Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall attended President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union speech in Washington, D.C. on February 7 at the invitation of far right wing extremist House Rep. Lauren Boebert, who spread lies about the 2020 election and supported the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Boebert helped whip the insurrectionist mob into a frenzy as a featured speaker at the “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to keep the former president in power by blocking Congress from counting electoral college votes and formalizing Joe Biden’s victory. Boebert also was among the 147 elected officials who voted to undermine democracy by overturning the election. A House Select Committee spent a year investigating the events surrounding Jan. 6 and found it was the result of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election:
The Jan. 6 Committee found:
- “President Trump engaged in a massive effort to spread false and fraudulent information to the American public claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.
- President Trump corruptly planned to replace the Acting Attorney General, so that the Department of Justice would support his fake election claims.
- President Trump corruptly pressured Vice President Pence to refuse to count certified electoral votes in violation of the US Constitution and the law.
- President Trump corruptly pressured state election officials, and state legislators, to change election results.
- President Trump’s legal team and other Trump associates instructed Republicans in multiple states to create false electoral slates and transmit those slates to Congress and the National Archives.
- President Trump summoned and assembled a violent mob in Washington and directed them to march on the US Capitol.
- As the violence was underway, President Trump ignored multiple pleas for assistance and failed to take immediate action to stop the violence and instruct his supporters to leave the Capitol.”
Boebert supported overturning the election and spread lies about the election on Twitter:
It is not surprising Marshall would agree to be seen with Boebert despite her efforts to subvert American democracy. Marshall has a history as a right wing partisan who has openly shown disdain towards people of other political persuasions. In the August 21, 2006 Denver Post, Marshall publicly disparaged left wing Coloradans, calling them “pampered, bed-wetting liberals,” and adding “No one cares what they say about anything.”
Some of these comments sound so elitist. CMU has increased their enrollment numbers year after year. Professors have worked had to retain their positions. CMU has a renowned nursing program, as well as producing a great number of teachers, business leaders, biologists and even a small number of doctors. Their cycling program is top notch and known to be just as good as a Division I school. Have you heard about their running team? Well, they too are just as good as many runners at Div. I schools. Don’t put down CMU to spite the ill qualified President. Instead, write a letter to John Marshall, the Board of Trustees and members of CMU’s leadership team telling them how embarrassed you are that CMU’s President is cozying up with an insurrection supporter. Lauren Boebert needs to be a dirty name that when heard, someone like John Marshall should be running away quickly in the opposite direction.
So obvious is the lack of integrity and the degradation of Mr. Marshall as to be flattered by those of the lowest education and class; ie Boebert. Both are incredibly unqualified for their jobs. CMU was recently fined for raising tuition beyond the acceptable limits of higher Education. The pay scale for professors/staff is a joke. What is the point of a higher education if not to have a livable wage? You are both shameful and delusional frauds. Run students run!
Marshall is on the MAGA “free speech” bandwagon. He’s trying to turn CMU into the most welcoming school for extremely conservative kids. Supposedly about civility but mainly babying the white conservative students.
He’s so thin-skinned, too. He’s probably still trying to get back at the bedwetters who canceled his campaign manager career.
Come to think of it, he looks pretty damn pleased to be photo’d with the most UNcivil person from Colorado.
I mean, really???!!!
Maybe Marshall has some influence with Boebert since she wasn’t caught shrieking at the President this time. Maybe Marshall could go as MTG’s date next time.
While Boebert is listed as an “invited speaker and featured guest” I do not believe she actually spoke on the Ellipse during the Stop the Steal rally. She was otherwise occupied in the House Chambers preparing to tweet to the world that Nancy Pelosi had left the building.
When confronted about his attendance with Boebert, Marshall gave a muddled reply trying to divorce himself from attending with a known enemy of democracy and spoke about it being a honor to attend the State of the Union, he represented CMU and it wasn’t political. Poor answer and muddling was expected because that is all he has.
CMU is a sub-mediocre college that provides jobs for Republicans and not much in the way of a college education. Marshall promotes it as a vocational school training people for specific jobs. When those jobs go away because of technology, those people trained at CMU will not have the skills to reinvent themselves. CMU will have gotten their tuition money and banks will be after them for their student loan payments. The college has a poor retention rate, many transfers and embarrassing graduation numbers. The administrators run it like a business, not an institution of higher learning. They want profits, buildings, sports and hired a “president” who is good at PR, but has zero academic accomplishments. CMU is an embarrassment to Grand Junction.
Is it true that that college doesn’t allow protesting? This came after the incident with Palin when she was visiting. I heard that not sure if it’s true. Would not be surprised
P.S. agree.
So many things about Grand Junction and our district are embarrassing.
I could not agree more. When I confronted the previous president at one of our discussion groups, I refuted it being called a University. Having been to the University of Colorado in Boulder where there is a professor in every department who is internationally recognized as an expert in that field, THAT is a University. Calling something a thing does not make it so. You may call a billy goat a Thoroughbred but it probably isn’t going to win the Kentucky Derby.