‘For heaven’s sake’: The Denver Post declares ‘Coloradans deserve better than Cory Gardner’

The decision to acquit President Donald Trump resulted in a blistering local newspaper editorial against one Republican facing a tough reelection in 2020.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) voted that Trump was not guilty on charges of abuses of power and obstruction of Congress on Wednesday. On Thursday, The Denver Post responded to his decision.

"U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner either thinks it’s OK for a president to pressure a foreign government to investigate a U.S. citizen for personal and political gain or he’s too afraid to criticize this president for doing just that," the newspaper noted. "We’re not sure which is worse."

"Gardner needs to work up a little courage, search his soul and answer the question that this impeachment was really about. Let’s say a jury has just sat through days of evidence in a trial for a man who is accused of walking into a bank and demanding money. If a juror insists the man is innocent but refuses to even talk about the charge of robbery because he says 'that is not what the trial was about,' it’d be hard to move forward," The Denver Post explained.

The paper scorched Gardner for his cowardice.

"Gardner’s job is to take tough positions. He sits on the Senate Committee for Foreign Relations for heaven’s sake, and for several years, Gardner has made combating Russian aggressions a cornerstone of his agenda, including pushing back on Russia’s invasion of Crimea and the superpower’s ongoing war with Ukraine," the paper noted. "Of the lawmakers in Congress, Gardner is more qualified than all but a handful to have an opinion on whether what the president did was in the best interests of the U.S. or if it was a dangerous precedent for the president to set as he twisted foreign policy to work for his re-election campaign instead of the nation."

"Gardner once said he would stand up to his own party. Turns out he won’t even be critical of the actions of a member of his own party. He must believe what Trump did was fine. Why won’t he just say that?" the newspaper asked.

Then the paper dropped the hammer on the first-term Republican.

"Coloradans deserve a senator who will be straightforward and honest with them. Coloradans deserve a senator with a track record of bipartisanship. Coloradans deserve a senator who will call out things that are wrong and work to correct them. Coloradans deserve better than Cory Gardner," The Denver Post concluded.