January 30, 2024 03:27 PM UTC

Richard Holtorf Blames Media and Colorado Pols for Reporting on His Own Words

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• by: Colorado Pols

State Rep. Richard Holtorf (R-Akron) is still talking about the one thing that he should absolutely not be talking about as he tries to secure the Republican nomination for Congress in CO-04. He’s still blaming everyone else for words that came out of his own mouth…and now, he’s even blaming Colorado Pols!

On Friday, Jan. 19th, Democrats in the state legislature put forward a resolution recognizing the anniversary of the 1973 passage of Roe v. Wade (which was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022). House Republicans responded by standing together in the well of the House of Representatives while Republican Rep. Brandi Bradley read a predictable statement affirming Republican opposition to abortion rights. For reasons that only Holtorf could explain, he then decided to step up to the microphone to tell a long story about how a college girlfriend had an abortion and that he gave her money to help her out. Lest there be any confusion, we posted in this space the complete video and transcript of Holtorf’s entire speech.

Holtorf’s House Floor speech was actually a very good illustration of why it is so critical to protect and preserve abortion rights in this country, but that’s certainly not what Holtorf was trying to accomplish. After all, Holtorf is a staunch anti-abortion Republican who just last year called abortion rights supporters “godless heathens” and in 2020 sponsored a (failed) measure to implement a 22-week abortion ban in Colorado. He’s also running for Congress in the most beet-red Republican district in Colorado in a race that will be decided by staunch conservative voters who most certainly will not be excited to know about Holtorf’s personal experience with abortion.

It’s important to repeat that we conveyed Holtorf’s words EXACTLY as they were spoken , as did many other media outlets (including Kyle Clark at 9News). Hours later, Holtorf issued a couple of statements in which he blamed the “liberal media” for committing the sin of factual accuracy:

The liberal media took my comments completely out of context claiming I paid for an abortion. These comments are reprehensible and this shoddy reporting is amateur at best and grossly inaccurate…

…The liberal media has shown their novice bias by deceitfully diving headfirst into the dark depths of lies. These snake oil peddlers will not shake my resolve as they stoop to attack my character and pro- life stance. I will always stand strong and advocate for the pro-life movement. The lesson here is to respect life and encourage women to choose life.

If Holtorf is angry that people might believe that he gave his former girlfriend money “to help her through her important critical time,” then his beef is with the guy in the mirror…the same guy who seems intent on making this story worse at every turn. Holtorf lucked out in the first CO-04 candidate debate when none of the other eight people on stage questioned him about his speech the previous week. Inexplicably, Holtorf went on the Dan Caplis radio show the very next day so that he could talk about his abortion story once again.

On Jan. 26, Holtorf was given an opportunity to talk more about the thing he shouldn’t talk about thanks to guest host Ryan Schuiling:

SCHUILING: Representative Holtorf, because I want to give you this opportunity to address it. It’s something that’s stuck in my craw, and I’m sure that a lot of people are thinking the same thing. Within one week, I think it was of each other. And to borrow the cowboy analogy, this is not my first rodeo when it comes to politics. But within one week we see these newfound revelations about you paying for an abortion and then also representative Mike Lynch, there are these details unearthed about a drunk driving arrest. [Pols emphasis] Do you believe that this was a coordinated effort, through opposition research by a fellow candidate in this race, to undermine the two of you? Do you think those two things are connected? 

First of all, if this was a “coordinated effort,” then Holtorf was involved in the coordination. Remember, Holtorf brought up his abortion story COMPLETELY ON HIS OWN. Nobody asked him about sharing his personal experience when he decided to vomit out his story on the House Floor.

Here’s how that conversation on “The Dan Caplis Show” continued:

 

Let’s break down what Holtorf said:

HOLTORF: Well, let me start with Mike. 100% opposition research. And this was, because this was tamped down. I’m one of Mike’s best friends in the state capitol. We serve on the leadership team. We’re brother roundup riders. We’ve known each other, in politics for some time now, and, 100% that was a hit job against Mike.

This “hit job” on former House Minority Leader Mike Lynch involved a September 2022 incident resulting in Lynch being arrested for driving under the influence and possessing a firearm while intoxicated. Lynch was pulled over by a state trooper after racing away from the trooper’s vehicle on I-25. Lynch was in possession of a knife and a handgun — which he pulled out of his pocket in front of the trooper — and he tried to convince the trooper to call a State Patrol lobbyist on his behalf. Lynch was found to have a blood-alcohol content of 0.165, which is more than twice the legal limit of 0.08. All of this was in a police report, and Lynch’s arrest was caught on the state trooper’s dash cam. In part because Lynch never revealed this arrest, House Republicans tried to oust Lynch from his House Minority position; Lynch eventually chose to step down on his own.

But sure, this was a political “hit job.” A very, very, VERY complicated one.

