Jon Caldara on Mayor Johnston's 'Strike Force' Scandal

he wasn't transparent. He didn't tell us the truth. He had this attitude of, oh, those little people, they can't handle the truth, so we'll just keep it away from them because we know what's best. Now, that's really good work in a totalitarian regime. That's how it does work. We won't tell you what's going on, and that works really, really well in fascist countries and communist countries because the elite know what's going on, but we don't. Why am

I bringing all this up? Because governmental transparency is crucial for democracy to work, for our republic to work. That's why we have the First Amendment. That's why we have to have an active branch of media and reporters to find out what's going on. And in Colorado we have open records laws. It's called the Colorado Open Records Act KORRA for short, and it means that we regular citizens have a right to see public information. Reporters rely on

open records. When politicians and their lackeys hide information, keep it covered up, destroy communications between themselves, what they're doing is destroying the record and we won't know what goes on. That's how that works. Pretty cool. Huh, Well, who's playing Richard Nixon? Now Denver Mayor Michael Johnston, the guy who campaigned on being transparent. Thanks to Brian Moss at Channel seven,

what a great, great report he did. As always on Mayor Michael Johnson and fourteen of his top advisors, appointees and lawyers nick named themselves Strikeforce. Pretty cool, Strikeforce, and communicated about the city's migrant crisis through an end to end encryption app. The app proceeded to automatically delete their conversations. This is Nixonian crapola three or three seven one, three

eight two five five seven to one three talk. Now, remember the Colorado Open Records Law says that these type of communications must one be open to the public and two stick around for three years. That's the law unless you're doing something you don't want people to see. Now there's a difference. You see, Privacy is for the people, that's for you and me. Privacy transparency is for government.

Transparency is so that we can see what they're doing and how they're doing it because they work for us. It makes some sense. So remember when when progressives get caught with their hands in the cookie jar or no matter what they do, they claim victimhood. That is the progressive operating system. Who's today's victim? What is the oppression? Who's being Just remember whenever you talk to a progressive, whenever you listen to national public radio, whenever you read

the mainstream media, it's all the same theme. It's another somebody's done somebody wrong song. Who's the victim today? So when they get caught deleting their own messages in direct violation to Colorado law. They don't talk to the reporters. They don't talk to the reporters. So the mayor and his team did did not return calls from Brian Moss at Channel seven, but a spokesman did set out a message saying the signal messaging Signal is the name of the app, by the way, and it's a it's a

great app. If you don't have it, you should, and the idea is to help keep your messages from being overheard. Spokesman for Johnson said the signal messaging was prompted by President Trump and how his administration could have significant impacts on how Denver operates. Uh yeah, okay, but that doesn't quite answer why you're keeping secrets from citizens and reporters and breaking the law three or three seven one three eight two seven one three talk help me with this one.

So you say, well, you know we're we're having this battle with Donald Trump. Yeah, welcome to politics. What happens. A city has a beef with the state, a state has a beef with the feds. The Feds have a beef with everybody. Yeah, this is the machinery. This is the mess of politics. This is why we demand open records. This is why we demand to see what you're doing. This is Richard Nixon and I can't say the S word,

but you know what I'm talking about. Getting back to Brian's story, the use of such messaging apps by government officials has been controversial and viewed as way to avoid public disclosure of government decision making. In Michigan after the State Police, After state police leaders were found in twenty twenty one to be using signal on state issued phones, lawmakers outlawed the use of encrypted messages. Steven Sandsberg is

a guy I know. He's a First Amendment lawyer. He was interviewed pretty simple quote it's unlawful and it's breaking the law. That's it. That says it all. Another guy I worked with, Jeff Roberts of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, characterized the what Channel seven found as an intentional effort to undermine Colorado's open records law. Yeah. Quote,

it's not transparent. Let's listen to this one. According to Johnson's daily skill calendar obtained through open records request, on January fourteenth, he convened a strikeforce introduction meeting the following day, on the fifteenth of January, text messages obtained by CBS News Colorado via the Open Records Act shows Johnson's director of Strategic Initiatives that an identical message to multiple members

of the administration. Quote, now they could see because it wasn't on an encrypted app and it wasn't set to self destruct like all the other ones, that we will never be able to see. Now, he said to his team, we are going to use signal to communicate with Strikeforce, so that communication remains encrypted and secure and messages auto delete. All right, So let me see if I got this

and see if we can put this together. Mike Johnson and fourteen of his for the people we pay for, knowingly signed up to communicate in a way that is in direct violation with Colorado's open meetings law. Not one of them blew a whistle. Now one of them said, no, we cannot do this, guys, it's against Colorado open records law. None of them hmm. Hey, This director of Strategic Initiatives said that, uh. He sent staff members a link to download signal, saying, once that was done, I can add

you to the group. All right, Do I need to take a breather here three O three seven one three eight two five five. I'm John KELDERA. I keep it right here. You're on six point thirty K how.

