18 September 2024 10:29 UTC

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

As DenverPost John Aguilar reported, acting MP. Yadira Caraveoand defended her seat against the new state representative. Gabe Evanswent on the offensive against Evans yesterday over the firing of Evans’ political director last week Jessica Spindlea long-time ally of Evans, who was Colorado Times-Recorder to have a long history of openly racist, pro-violence and generally outlandish conspiracy theories on social media dating back many years:

U.S. Representative Yadira Caraveo sharply criticized her Republican opponent on Tuesday, saying Gabe Evans had not sufficiently distanced himself from recent social media posts by his former political director that were anti-Semitic and promoted political violence.

“He did not say whether he disagreed with their offensive posts or whether he spoke out against anti-Semitism,” Democrat Caraveo said during a brief online press conference. “To be clear: Hate and anti-Semitism have no place in our society. We must stand up against all forms of intolerance wherever and whenever we see them.”

In the last week since the Colorado Times-Recorder Revelation of political director Jessica Spindle’s racist and at times shockingly violent social media posts, including a call to “please shoot” the Speaker Emeritus of the House of Representatives. Nancy PelosiGabe Evans and his campaign representatives like Republican multitools Alan Philp to have said as little as possible about the story, hoping it would be lost in the crush of the election-year news cycle. But last Friday, KOA News has managed to not only raise the issue of Jessica Spindle, but also put moderate pressure on Evans, with Evans again denying any knowledge of Spindle’s extreme political views:

CN: The dismissal or termination of your political director – why did you do it and why now?

EVANS: Well, I will always stand with Israel. And if there are comments that, you know, are not supportive of Israel, I just can’t allow my campaign to be associated with that. Unfortunately, my Democratic opponent continues to accept money from major anti-Israel donors. She voted to stop giving funds to Israel. So I will always be an ally and friend of Israel, unlike my Democratic opponent, who has a long history of being anti-Israel.

CN: But did you know Jessica Spindle’s background? Because it goes beyond that. There are certain Qanon conspiracies and beliefs that she held. Were you not aware of her background? Is this news to you?

EVANS: Well, there are a lot of things that were new to me. I’ve been a police officer for ten years, which means I know two things. I believe in second chances, but I also believe in accountability. When I was in the military, I told all my officers and soldiers, “Look, I’m going to treat everyone like an adult unless you give me a reason to think otherwise.” And unfortunately, that’s where we had to part ways. But yeah, there were some things I definitely didn’t know.

I hesitantly spoke to the Posts John Aguilar, Evans’ campaign team, reiterated that they had no prior knowledge of their political director’s political views:

“Gabe completely rejects the offensive material in these social media posts,” campaign spokesman Alan Philp wrote. “That’s why he took immediate action when he learned of them.”

Unfortunately for Gabe Evans, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) was not interested in admitting wrongdoing to anyone, but instead called the allegations against Evans, the fired political director, “repugnant and misleading.”

Yadira Caraveo and her supporters are trying to change the subject because they don’t want to talk about Caraveo’s deadly record: legalizing fentanyl, cutting funding for law enforcement, and refusing to secure the southern border. Gabe Evans has put his life on the line for the people of Coloradans and will always fight back against disgusting and misleading political attacks like this one.

In short, the candidate is trying to pre-empt the fallout from firing his political director by admitting that Spindle’s comments were unacceptable, while the NRCC contradicts the candidate and dismisses the allegations as “repugnant and misleading.” Obviously, only one of these interpretations of events is accurate. Much like the disgusting email blasts sent by Colorado Republicans “in support” of major candidates, this is a case where the NRCC does not support their charges.

And that leads to the next logical question that we have been asking ourselves from the beginning: How is it possible that Gabe Evans did not know the political views of its political director?

Evans’ campaign said Spindle was fired last week “after we became aware of a series of inappropriate comments she made on social media.”

Philp did not respond to questions about how Spindle was vetted for the campaign’s political director position or how Evans could have been unaware of her social media postings. (Emphasis added by Pols)

The problem for Gabe Evans is that Jessica Spindle was not a simple volunteer, but one of the highest-ranking full-time staffers on Evans’ congressional campaign. Spindle reportedly has ties to Evans that go back at least to his run for the state House in 2022. The idea that Evans was unaware of the political views of his campaign’s political director before she was hired by the Time recorderwhich they insist is true is implausible to say the least – and if it is somehow true that Evans was ignorant of his political director’s policies, then that is a huge failure in Evans’ vetting process of his most senior aides.

Either way, Caraveo is taking the initiative to blame Evans for a major embarrassment he doesn’t need in this close race. The more CO-08 voters learn about Jessica Spindle, the more questions they will ask their former boss.