Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, who has toed the line recently with Donald Trump and the president-elect’s incoming administration, will attend Monday’s inauguration ceremony, his office confirmed Sunday.
“As chair of the National Governors Association, I’m leading a national bipartisan group of America’s governors to attend the Presidential inauguration,” Polis said in a Sunday statement. “The relationship between states and the federal government is critical to getting things done and delivering for Americans.”
The Colorado governor, whose final two years in office coincide with former President Trump’s return to power, backed Vice President Kamala Harris throughout her campaign. Now, he’s taken a more evenhanded approach to dealing with the incoming Trump administration.
Polis, a Democrat, cheered Trump’s nomination of anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in November. Polis later defended his comments by saying “science must remain the cornerstone of our nation’s health policy,” that he personally supports vaccination and he hopes RFK Jr. will focus on “big pharma and corporate ag.”
He’s also tried to banter on social media with Republican players Vivek Ramaswamy and billionaire Elon Musk, both of whom are leading a group charged with studying potential cuts to the federal budget.
In a pre-Christmas news conference, Polis used an electric saw to shred a decades-old stack of executive orders to showcase how he was repealing unnecessary regulations.
“Nice work,” Ramaswamy, the brash MAGA-disciple who Trump recruited to help slash government spending, said on social media. “Send that shredder over to (the Department of Government Efficiency) next month!”
Polis reposted Ramaswamy’s message and continued to banter with him on the site about closing a federal cheese facility in Missouri, according to The Associated Press.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Polis explained his outreach with his go-to refrain that isn’t often heard in today’s hyperpolarized politics: “We can get good ideas from the left and the right.”
“There might be some people who are over-simplistically saying they are either for or against whatever is going on in Washington,” he said. “I think it’s a little bit more nuanced than that.”
Polis previously said that he doesn’t want to pick fights with the Trump administration, but said he won’t back down when the agenda “hurts our people.”
In his State of the State address, the governor said he opposed Trump’s planned tariffs and doubled-down on Colorado being the “permanent” home to U.S. Space Command, the headquarters of which could be called into question, again, by Trump.
Polis also said the state doesn’t “support efforts to deport American citizens, target those on pending legal status (or) to break up families” — a reference to Trump’s mass-deportation plans.
“Operation Aurora” is named after the culturally diverse Colorado city of 400,000 that drew national attention after Trump repeatedly exaggerated claims that violent Venezuelan gangs had taken over.
“I truly hope that President-elect Trump and Congress can work together quickly to secure the border, stop human trafficking and stop the illegal flow of guns and drugs,” Polis said earlier this month. “As a state, we welcome more federal help to detain and deport dangerous criminals. I also hope Congress finally provides legal pathways for ‘Dreamers’ and those who seek to come out of the shadows to help make Colorado greater.”
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