December 10, 2015 11:04 AM UTC

Why Can't Coffman Condemn Trump?

• 2 Comments
• by: ProgressNow Colorado

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

POLS UPDATE: Worth reposting the Aurora Sentinel’s tongue-in-cheek lambasting of Rep. Mike Coffman’s lack of candor:

Mike Coffman remains firmly on Santa’s list of good boys after making sure he said nothing that could be remotely construed as cross about the fascist Donald Trump. Whereas a cadre of his fellow Republicans on the congressional delegation had plenty of nasty things to say about the poll-leading presidential candidate, Coffman observed Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment in speaking no direct ill of the Donald nor his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the country.

This was a chance for Coffman to prove his reinvention is more than pro forma, and he blew it.

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After widespread condemnation of the recent call by Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump to unconstitutionally halt all travel by Muslims into the United States, ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s largest online progressive advocacy organization, called on Rep. Mike Coffman to apologize to the Muslims in his district for not condemning Trump in the strongest possible terms.

“Donald Trump’s offensive and unconstitutional proposal to block people from the United States on the basis of their religion marks a new low in a presidential campaign that has already been an embarrassment to our nation,” said ProgressNow Colorado executive director Amy Runyon-Harms. “The inability of Rep. Mike Coffman to stand up to Trump and his hateful faction of the Republican Party, even after others in his party have done so, is an insult to thousands of Muslim-Americans he represents in Colorado’s most culturally diverse district.”

“We all know that Rep. Coffman used to represent Tom Tancredo’s hard-right congressional district, and it’s possible that old habits simply die hard,” said Runyon-Harms. “Donald Trump is dividing Americans and stirring up hatred against fellow Americans based on their religion. That Rep. Coffman cannot speak out against Trump for fear of upsetting his right-wing base of support shows he can’t be trusted to protect his own constituents when they need him most.”

“Instead of condemning Donald Trump’s bigotry, Mike Coffman is subsidizing it with his own cowardice,” said Runyon-Harms. “And that is totally unacceptable.”