Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) chats with staff before doing another television interview on the House side of the U.S. Capitol on February 6, 2024, in Washington, D.C. | Source: The Washington Post / Getty
The GOP is down one ultra-conservative, critical race theory-hating congressman now that Colorado Rep. Ken Buck has officially announced he is vacating his seat at the end of next week. For Republicans, Buck’s departure is a blow to their House majority, which was already slim, meaning that for Democrats, this is a celebratory moment.
But what is interesting is the reason Buck no longer wants anything to do with Congress.
Essentially, Buck says he’s tired of all the back-and-forth between parties and within parties, and he also appears to agree with much of the country that a choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump as president is basically a vote for which turd is less smelly.
“It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress and having talked to former members, it’s the worst year in 40, 50 years to be in Congress,” Buck told CNN’s Dana Bash. “But I’m leaving because I think there’s a job to do out there.”
“This place has just devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people,” he continued.
Buck was asked whether Trump becoming the presumptive Republican nominee had anything to do with him jumping ship, to which he responded, “Whether he was the nominee or not, I think our system is broken in how we choose candidates and I want to get involved in that process.”
“Everywhere I go in Colorado, Dana, I hear that people are not happy with Trump and they’re not happy with Biden,” Buck added. “I am going to find the right organization to join and I’m going to start working on that issue. We have to have better candidates up and down the ballot.”
As it turns out, one of the reasons Buck is fed up with his own party is due to its near-universal backing of Trump’s baseless election denial. Honestly, I would kind of like this guy—if I didn’t know about him. But Buck is simply a broken white nationalist clock that is still capable of being right at least twice a day.
In 2021, he all but admitted to stoking outrage over CRT and “boys playing girls’ sports” as a political strategy to galvanize Republican voters.
Two years before that, he was one of nearly two dozen House Republicans who voted against a resolution to condemn antisemitism, racism and bigotry.
But while condemning white supremacy wasn’t a priority for the soon-to-be former congressman, he had plenty of time to reintroduce a bill to defund curriculum inspired by Nikole Hannah-Jones‘ Pulitzer Prize-winning historical framework, The 1619 Project.
And while Buck appears to oppose Trump due to his election fraud propaganda, he didn’t seem to take issue with the former president’s racism as he voted against censuring Trump over racist comments he made towards the Black and brown congresswomen who make up “The Squad,” among other racist remarks.
Still, in this instance, it’s kind of hard to be mad at a GOP member who has pissed off his party the way Buck has.
From CNN:
The Colorado Republican’s departure from the House will shake up the chamber’s partisan breakdown, where Republicans control only a very narrow majority – a major challenge for Speaker Mike Johnson who has frequently been forced to rely on votes from Democrats as well as Republicans to get major pieces of legislation across the finish line.
Buck’s decision to step down before the end of his term will trim Republicans’ slim edge to 218 seats over 213 for Democrats, with three vacancies. With that breakdown, Republicans could only afford to lose two votes to pass legislation on a party-line vote.
Welp, good luck with all that.
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The post CRT-Bashing GOP Rep. Ken Buck Leaves Congress, Says He’s Done With Trump, Biden, Congressional Bickering appeared first on NewsOne.
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