back one year during Sunshine Week. The Colorado State Legislature, during Sunshine Week last year, passed a bill that the governor signed exempting itself from most of the open meetings law. Colorado has a law that says, when when government meets, when your elected officials meet to talk policy, they need they need to let you know, they need to allow people to watch it. They need to let people you know come and witness. And if they don't do that,

they're breaking the law. It's called an open meeting. Otherwise all the decisions would be made in the back room. Well lo and behold the Colorado legislature doesn't like that. They just don't like it. So what did they do? They passed a law during Sunshine Week to exempt themselves from open meetings. Pretty spectacular, if you ask me, pretty spectacular. Now,

there are about five thousand different governments in Colorado. These are small government's large governments, and all of them still have to operate under Colorado's open meetings law, but not the state legislature because they're special and we don't need to understand what they're doing. This week on Sunshine Week, Brian Moss was CBS Colorado finds out out that low

and behold, our mayor is destroying open records. Our mayor is breaking the open meetings and Sunshine laws in the Colorado Open Records Act by having his communications disappear disappear. The city has confirmed that this Johnson group, fifteen of them, not one of them, stood up and said, mister Mayor, this is a legal We're not doing this. The city has confirmed that Johnson's group was auto deleting their internal messages.

Mayor's spokesperson said the auto deletion went from January fifteenth to the twenty fourth, when they set it to retain messages. For get this. Four weeks, four week, No, no, I'm sorry. Three years, I believe is the law. Three years. Think about this. Every woman that I have sent a naughty text to or an inappropriate email, well that thing lives in the internet forever. My Gmail account goes all the way back to my very first email, which I'm sure

was something like so what are you wearing? And it's still there. But these guys are destroying their messages after four weeks. The mayor's spokesperson says, Strikeforce Signal Group. That's what they call themselves, you know, when they get together and they have a little name for themselves, like Strikeforce instead of Keystone Cops. Ye know, they think highly of themselves. Anyway, he says, the group is still in use. When there are relative updates that impact Denver. What the hell does

that mean? You're the mayor of Denver. These are your employees. Everything you talk about affects Denver. That's just the way that is. That means it means nothing, nothing, all right. So here's what the spokesman said. Now keep in mind

they wouldn't talk in person or on camera. In a written statement, spokesman said the move to this disappearing encrypted app was because quote, when President Trump took office in January, it was clear that there would be rapidly changing and developing changes to the way the federal government interacts with cities, and that could have significant impacts on how Denver operates. Yeah, and what who cares? Does that mean? You get to

go all full of Nixon and break the law? The particular group was started, he said in January for internal staff to easily keep track of and share information regarding federal actions that impact Denver under the new administration. Great sounds good to me. Don't hide it. Don't destroy government records. How's that for a simple, simple rule? Don't destroy government records. I don't want to hear from any of these people who hate Trump. How wait did Trump? Did Trump take

government records? Did he destroy government records?

really good job. There I said it. There it was. He has housed the homeless at great, great expense, but we're still a very unsafe city. And he can prattle on about how safe the city is, but we don't believe him. And he can spout numbers, but businesses are going out of business. Three hundred restaurants have gone out of business. People don't want to go downtown. Restaurants can't afford the huge minimum wage to make this stuff work. So so what does it mean? And now we find

that we can't trust him? Or do you do you still trust the mayor knowing that he and fourteen of his closest employees we're just fine keeping secrets from you. Was that just dandy by you? I'm really curious three or three seven one three eight two five five seven one three talk. Let me see if I can find what I'm looking for here. Oh, give me a second, I'll find it. In the meantime, let's talk to Kevin. Kevin, welcome here with John Caldera. So glad to have you.

they've been automatically deleted. This is why we need to pass a law that prevents that and makes it clear it's unconstitutional. And you're right, somebody does need to bring this up legally and take them to task.

me let me put it a different way. If this was a Republican destroying records and breaking the open records law, what do you think would happen?

for them to work in smoky back black rooms. Smoky back rooms. Why because we wouldn't understand it, we little simpleton. It's a good thing those elitists are there. And this is a perfect example. Michael Johnson who looked voters in the eyes and said, oh, we're going to have an open and transparent government in Colorado and in Denver, Well, that was a lie. His people are destroying records in direct violations of the law, and when CBS Colorad ask

them about it, he wouldn't go on the record. Nobody went on camera to explain why it's okay to use encrypted apps except to say Trump bad. It was Trump bad. Why are you breaking because Trump's bad? And that means you get to break the law because our duly elected president you don't agree with his policies. Yeah, he's bad, He's really really bad. A year ago, our democratic state legislature did the same thing. They exempted themselves from open meetings.

