud didn’t happen.”

Yet, after three of four Republican congressional candidates at Thursday’s GOP forum either brazenly dodged his questions about fraud in the 2020 election or delivered baseless election conspiracy theories, Wadhams told the audience at the conclusion of the event that he’d “rarely seen a forum with four more articulate, thoughtful” candidates.

Republicans CD8 Hopefuls Debate in Fort Lupton, 3/3/22

Wadhams asked the candidates at Thursday’s forum in Fort Lupton for Republicans in the race to represent Colorado’s new congressional district, whether the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and whether it was stolen in Colorado and in Weld County.

Only state Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer (R-Brighton) answered the questions directly, as she’s done before, stating that the 2020 election was fair.

“No, it was not stolen in Weld County,” said Kirkmeyer. “We have a county clerk that’s Republican. Her and her team have been running elections in this county for over 17 years. I think she knows what she’s doing. Second question, was the election stolen. No. … I just want you all to know the secretary of state in this state does not run the elections. It’s county clerks, and the majority of our county clerks are Republicans. So do I trust them? Yes, I do.

Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann dodged the question, as she’d done before, by saying “Biden is a horrible president” and “unfortunately, he is our president,” without saying whether she thinks he won the presidency due to fraud.

“I’m tired of being called a conspiracy theorist just because I want to make sure our elections are fair,” said Kulman at the forum. “It’s not a dumb question. It’s absolutely something we should be asking every single day.”

Tyler Alcorn, a former Army Green Beret, delivered the same dodge, saying, “President Biden, unfortunately, is our president; nothing that we can do to change that today.”

This approach, to say Biden is the president while staying mum about fraud, was once recommended to Colorado candidates by Colorado GOP chair Kristi Burton Brown.

Alcorn said Colorado should “do away with mail-in ballots,” implying that he, baselessly, sees serious fraud potential in the state.

Jewels Gray, a businesswoman, got cheers after saying, falsely, that Colorado’s voting system is vulnerable and being abused.

“There are too many irregularities to ignore. Suitcases being pulled out from under tables, windows being covered so Poll watchers can’t see what’s going on.” said Gray. … We do need an end to mail-in ballots, except for absentee, of course, and go back to in-person voting.”

“We need to end the voting machines because they’re too vulnerable to hacking an outside influence. And we definitely need to clean up the voter rolls so dead aren’t voting. … And I’m sorry. But if you’re not a citizen, you probably shouldn’t be voting in our elections.”

Where’s Wadhams?

The moderator listening to these statements was Wadhams, who’s a respected GOP figure in Colorado, and he didn’t utter a word of fact-checking about the election conspiracies or about the insulting nonanswers to his questions on the topic, which — to be fair — he at least asked.

Wadhams

Wadhams, who’s a former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, was silent even though he’s said “the only way” candidates in Colorado “can be credible in a general election” is if they’re “willing to say, ‘No, the election was not stolen.'”

“I think candidates ought to look at the reporter and say, ‘I do not believe the election was stolen,’ Wadhams told KNUS host Peter Boyles last year. He further added, “We just need to have candidates who have the guts to say, ‘No, the fraud didn’t happen, Trump lost the election.’”

Instead of raising his voice for our own fair elections, at the exact same time that Ukrainians are dying for democracy in Europe, Wadhams concluded the forum by lavishing the candidates with unqualified praise.

“I mean what I’m about to say, sincerely,” said Wadhams in his closing comments. “I have rarely seen a forum with four more articulate, thoughtful, strong candidates for any office in [inaudible] years. I do not live in the 8th Congressional District, but those of you who do are very fortunate to have this kind of choice in front of you in June or whoever is up on the ballot I guess.”

A call to Wadhams seeking to know why he would offer such high praise to three of the forum’s four candidates who dodged his election-conspiracy questions — or embraced such conspiracies — was not returned.

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18 thoughts on “Wadhams Wants Candidates With the ‘Guts’ To Say ‘Fraud Didn’t Happen’ But Praises Some Who Dodge the Question”

  1. Wadhams will forever be  “Mr. Ass Talk” in my mind. 

    Props to Kirkmeyer for an honest answer- she, at least, is looking to appeal to Unaffiliated voters instead of just the Q believers. If she’s the R nominee, Caraveo or Tedesco will have a real contest for CD8.

     

     

  3. Doubtless there were some “election irregularities” in 2020 and if there is credible evidence of such they should be investigated, not for the sake of evidencing Trump’s loss (that’s a fruitless endeavor) but for the goal of election integrity. That being said at this point no alleged “irregularities” would have any material effect on the outcome of the election, as Trump’s own AG William Barr has maintained.

    GOP candidates have plenty of ammo in their magazines with inflation, gas prices, crime, Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, oppressive COVID policies, open border policies flooding the country with fentanyl, and the rejection of the progressive Democratic agenda to mention a few.

    Glen Youngkin is Governor of Virginia because he knew you don’t win elections shooting blanks, you use live ammo. GOP  candidates in Colorado take note. 

     

    1. So by “live ammo”, you mean telling voters that teachers are distorting history to make white kids feel bad. 
      We know what side you’re on.

      2. I know what Allyn is trying to say because I actually followed the VA gubernatorial election closely.

        "we know what side you're on….." You mean I KNOW.

        Face it, kw. You just don't like Republicans.

        1. I don’t like misinformation. Allyncooper, on the other hand, seems to be a big fan, as are most Republicans these days- because it is a winning strategy.

          Democrats, for the most part, are on the side of empiric facts and science. I’ll take that side.

    2. Yep.  Mark Meadows needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law! . . .

      . . . way, way past time to make an example of him and all those GOPers who display such wanton disregard for election integrity.

      Glen Youngkin is Governor of Virginia today because of his disingenuous appeals to closeted racists about CRT. How that ties to “election integrity” is unfathomable? Given his antics in his short time in office, I doubt he’d win that same election today, however . . .

    3. Youngkin is Governor of Virginia because he had been a successful business man. He was seen as a candidate with no prior record on public decisions, and capable of talking about topics without getting pinned down to specific positions. And having a “long-time politician” for an opponent, someone who had a record of public service to look at and demonize. 

      Youngkin .. gop .. 50.6% .. 1,663,596

      McAuliffe .. dem .. 48.7% .. 1,600,116

      And a result of his first few weeks in office, showing himself to be a solid Republican?

      Gov. Youngkin’s job approval rating is 85 percent among Republicans, compared to 81 percent of Democrats who said they disapprove of his short time as governor, according to a Wason Center poll released Monday. 

      “In this highly polarized environment, we see partisans running to their corners on how they view the direction of the Commonwealth and the job of the governor,” Quentin Kidd, academic director of the Wason Center said in a statement accompanying the poll. 

      Overall, 41 percent of Virginia voters approve of Youngkin’s job performance during his first few weeks in office and 43 percent disapprove. Sixteen percent said they did not know how they felt.

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