Colorado Gov. Jared Polis presented himself as a martyr to free speech after the state Democratic Party censured him for springing an election denier from jail before her sentence ended.
The Democratic governor granted clemency to former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was convicted in 2024 for allowing unauthorized individuals to access her office's election system looking for fraud in the 2020 presidential contest, and a Colorado Sun political reporter flagged his appearance Wednesday in a party call.
"Gov. Jared Polis, fresh off being censured by the Colorado Democratic Party for letting Tina Peters out of prison early, showed up today to a private, internal party call like this #copolitics," posted Sun reporter Jesse Aaron Paul.
Paul's photo included a screenshot of the governor wearing headphones and black duct tape over his mouth, which prompted a wave of criticism.
"Seems to be conflating censured with censored… another sign that his brain has been captured by X/Twitter," muttered Kate Starbird, a computer scientist and former professional basketball player.
"Alright this guy absolutely has scrambled eggs for brains," agreed New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie.
"Get off the cross, ding dong," cracked journalist Imani Gandy. "We need the wood."
"Powerful people sure do love to whine about there being consequences for their actions, it’s a shame we’ve built an attention economy that rewards that kind of behavior," opined writer Cooper Lund.
"Polis caved to Trump's months-long pressure campaign against his state to free Tina Peters," stated journalist Lindsay Beyerstein. "Trump did everything from shut down a major climate research facility to denying disaster aid to vetoing a bill to supply clean drinking water to his own supporters in CO. Now Polis wants to play martyr."
"How many other people currently locked up in Colorado prisons and jails would he do this for?" wondered writer and activist Chad Stanton.
"Federal employees are facing NDAs that will functionally silence their ability to tell the public about wrongdoing, and you have the Governor of an entire state cosplaying like a college speaker claiming to be cancelled in 2017," noted University of Michigan policy professor Don Moynihan. "Just not serious."
"I really think we should consider the possibility Polis did this for attention," suggested attorney Ken White.
"Mild consequences for the thing that everyone in the party said was bad? For a rich man?" asked author Courtney Milan.
"Doing something ugly & stupid, experiencing the entirely predictable social consequences, and then complaining that you are oppressed -- this is the quintessential reactionary move," posted journalist David Roberts. "F--- this dips---."
"Governors are not immune from criticism nor from censure by their own parties," added labor lawyer Katelyn Oldham. "If he can't handle this absolutely justified criticism and censure, he needs to resign and get out of politics altogether."