Susan Greene reports for the Aurora Sentinel on Mayor Mike Coffman’s State of the City address delivered yesterday, the first report back to the citizens of Aurora after ex-President Donald Trump traveled to the edge of town earlier this month to expound on the fiction that the city has been “taken over” by migrant gangs, with the whole state of Colorado the next helpless target. As we’ve covered in this space, Coffman early on helped spread the false stories that ultimately brought Trump to town to amplify, only changing his tune after the economic and reputational damage to the city became intolerable.
But yesterday, Mayor Mike sounded like any uncertainty over the truth of what’s going on in his city is resolved:
Mayor Mike Coffman started his state of the city speech Tuesday by lamenting one of the worst black eyes Aurora has endured since the 2012 theater shooting: A false narrative by Donald Trump and far-right Republicans this campaign season that Venezuelan gang members have overrun the city.
“To let that narrative stand has consequences to the city, real consequences for businesses that are thinking about moving here, for conventions that are thinking about coming here,” he said. “What is important as mayor is to stand up and to never, never let anyone sacrifice the interest of this city for a political campaign. Never, never.” [Pols emphasis]
The problem, of course, is that’s what Mayor Mike initially did, and other less responsible actors like City Councillor Danielle Jurinsky are still doing:
Without mentioning Trump by name Tuesday, Coffman referred to the former president’s remarks as “unfortunate.”
Most of the council’s 11 members attended the luncheon, although Jurinsky was absent.
Although Mayor Coffman has been described in some news reports as regretful of his own role in spreading the misinformation that snowballed into a central Trump campaign talking point, he has never taken public responsibility for this consequential mistake. Instead, Coffman blames Trump for the unfounded tales Coffman helped push up the conservative media food chain, while refusing to say Trump’s name–and inexplicably says that despite all of the harm Trump has done to Aurora by amplifying this false narrative of a city under siege, he still intends to vote for Trump.
By staying consistent recently and continuing to push back against “crisis comms” from the slumlord whose decaying apartment buildings led to the controversy well before the “migrant invasion” became an election-year talking point, Coffman has tried to walk back his earlier mistakes. But by refusing to directly confront even his own rogue city councilor, let alone Donald Trump–who Coffman seems to support more today than when Trump kicked Coffman on his way out of Congress in 2018, despite everything that has happened since then–Coffman is failing Aurora where he is needed most. As a Republican former member of Congress, Coffman could be a powerful voice of sanity calling out Trump’s appeal to the lowest common denominator of American politics, fear and hatred, in the campaign’s final weeks.
Instead, Coffman is a poster boy for every Republican’s moral compromise in 2024.
Cowardice Trumped his conscience.
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He is, was, and will forever be a coward. He slinks from public office to public office sucking from the public teat and doing nothing for his constituents. His losing to Crow was one of the highlights of my "political life." He deserves every bit of the shitshow in Aurora he helped created.
Space: I don't agree with all your factoids, but your overall thought is good. Coffman had a chance to stand-up and be counted. Liz Cheney stood up, and is still doing so, even at the cost of her political career. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has owned Trump every time he tried to take her on. Trump finally gave up. Why not Mike Coffman?
That question answers itself.
Coffman is, and acts, as a typical Republican.
(Murkowski and Cheney are notable as exceptions when not being so.)
The evidence is there. My dealings with him as a congressman showed me that he is ineffective, partisan as hell, and really does nothing useful for society. Ever.
Stand up for your town or bend the knee to the idiot. It was an easy choice for Coffman.
Talk to a child as a child. Talk to idiots in their language.
"Mayor Mike has lied. He and other Republicans bear false witness against their fellow Christians. The question is not to turn the other cheek the question is on your own soul: Do you understand the wisdom of Romans 6:16? “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?”
Are you a slave to Trump or a slave of God?"
Find the right messenger to shove this in their face like a Priest cock down an alter boys throat.
Message Ok, metaphor too rapey. Can you express yourself without sexual assault metaphors, or not? If you had been a victim of abuse by a priest, you would not find this amusing.
I am a victim of sexual abuse but right now they can’t hurt me. Right now weak Democrats crying about my words rather than calling for robust response is threatening me. Democrats should be calling for these liars to be dancing the Spandau ballet by the end of the day. We ought to find some Christians to lie for us. We ought to be angry. We ought to fight those who are calling us enemies with every ounce of strength we can muster even if that means cloaking it in religious crap.
Why the hell aren’t you people angry they are stealing your identity
David von Drehle of the Washington Post had a good column on this yesterday. Aurora is his hometown.
This is probably behind a paywall, but you can try:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/22/venezuelan-gangs-terrorize-aurora/
No pay wall (nice surprise). Good article.