Donald Trump supporting Colorado Republican House Minority Leader Mike Lynch has found himself trouble since the Denver Post uncovered his arrest for drunk driving at 90 mph on I-25. The Post first reported on the September 2022 arrest last week and since then Lynch has survived a razor-thin 9-9 no-confidence vote in his leadership among state house Republicans.
Lynch, who is currently on probation, said, “I have fully accepted, and I own the mistake I made in 2022, that’s what leaders do,” in a statement after surviving the no-confidence vote. However, as the scandal has played out in the state, Lynch has gone on the offense blaming everything from the media “hit job” to crime in Denver for his troubles.
“The media were upset they didn’t know about it a year and a half ago, so they took it to me,” Lynch, who is now running for Congress, told local radio’s Dan Caplis Show on Monday.
When asked why he was armed while driving drunk, Caplis cited the fact that the state house is in Denver and as a result, he needed to protect himself.
“Yes, I had a gun on me because I work in Denver, right?” Lynch replied to Dan Caplis during the interview. “That is a safety measure that I keep with me coming in and out of the Capitol.”
Colorado’s 9News noted of Lynch’s bizarre explanation that he “was arrested in September, while the legislature was not in session. He was stopped while driving between a non-political event in Fort Collins and his home in Wellington, 92 and 105 miles from Denver, respectively.”
Colorado House GOP Minority Leader @LynchForCO suggests that fear of violence in Denver is why he was carrying a handgun while driving drunk 100 miles from the city. https://t.co/sDnAL7cjNp
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) January 23, 2024