That means they no longer need to have their caucuses open. They can decide all of their votes behind closed doors and then go out into the Capitol, go to the well, vote the way they decided, and we don't get to see the sausage being made, We don't get to see the deals being cut. We don't know what they're doing to us. In the meantime, they keep throwing us more and more politically correct silliness. A friend of mine sent

me this this femail. She said, these two slides that prefaced Mike Johnson's presentation about the bonds he wants to put on the November ballot. So they're gonna have a PowerPoint presentation to voters. And here here is what they first have to put out before we talk about anything. We're going to have a land acknowledgment. And they put up a slide, a PowerPoint slide on the screen and

it says Land Acknowledgment. The City and County of Denver honors and acknowledges that the land on which we reside is the radish territory of the Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples. We also recognize the forty eight contemporary tribal nations that historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado. We honor. It just keeps going on, this goofiness. We honor elders past, present and future, and those who

have stewarded this land throughout generations. They have to recite all of this before they can get to anything like, excuse me, why are you destroying government records? We also recognize that government, academic, and cultural institutions were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions and erasures of indigenous peoples.

Oh really, may this acknowledgment demonstrate a commitment to working to dismantle ongoing legacies of oppression and inequities and recognize the current and future contributions of indigenous communities in Denver? All right, so they want to dismantle ongoing legacies of oppression. You know what's a good legacy of oppression? Politicians keeping secrets and breaking the law and destroying records. That is a legacy of oppression that the mayor's administration, with his

full knowledge and support, is doing. All right, So they give that, they give that slide. Then you think you're done all right? Now, can we get to this boring meeting and get to something done or do we have to waste everybody's time doing this? And then up comes another one? How about this one? Laborer acknowledgment? Labor acknowledgment,

And then somebody's got to read this silliness. We acknowledge that our country's economy, infrastructure, and resulting generational wealth would not exist as they do today without the stolen and forced labor of enslaved Africans who suffered transatlantic human trafficking, chattel slavery, and Jim Crow. So let me see if

I got this right. The same city that opened itself up to hoardes of illegal immigrants, many of them being trafficked, many of them being enslaved by Venezuelan gangs, is acknowledging the ugliness of slavery. And then they say we acknowledge how these dehumanizing policies have social, legal, and economic legacies that continue to haunt to this day. Now, personally, I love this kind of silliness. This is the kind of silliness that got Donald Trump elected. So please keep doing this,

keep sending this stuff out. Go for it.

And then then they make you feel guilty for slavery. We acknowledge that our country's economy, infrastructure, and resulting rational wealth would not exist as they do today without the stolen enforced labor of enslaved Africans. That is an assertion

that is not proven. Yes, we can talk about the ugliness of slavery, the moral wrong of slavery, But to say that our industrialized nation wouldn't be this industrialized nation today if we didn't have backward slavery is something for academics to argue, not a statement a government needs to white guilt people. And oh, by the way, and I think this is the important part. And oh, by the way, Colorado fought on the Union side to end slavery. Let's

just remember this. It's not Alabama, this is Colorado. Colorado. Lives were lost ending the ugliness of slavery. Should we celebrate those people who worked to end that awful institution? Is there any gratitude there? Well, there was in fact on the west steps of the state Capitol. For decades and decades and decades, as long as I can remember, we had a statue of a Union soldier to commemorate, to commemorate and honor our veterans of Colorado who gave

their all in the Civil War. But during one of the Black Lives Matters riots, it was toppled and taken away. It is no longer there. So you know, we had this wonderful salute to the people who helped end slavery, who fought and paid with their own blood, their own lives. Doesn't matter because you're still supposed to be guilty. Now. These are the same people forced this stuff up on these presentations and we all have to sit there and roll our eyes and go, oh, so awful. Oh it's

terrible being white. Oh, guilt, guilt, guilt, I feel so bad. Now, can we talk about how much you're taxing me? The mayor wants to go for another debt increase. This is a guy who who is destroying open records.