WEDNESDAY UPDATE: As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Nathan Deal reports, Rep. Matt Soper is once again very sorry:
The Daily Sentinel reached out to Soper for comment and received a text from Soper late Tuesday morning, reading:
“My only comment will be that my Tweet/X was in poor taste and while I am not a fan of fmr Pres Carter, expressing the sentiments I did I am very sorry for and apologise to the people of Colorado.”
…Soper’s tweet celebrating Carter’s death at 100 years old is not the first time he’s found himself at the center of social media controversy. In March 2023, Soper tweeted that Western Slope residents “need to be prepared for civil war” over several Colorado Legislature bills addressing gun laws. He then apologized for “some of those words” before the Colorado House.
Words consistently seem to trip up Rep. Soper. Perhaps he should consider using them…less.
—–
Amid the outpouring of sympathy and praise for the long and well-lived life of former President Jimmy Carter after news of his passing at age 100 arrived yesterday afternoon, which even included once and future President Donald Trump who called Carter “a truly good man” and “very consequential, far more than most Presidents, after he left the Oval Office,” there were some conservatives who used the occasion to reveal more about their personal character than their views of the recently-departed President of the United States. Once such local example was state Rep. Matt Soper of Delta County, who has a history of firing off incendiary deep thoughts on social media only to wish he hadn’t the next morning:
Let’s check in on how a backbencher Colorado State Representative who supports Lauren Boebert and Donald Trump feels about the passing of President Carter
— The Get More Smarter Podcast (@getmoresmarter.com) December 30, 2024 at 7:48 AM
Thanking the Almighty for the death of a 100-year-old man best known for building houses and farming peanuts is a step beyond even most of the uncharitable eulogies we’ve seen from anyone in the barely a day since former President Carter’s death. Rep. Soper has a reputation as one of the more intellectual members of the Colorado House GOP minority caucus, wherein the bar is admittedly low–but from blaming Dominion Voting machines for the results of a city council election he didn’t like to threatening a civil war over gun safety bills, it’s a reputation that our experience hasn’t borne out. After Soper’s civil war social media threats in March of 2023, Soper leaned on his reputation to assure his colleagues that despite the occasional wacky Tweet he’s really a contemplative guy:
“Over this weekend some of you may have noticed I acted out of character on Twitter,” he said from the floor of the House. “I feel that it’s my duty to explain why. Normally I’m known as being rational and reasonable, and choosing my words very carefully. “They were chosen carefully, but I do want to apologize for a couple of words that were in the tweet because I do think it’s important that we choose our words carefully,” he added.
More than a year and a half later, it’s a fair question whether this is “out of character” for Soper at all. If even Donald Trump can avoid thanking God that Jimmy Carter is dead, there perhaps are still some minimum standards–and once again, Rep. Matt Soper fell beneath them.
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Not the most important criticism I can offer, but it's simply bad writing to put an exclamation point after six sentences in a row!!!!!!
Personally, I’m betting he didn’t open Champaigne
I’m doubting it was even Champagne. He seems more like a “sparkling wine” guy.
After some contemplation (or when the alcohol wore off), Soper backed down.
@JiD… "sparkling wine guy….." You mean like Mad Dog or Thunderbird?
Because Colorado is essentially a one party state , in the interests of democracy we need a credible oppositon that can articulate an alternative message. Ain't gonna happen with clowns like Soper.
I wouldn't recommend holding your breath for a credible Republican Party in Colorado, Allyn. That won't happen until there's first a credible Republican Party in America.
You can make Mad Dog into sparkling wine by adding 7-Up, or so I've heard.
Bath salts.
Is this guy gonna Tipton Jeff Hurd lol. “RINO Hurd wished the Carter family condolences!”
It usually is hard to find someone who does not follow grandmother’s advice of “if you cannot say something nice about someone, do not say anything”. magats seem to have issues with grandmother’s. Along with any other humans on Earth. Matt, has earned himself a space on the Colorado idiots who don’t know when to stay quiet list.
I have never heard anyone call President Jimmy Carter a despot!
He couldn't help it. He's well-known for having a big mouth and a small brain.
Have you read the comments at the WSJ?
So it begins…there are no real conservatives any longer…there are only republican, repubican maga, or republican moron…they are all a like, but only differ on the ability to express cogent thoughts…we are entering a time of war…a global conflict which we are not going to be able to avoid…republicans are criminals, mostly, and are not going to protect our country….we need to fight republicans/russians before we have to deal with china…there are domestic terrorists who have attacked our cities, have been found with large amounts of explosives, and there are quite a few who are going to be released when trump gets into office…and note….trump has been driving our friends and allies away, while he coddles dictators like putin and kim…republicans are bad people…persuing a bad agenda…REPUBLICANS are the ENEMY…
I doubt that you can even define a "real conservative." But, thanks for the laughs and humor.
Republicans are not the enemy, Sunmusing. Trump and Maga folks maybe. Especially the ones that are taking up arms and thinking about how to terrorize liberals and Democrats. But there are never -Trump Republicans, such as the folks that publish the Bulwark. There are the Liz Cheneys, the Adam Kinzigers – principled people willing to take a stand against the MAGA onslaught.
There are also the cowards and opprtunists such as Ken Buck, Mike Pence, James Comey, who went along with the Trump agenda until it actually brgan to violate laws, And they started worrying about their own legal complicity. All of them, whatever their motivations, will face retribution by Trump.
So Republicans are not our enemy. I'll take a rule -of -law republican over a fake Democrat like Adam Frisch, Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema any day.
President Carter sent me with a group of brave team players to free our hostages in Tehran in april 1980. All volunteers we gave it the best we had and a haboob changed the outcome with a loss of 8 of my friends.
I confirmed last year that Reagan and John Connally ( shot with JFK and democrat defector) in 1979 negotiated secretly with Iran to make sure the embassy hostages were not released until inaguration day. Makes me fume inside.
Because of Reagans actions I was sent back in 1981 nearly expiring in the beginning of the Iran/Iraq proxy war.
JCarter was a bold leader, did the right thing and pissed off congress probably needlessly as his first action in 1977.
J Carter gave us carte blanche to defend ourselves and we destroyed the Iranian Navy best we could. The BS that POLS say about Carter being weak is total crap. I was there.
Show me any president that went down into a active leaking reactor Ontario Canada in 1952 as I remember, He got 1000% more radiation he was supposed to as he revealed just a few years ago. Probably why he lived so long.
I tried to call Jimmy in November but he could not speak. I wanted some clarifications on actions the USS Brumby FF1044 and my squadron CSAR HSL 36 DET2 took during the rescue attempt and being a decoy to the Iranians.
RIP SIR