from the more-bullshit-than-the-bullshit-artists-can-handle dept

Even Cops Aren’t Willing To Back Up Colorado GOP Governor Hopeful’s Insane ‘Gang Infestation’ Lies

As convenient as it is for cops to play along with hysterical claims made by politicians, sometimes a politician goes too far. That seems to be the case here. Scott Bottoms — currently a state rep in Colorado — tried to flex his self-proclaimed “far right” bona fides by making a truly absurd claim about the current state of the state.

Bottoms said Colorado is under siege from a “foreign criminal army” of 45,000 to 50,000 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) operating in Colorado.

When 9NEWS asked Bottoms for evidence of his claim, Bottoms said the information came “from direct conversations with ICE officials about this exact problem in our state.”

Bottoms is fully cooked, it would appear. He’s echoing, amplifying, and exaggerating claims about gang infestations in Colorado that were pushed by Donald Trump during his last election campaign. Those claims were also debunked by local law enforcement officials.

The story hit the national news last year when local media coverage of two robberies and an assault at the complex were amplified by President Trump, who twisted the facts to fuel his campaign for reelection. Trump joined local conservative politicians in spreading the lie of a “complete gang takeover” by Venezuelan immigrants at The Edge apartments – a lie that has been repeatedly debunked by residents and local law enforcement. 

Having debunked this once, law enforcement officials in the state are now in the irritating position of needing to debunk this anti-migrant hysteria yet again, thanks to Bottoms and his pathetic attempt to rile up the racism of the voting base he needs to secure if he hopes to become governor.

First up in the debunking is none other than law enforcement officials working directly for Donald Trump:

A spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Denver said its leadership has not had contact with Bottoms.

“HSI Denver and ERO Denver leadership has not met with nor had conversations with Representative Bottoms,” said ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki.

Whoops! That’s got to be pretty awkward for Bottoms, who seemed to assume his willingness to follow Trump down any bigoted rabbit hole would immediately result in his administration supporting his racist assertions about foreign gang infestations.

Bottoms put another hole in his own foot by presuming local law enforcement would back him up if he just made a bunch of shit up and let it dribble out his mouth while standing in front of a live mic. Bottoms claimed — hilariously — that local sheriffs offices were seeking to deputize “special forces veterans” to combat the Tren de Aragua invasion.

In response to Rep. Bottoms’ attempt to turn his Reddit draft folder rant into reality, a majority of the state’s law enforcement refused to endorse the hallucinations of man who thinks making claims that can immediately be debunked will secure him a majority of votes in the upcoming gubernatorial election.

40 sheriffs from across the political spectrum pushed back on Bottoms’ claims, saying they had not seen evidence of widespread Venezuelan gang activity in their county and directly rejecting the idea of deputizing special forces veterans for an anti-cartel action. 

The report says “across the political spectrum,” but two-thirds of the sheriffs quoted are registered as Republicans. It’s probably three-thirds, but the last sheriff quoted has decided to represent himself as “unaffiliated.”

On top of this immediate pushback from local law enforcement officials, there are the actual facts, which make it immediately clear it’s impossible for there to be 50,000 Tren de Aragua gang members residing in Colorado:

MEMBERS
Approximately 2,500 to 5,000

That would be the number of gang members worldwide, according to none other than the Director of National Intelligence. Yep, that’s the same DNI that serves the president who went viral with his claims of TdA takeovers in Aurora, Colorado while on his way to serving a second term. And if an agency pretty much obliged to convert Trump’s bullshit about TdA into facts to justify everything from mass deportations to extrajudicial killings in international waters can’t be bothered to cook the books to this extent, it’s downright embarrassing for a MAGA acolyte like Scott Bottoms to spew easily disproved claims in hopes of scoring a few more far-right votes for himself.

It’s refreshing to see law enforcement provide immediate pushback against bullshit like this. But you can’t blame Bottoms for bottoming out. After all, the man he worships most delivers outrageous lies on a daily basis, yet somehow retains his position and the support of his party.