CO GOP Chair Ejects “Unfair” Reporter From Event

The Colorado Sun reports:

A Colorado Sun politics reporter was escorted out of the state GOP assembly by a sheriff’s deputy Saturday after being told that party Chairman Dave Williams found her “current reporting to be very unfair.”

Reporter Sandra Fish, who has covered politics since 1982, received a text at 3:45 a.m. Saturday from a Colorado Republican Party event organizer saying that she was no longer allowed to attend. Fish went anyway to the assembly at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo, where she checked in at the door and received a press credential to enter.

In the past year, Fish has written news articles about the 2023 election of Williams to lead the state party, as well as stories about the party’s financial struggles. In February, she authored a Sun article about the state GOP sending a pro-Donald Trump mailer that attacked William’s congressional primary opponent.

Read the full article.

Williams is running to replace retiring GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn. Williams, you may recall, lost a lawsuit seeking to have “Let’s Go Brandon” by his name on the ballot during his failed 2022 House bid. During a December 2023 appearance on extremist Laura Loomer’s podcast, Williams told the Colorado Supreme Court to “go fuck themselves” after they removed Trump from the ballot.

As a Moscow correspondent, I once lived in a country where political leaders got to pick and choose who covered what, and which stories would be written. It was called the Soviet Union. Colorado deserves better. https://t.co/fCqanrSNP8

— Larry Ryckman ☀️ (@larryryckman) April 7, 2024

Booting a credentialed journalist from a political party assembly, especially one who represents a statewide news organization like the @ColoradoSun, undermines the vital role of the free press and directly impacts thousands of Coloradans who rely on The Sun for coverage. https://t.co/Iad0PyHky5

— Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition (@CoFOIC) April 6, 2024