Now, back to Holtorf:

HOLTORF: But in my case. My case. In my case specifically, I was talking about and giving a speech when I voted no against the Roe v Wade anniversary day resolution, and I gave a very impassioned speech about my life and choosing life instead of making the wrong choice. Now, I will tell you when I was 20 years old and in college, and many of us have been in this situation, you make a mistake. And in this case, my girlfriend told me right before I was going to military training that she was pregnant. I left for eight weeks of that summer and went to Fort Lewis, Washington, [inaudible] before California. Eight weeks later, I get back from my military training as an ROTC cadet, and she tells me she’s had an abortion while I was gone. And it was the saddest moment of my life. As a pro-life Catholic, I was crushed. And this is my story. And, you know, Kyle Clark wants to do a hit job. The radical left they want to come after me. Whatever. You can bring on the heat. But I’ll tell my story because it’s my life. So when she was destitute, broke and really had no money, and she asked me for help. What does an honorable person do? The abortion was done. Months had gone by. And I said, I will help you. So what did I do?

SCHUILING: So that was after the fact.

HOLTORF: Of course, I gave her money. And I was so sad because I’m not going to leave her and abandon her when she’s destitute and doesn’t have any money, even to buy gas to get to college. Who would do that? I wouldn’t do that. So I gave her money. So when you say, ‘oh, yeah, I paid for an abortion,’ well, technically I didn’t. [Pols emphasis] I helped out a young woman in need because I really care about people, and I cared about her. Now, our relationship did not survive that. Unfortunately, it was just too much. We couldn’t survive it. And so we broke up and went on our way. But…and she’s a wonderful person and I’m sure she has a wonderful life. But, that’s more information than you probably wanted.

This is a different version of the story than the one that Holtorf initially told. Here’s what he said on the House Floor on Jan. 19:

When I was in college I had a girlfriend and she was a beautiful young woman. And we had the unfortunate experience of her getting pregnant. I’m Catholic, so you know my position on life. But I had to respect her rights. Because she said she didn’t want to keep her baby. And that’s hard. That’s hard for a man who respects women. But I respected her rights. And actually gave her money to help her through her important critical time so she could live her best life.

This discrepancy was not missed by Schuiling.

SCHUILING: Well, I think the voters deserve to hear it, and I applaud you for providing it. And I think it was necessary, Representative Holtorf, because the story you just told and the order of events in the timeline that is much different than how it’s being reported and you know that. [Pols emphasis] 

Remember, what was “initially reported” was what Holtorf said himself. Yet somehow, this is all an attack from the “librul media.” Oh, and it’s also OUR FAULT:

HOLTORF: Well, I know because Kyle Clark is a media midget and all he wants to do is do hack jobs against Republicans. Colorado Pols, a couple of paid-for buffoons that sit in their mother’s basement writing up articles about Republicans, trying to smear them every chance they can. It’s what, unfortunately, Republicans are listening to. And I can’t believe it. I’m like, ‘why would you listen to these morons?’ They don’t even, they’re not even credibly journalists. They’re just hitmen for the progressive left. And Colorado [inaudible] all across CD4 in the whole state. Stop listening to these hacks. [Pols emphasis] There’s this RINO Watch, this website that constantly attacks Republicans every second they can. Well, you know what, RINO watch? Why don’t you join Colorado Pols? Maybe you can pool your efforts so you can continue to attack and run Republicans in the ground. We are tired of the circular firing squads. We are tired of the backstabbing. We’ve got to heal our party, and we’ve got to bring solutions to bear, or we’re not going to win any more seats in this state.

Whoa, whoa! Let’s fact check this rant…

♦ “Colorado Pols, a couple of paid-for buffoons…”
Buffoons? Yeah, that’s fair.

♦ “[They] sit in their mother’s basement writing up articles about Republicans…”
This is not true. Long ago we forced our mothers to live in the basement and we now occupy a higher floor in the house.

SIDE NOTE: You can do better than this, Rep. Holtorf. The “blogging in their mother’s basement” thing is such an old and tired insult.

♦ “Unfortunately, Republicans are listening to [Colorado Pols]…”
They are? Cool.

♦ “Why would you listen to these morons?”
We’ve been asking that same question for 19 years.

♦ “They’re not even credibly journalists…”
True! We’re not journalists, “credibly” or otherwise. Colorado Pols is a political website — what people used to refer to as a “blog.” We’ve quite literally never claimed to be anything else.

♦ “They’re just hitmen for the progressive left…”
How do you know what pronouns we use? Maybe we’re “hit-them” for the progressive left.

♦ “Well, you know what, RINO Watch? Why don’t you join Colorado Pols?”
No thanks. We’re good.

 

When he’s not sticking both feet in his mouth, Richard Holtorf is the head rancher guy at Buffalo Springs Ranch. They must spend a lot of time at Buffalo Springs digging holes, because Holtorf sure doesn’t know when to stop.