Former President Donald Trump said it’s “good news for the country” that Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who is not a supporter of Mr. Trump, is retiring from Congress.
“Good news for the Country! Congressman Ken Buck of Colorado, a weak and ineffective Super RINO if there ever was one, announced today that he won’t be running again, which is a great thing for the Republican Party,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.
He wrote that Mr. Buck chose not to run again in 2024 because “he knew long ago he could never win against MAGA.”
“So now he is, like some past and present, auditioning for a job at Fake News CNN, MSDNC, or some other Country-destroying Leftwing Outlet,” Mr. Trump wrote. “They can have him, and watch their Ratings go down still further, if that’s even possible!”
Mr. Buck announced Wednesday that he would not be seeking reelection after his term is up.
“I’ve decided it’s time for me to do some other things,” he said on MSNBC. “I always have been disappointed with our inability in Congress to deal with major issues and I’m also disappointed that the Republican Party continues to rely on this lie that the 2020 election was stolen and rely on the Jan. 6 narrative and political prisoners from Jan. 6 and other things.”
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“If we’re going to solve difficult problems, we’ve got to deal with some very unpleasant truths or lies and make sure that we project to the public what the truth is,” he said.
Mr. Buck, 64, was first elected to Congress in 2014 and represents Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.
He was one of the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, from the speakership last month.
Mr. Buck said he wouldn’t vote for either House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, or Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, because neither candidate would say if they believed the 2020 election was legitimate. Both Mr. Scalise and Mr. Jordan voted to overturn the election, while Mr. Buck voted to certify the results.
Still, Mr. Buck voted for Rep. Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican as the new House speaker. Mr. Johnson played a big role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election, recruiting more than 100 House Republicans to support a Texas lawsuit that was seeking to overturn the election results in four states won by President Biden: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Asked on MSNBC whether he would support Mr. Trump if he ends up as the GOP nominee, Mr. Buck said it will be a “difficult decision.”
“If it is a Trump-Biden re-do, it is something that I’ll have to make that decision at the time,” he said. “But I am not thrilled with either one of those candidates and we’ll just see what happens down the road.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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