There are more than 40 people running for Denver City Council and 17 candidates for mayor.
Guess which is the only candidate 9News’s Kyle Clark has bothered to fact check, relentlessly?
If you guessed the lone, self-identified Republican in the race, Andy Rougeot, you would be correct!
Clark is nothing if not a predictable tool of the Democrat Party.
They might as well add him to the payroll, assuming he’s not already on it.
His political pandering seems to have gotten even more shameless. Perhaps he is auditioning for a political job?
NEW: Denver mayoral candidate @AndyforDenver, a leading fundraiser in the race, racked up seven false claims during a recent interview with @GeorgeBrauchler on @710KNUS. We fact-checked each falsehood. #copolitics https://t.co/o0dDeqndkC
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) February 4, 2023
Adding injury to insult, 9News has excluded Rougeot from their Feb. 16 debate because the Republican refused to take taxpayer dollars from the Fair Elections Fund to pay for his campaign.
“I want to responsibly spend taxpayer money to solve the problems we face as a city by enforcing the camping ban and hiring 400 new well-trained police officers to take our streets back from criminals #COPolitics #Denver,” Rougeot tweeted.
“NOT to promote the political ambitions of candidates and pay off members of Denver’s political class.”
I emailed @9NEWS mgmt and @KyleClark about this yesterday. (Kyle is not the decision-maker.) This feels like a weird sort of “pay to play” even though the money’s going the other way. Unethical to prevent participation for a candidate who doesn’t take taxpayer campaign funds. https://t.co/1lxXRNvU7C
— Ross Kaminsky (@Rossputin) February 7, 2023
In a statement from his campaign, Rougeot explained what happened:
In a response on Wednesday, February 1st, Rougeot asked for clarification on the 9News decision and asked that they reconsider their policy of not allowing candidates to participate who refuse to spend taxpayer money on their campaign.
Specifically, Rougeot highlighted that the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office told his campaign that FEF sanctioned debates were not required to exclude candidates who were not accepting FEF funds.
Additionally, Rougeot pointed out that the other FEF sanctioned debate, hosted by Regis University on February 9th had invited Rogueot to the debate and he would be participating in that debate.
9News responded, “You are correct that the decision to include only FEF candidates in this debate belongs to 9NEWS. Because we are the only media organization to organize such a debate in conjunction with the FEF, we made the decision to include only FEF candidates in this event.”
We call bullshit on that flimsy excuse.
This whole racket of government-sanctioned debates as part of taxpayer-funded campaigns is absurd enough. But then factor in a debate moderator who is so blatantly politically biased, and voters are the ones getting totally screwed with a completely worthless, propogandist debate that will have speed junkie snoring within minutes.
We expect to hear questions along the lines of:
Just how evil do you view Republicans?
Is the homeless problem due to Republicans and how would you continue to blame Republicans if elected?
Are all crimes committed by Republicans, and would you crack down on crime by locking up Republicans in jail for being Republicans?
Since Rougeot won’t get a chance to respond to Clark’s attacks during the 9News debate, check out Rougeot’s response here on the Dan Caplis show.
9News is completely out of line. All candidates should be allowed to participate in their debate, not just the ones sucking off the public tit.