Anti-Impeachment Republican Admits He's Interested in Leaving Congress for CNN
Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who has publicly opposed an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, has visions of working for CNN in his future.
According to the New York Post, Buck began talking privately in August about moving to the network, the Post cited a source as saying.
The 64-year-old five-term legislator told the Post it would be “great” to join CNN.
“I am interested in talking to folks at CNN and other news organizations — on the, I don’t want to call them left, but sort of center-left — and having an opportunity to do that full-time or do that as a contributor would be great also,” Buck said.
“I didn’t want to give you the impression that I’ve only talked to folks at CNN, on the left. I’ve also talked to others about this,” Buck later said after contacting the Post to say he was reaching out to right-leaning networks.
One inside source quoted by the Post without being named said Buck was out of line.
“His constituents elected him to do a job right now — not go find a TV contract, not try to audition for his next job,” the source said. “People can debate whether or not he’s changed his tune [about politics], but I think a lot of people would say he probably has.”
Buck admitted looking beyond Congress, saying he might step down “this Congress, next Congress or whatever — but [I have] just really explored the possibility of … putting together some different things before I leave.”
“I’ve never thought of this job as a job as a career — as a job that I wanted to do for a few decades. … Do I want to stay here a long time? The answer is no, I don’t,” he said.
Buck said he discussed going down the road of seeking a nomination from President Joe Biden to the Federal Trade Commission, but stopped after preliminary talks with two senators.
Buck suggested constant conflict was wearing on him.
“I constantly find myself searching for the truth and being surrounded by people who disagree with me — not that they aren’t also searching for the truth, but they just disagree with me. And it’s a frustrating position to be in,” Buck recently told Politico.
But the Freedom Caucus member also invited controversy by submitting an op-ed to The Washington Post criticizing the impeachment inquiry.
“We are barreling toward a government shutdown without making progress on cutting our out-of-control spending. Yet Republican leadership has decided to divert attention to an impeachment inquiry into President Biden,” he wrote, saying he found little to accept in claims that revolve around Joe Biden’s efforts as vice president to have Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin removed. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma, an energy company with Hunter Biden on the board.
In his op-ed, Buck wrote, “Republicans in the House who are itching for an impeachment are relying on an imagined history.” He called the claim that Shokin was seeking to root out corruption “a neat story, and one that performs well in certain media circles. But impeachment is a serious matter and should have a foundation of rock-solid facts.”
Buck noted that Democrats did not bother with facts when they tried to remove former President Donald Trump from office, and said the GOP should not mimic that performance.
“Does this flimsy excuse for an impeachment sound familiar? It should. … Trump’s impeachment in 2019 was a disgrace to the Constitution and a disservice to Americans. The GOP’s reprise in 2023 is no better,” Buck wrote.
Buck told the New York Post he has gained some insight since he wrote the piece.
“I sat down with the [House impeachment inquiry] investigators after I wrote the op-ed. It was one of those things where I wrote the op-ed, submitted it to the Washington Post and sat down with the investigators — and it was published after I met with the investigators,” he said.
Buck said he could still vote to impeach Biden if the evidence is there.
“I’m a prosecutor, so I’ve been beat up in court when there’s missing evidence. So I may be overly cautious in this case. But it’s very clear to me that something doesn’t smell right — that there’s smoke,” he said.
“I am not opposed to impeachment, I’m opposed to the impeachment inquiry because I don’t think it gives us any broader authority to investigate this. I think the three investigations — Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means — are uncovering a lot of very good information. And I think the other information could change my mind and [convince] me that there should be an impeachment,” he said.
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