Far Right Republican Says His Party’s Election Lies Are Making Him Quit

Far-right Republican Congressman Ken Buck says he won’t seek reelection because of his party’s lies about the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection.

Buck made the announcement first to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell during an interview and then released a formal video statement expounding on the decision. In it, the Colorado Republican admonished the GOP.

“Too many Republican leaders are lying to America,” Buck says, “claiming the 2020 election was stolen, describing January 6th as an ‘unguided tour of the Capitol,’ and asserting the ensuing prosecutions are a weaponization of our justice system. These insidious narratives breed widespread cynicism and erode Americans’ confidence in the rule of law.”

Buck appealed to the GOP’s storied history as “the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan,” concluding that it’s “impossible for the Republican Party to confront [their] problems and offer course-correction for the future while being obsessively fixated on retribution and vengeance for contrived injustices of the past.”

These pleas and rebukes are unlikely to move the GOP: 70% of Republican voters wrongly believe the 2020 election was stolen, most believe Republican candidates must be loyal to Donald Trump, and most trust Trump above all others.

As long as Trump remains the GOP’s leader and Trump remains committed to these lies, the next tier of Republican leaders will continue to echo or tolerate them.

Buck’s words here may suggest to some that he’s an elusive Republican moderate, but his voting record and stated positions say otherwise: the Colorado Republican is a climate change denier, opposes the right to abortion even in the event of rape or incest, and voted against gay marriage protections in 2022.

He may endorse their most far-right policy positions, but when it comes to election denial and insurrection, it seems the Buck stops here.

Featured photo: Gage Skidmore