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August 11, 2016 10:26 AM UTC

Yes Folks, Darryl Glenn Is a Whackadoo

  • 14 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

CBS4’s Stan Bush reports on a budding scandal involving Colorado GOP U.S. Senate nominee Darryl Glenn, caught on tape in June speculating about the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub earlier that month:

At a candidate forum June 22 the El Paso County commissioner made unsubstantiated claims that President Obama directed the FBI to not investigate the Orlando night club shooter, Omar Mateen, before the massacre.

“But it sounds like there might be some political things happening where they’re given direction to look a different way. Why don’t we start there?” said Glenn…

Glenn said the FBI takes “direction from the top” in his answer, and repeats his claim two more times before completing his response.

“I think we need to have hearings on this. I think people need to be held accountable. I want to know whether or not our FBI personnel were personally directed to look the other way. [Pols emphasis]

“The president should be held to account for that if he gave direction that limited the FBI.”

The allegation that President Barack Obama might have “directed” the FBI to end their investigation of Orlando mass murderer Omar Mateen was just one of many ways that right-wing armchair prognosticators tried to rationalize the politically inconvenient aspects of that shooting in its immediate aftermath–much the way the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooter was widely speculated to be a “transgender leftist” on the flimsiest of evidence in that shooting’s aftermath. In this case, the usual right-wing presumptions that Obama is some kind of Al Qaeda “Manchurian Candidate” President who wants to make us all pray to Mecca underly the whole discussion.

But as FactCheck.org had already reported before Darryl Glenn made these ill-advised remarks, there’s not a shred of truth to any of this foolishness:

FBI Director James Comey has said that the FBI over the course of two preliminary investigations in 2013 and 2014 recorded Mateen’s conversations, followed him, introduced him to confidential sources, interviewed him, “review[ed] transactional records from his communications, and search[ed] all government holdings for any possible connections.” Both investigations closed without the FBI taking any action against Mateen, because, Comey said, there was no reason at that time to suspect Mateen had terrorist ties or intentions…

The fact that the preliminary investigation closed after 10 months indicates that the agency felt its investigation was completed. FBI rules discourage conducting preliminary investigations beyond a year, but a longer extension can be approved “by the appropriate FBIHQ operational section for ‘good cause.’”

Don Borelli, a retired FBI counterterrorism supervisor in New York, told the New York Times that the danger in keeping an investigation open without good cause is the impact that it can have on innocent people. “Imagine if you can’t get a job because you’re on some watchlist and there’s no basis for it,” Borelli told the Times.

When you get past one or two logical points about the FBI’s investigation of Mateen, it becomes clear that any attempt to personally blame President Obama for the attack is just mindless whisper-campaign prattle–the kind of thing that prior to the advent of Donald Trump had much less credibility. Rep. Mike Coffman came somewhat close to embracing this conspiracist narrative when has said that Obama is a “recruiting tool” for terrorism, but obviously Glenn suggesting that Obama helped Mateen escape scrutiny before the Orlando shooting is a big step further.

Into the Twilight Zone, folks. This might play will with the hardcore talk-radio right, but it’s the kind of talk that turns off undecided middle-road voters and donors — and, really, anyone who has ever employed the use of logic. In a race already rapidly dwindling in national importance due to the growing consensus that Glenn is out of his league, his propensity for nutty rhetoric is enough to put the question to rest.

Darryl Glenn is just not a serious candidate for the U.S. Senate.

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14 thoughts on “Yes Folks, Darryl Glenn Is a Whackadoo”

    1. "Thurston" has record of real accomplishment in support of ordinary Americans, their health, their environment and their businesses whether you like it or not. He's not just superior to a ditz like Glenn. He's superior to all Republicans in or running for Congress and to a good many Dems to his right on many issues. There are plenty of them.

      I will not be holding my nose while voting for him by any means.  He has my vote with or without the likes of Glenn.

  3. I am unsure if the bigger story here is Mr. Glenn's repetition of a right-wing conspiracy theory assertion that is so devoid of supporting evidence that it vanished into thin air even among the right wing extremists; or

    that Mr. Glenn's "news" is something from June.

    He's been quiet. Very, very quiet. I've occasionally ducked in to see his web site. Last blog entry: July 8. Last News: July 20. Today, for the first time, there are Events beyond the two on August 12 that have been there for a month. And for the first time since I started looking, there are some August 9 images if you can find the link to " More Photos & Video of Darryl Available Here." [I can hardly wait for reactions to the pictures of Glenn, in his crisp white shirt with a shotgun over his shoulder.]

  5. I'm not sure why Glenn would be bothered even if what he said were true. After all, the people in that club were those kinds of people. The sort his party can't spend enough time trying to legislate out of existence. Speaking of "some people say", there are more than a few people on Glenn's side of the aisle who thought the club-goers had it coming to them.

    1. "Glenn's side of the aisle…….."  Are you referring to the meeting room where El Paso County Commissioners meet?   "The sort his party can't spend enough time trying to legislate out of existence……."   Again, a far ranging statement that tars everyone in "that party;" sort of like the righties blaming everything on "liberals;" but without validity either way. And you left out the radical, far right wing, preachers who rejoiced in the Orlando shooting.

      I understand what you're trying to say, but perhaps more specificity and less blubbering would help. Ever visit the web site Right Wing Watch? That is a place where you can get the anti-gay specifics you may be looking for.   CHB

        1. Thanks, DY. I read Right-wing Watch. I also monitor the ACLU, several LGBT sites, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the SPLC and others I can't call to mind at this hour. I concede that I used a broad brush, but CHB, you are the outlier in your party these days (fiscal conservative/social libertarian) and candidates campaign to the fringes. Trump knows far-right Republicans don't trust him as far as they can throw him, so he chose Pence as a big meaty bone to pacify that fringe. Pence is so committed to his "principles" that he was willing to set fire to his state's economy by signing the "turn away the gays" bill. Not all Republicans are wing-nuts, but what I call "old-fashioned Republicans", those who do what's good for business and stay out of people's bedrooms are an endangered species.

          1. We're not as endangered a species as some who post here might think. As one example, “real” conservative Republicans have played a major role in recent years turning back the federal-land-land-grab bills at the Legislature. After what I hope to be a rout of Trump and his fellow travelers in three months, there may be more happening. As for Pence, I'm a native Hoosier (altho in Colorado for 30+ years) and I retain family and close friends "back home in Indiana." My impression of Pence and the state's economy is that he rode as long as he could on the “coattails” of the good economy created by Mitch Daniels, his predecessor.

            1. Yes, CHB , you are. Don't forget how many anti-Trump Rs were pro-Cruz, how many disdain Trump because he's not conservative enough on all social issues.

              The legislation that comes out of every R majority state legislature says your shrinking segment of the GOP is already extinct, not just endangered, if not in raw numbers in any ability to affect elections in such a way as to get meaningful change in the kind of of Rs who dominate every R majority legislative body and win Governor's seats, US Senate seats in red states and US House seats in red house  districts and therefore all legislation in R controlled bodies and with R executives.

              Put a fork in it done. Sorry.

               

              1. I expected that you'd weigh in. Simply put, you're wrong and I have better contacts than someone as liberal as you. And I'm talking primarily Colorado; but also knowledge of happenings in other western states. With some exceptions, what happens back east is of little import to me. So, sorry back at ya.

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