AURORA | A former Aurora city lawmaker joined a coterie of ex-Republicans Thursday urging conservatives to ditch President Donald Trump and instead vote for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November.
Former Aurora city Councilmember Barbara Cleland and former Arapahoe County Commissioner John Brackney — both longtime Republicans before Trump captured the party in 2016 —called for change with other metro-area former Republicans in a news conference organized by the Colorado Democratic Party.
“I truly believe he tells a lie, and in his mind, it’s the truth,” Cleland said of Trump. “And that’s just very sad. So, I’m supporting Biden and Harris.”
Cleland, Brackney and others described how they’d left the Republican party because of Trump’s leadership style and policies on immigration, the novel coronavirus pandemic and climate change. They said it’s critically important that voters remove Trump from the Oval Office in the Nov. 3 General Election.
Asked about the lawmakers backing the Biden-Harris ticket, Joe Jackson, a spokesperson for the Colorado GOP, said the Democrats’ agenda is one “that would raise taxes, destroy jobs, and take away healthcare.” He told the Sentinel in a statement that the GOP “will stay focused on talking with Coloradans about the tangible results achieved by our candidates.”
Trump won the 2016 Presidential election, but Colorado Republicans selected Texas Senator Ted Cruz for the post in the Republican primary that year.
Even so, Brackney said he’s currently surrounded by Trump-supporting Republicans after he broke from the party in 2016. He’d affiliated with the GOP for three decades and described himself as a “Republican’s Republican” during his two terms as an Arapahoe County commissioner and co-founder of the City of Centennial.
But, for Brackney and others, Trump’s behavior and polices were beyond the pale.
The group of ex-Republicans also broke from Trump on his rhetoric against immigrants — Trump has called immigrants “rapists,” “criminals” and “animals” — and his handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Republican Kelly Stahlman, project director at the Colorado Alliance for Health and Independence, said she had two adult children who passed away because of disabilities.
She said she was incensed when Trump apparently ridiculed a reporter with a disability in November 2015.
Stahlman said Trump has also refused to listen to top scientific advisors and failed to protect Americans from COVID-19. As of Thursday, about 180,000 deaths have been attributed to the new coronavirus in the U.S. — the most confirmed deaths of any country in the world.
Public attitudes are becoming more pessimistic about Trump’s management of the crisis. A recent Associated Press poll found, overall, just 31% of Americans approve of Trump’s leadership on the pandemic, a significant drop from 44% approval in March, when the virus began sweeping through the United States.
Former Lone Tree city councilmember Harold Anderson said he’s recently broken with Trump over environmental issues.
Poor air quality continues to plague the Denver metroplex due to wildfires burning in Western states and Colorado. The Pine Gulch fire near Grand Junction threatened Wednesday to become the largest wildfire in the state’s recorded history. Scientists say human-caused climate change has exacerbated hot and dry conditions conducive to large blazes.
“I think all of us have realized recently just how important the environment is. And we’ve seen it firsthand here in Colorado with all of the smoke and fracking and other things,” Anderson said.
He cautioned that he doesn’t identify as an environmentalist, but he believes there’s a “happy medium” to solve environmental issues.
The Trump administration moved to pull the U.S. from an an international climate policy accord last year. Trump himself has issued mixed messages on human-caused climate change, at one point calling it a hoax.
“First of all, I don’t think he even realizes there’s anything going on in the state of Colorado as far as fires,” Cleland said of Trump. “He’s never mentioned it. I’ve never heard a thing.”
Cleland, who served on Aurora’s city council for almost three decades, said she believes the scientific consensus about the causes of climate change. She also generally supports oil and gas development but disagrees with a recent Trump administration push to begin drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The former Republicans said the stakes are high in November. Trump has repeatedly shown that he’s not fit to be President, Brackney said.
“I’m telling you, this is a critically important election,” he said.