OPINION: Couy, we knew you too well

Mar. 19—Many people wonder if Couy Griffin is a real cowboy or a mouthpiece for the political organization Cowboys for Trump. The answer is both.

Griffin, a former Otero County commissioner. for a time basked in national media attention as a sycophant to then-President Donald Trump.

All that zealousness for Trump led to Griffin being convicted of trespassing in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot in Washington. A judge in Santa Fe later ousted Griffin from his political office on grounds of insurrection, a ruling the U.S. Supreme Court let stand this week.

Long before Griffin became a politician, he was a bull rider for Cochise College, a two-year school in Arizona whose mascot was not the Wranglers but the Apaches. Griffin even qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo in 1993.

He was confident atop a bronc or a bull, but shaky as he tried to retreat from his incendiary statements as a Republican politician.

Griffin once publicly said, "The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat." He backpedaled as criticism rained down on him. Griffin claimed he was merely talking about winning elections, not murdering the opposition.

Two days before the riot, Griffin publicly spoke of ways to reverse vote totals so Trump could have a second term.

"We want to win it through our democratic process, but losing is not an option. We'll win it in the ballot box or we'll win it in the street," he said.

During his civil trial over whether he played a part in an insurrection, Griffin sang a different tune. "I had no violent intent on Jan. 6," he said.

Griffin tried to be all things to all people to save himself from jail and his political career from implosion. No politician in New Mexico matched him for phoniness.

Before he was removed from office by state District Court Judge Francis Mathew, Griffin committed another political outburst. He and his two colleagues on the board of commissioners initially voted not to certify the results of Otero County's 2022 primary election.

The other commissioners folded when informed they might face criminal charges and jail sentences if they blocked election results without justification.

Knowing his colleagues would flip-flop to safety, Griffin knew he could be more obstinate than Rooster Cogburn. Griffin voted against certifying the election, all the while admitting he didn't have law or reason on his side.

"My vote to remain a 'no' isn't based on any evidence. It is not based on any facts," Griffin said. "It's only based on my gut, my gut feeling and my own intuition."

That's how Griffin, 50, treated his oath to abide by the law. He wanted to throw out the results of an election based on nothing at all.

Odder still, Griffin attacked the honesty of an election in a community dominated by his own party.

Otero County Clerk Robyn Holmes is a Republican, but Griffin's intuition told him she'd run a dirty election. Every Republican nominee from the primary was sure to win in the general election, but Griffin didn't worry about casting aside their victories to unleash chaos.

He and a few Republican commissioners in other counties followed the directive of a conspiracy theorist who had no expertise in elections. If Republican officeholders tossed a belated wrench into the accuracy of Dominion voting machines, maybe Trump's loss to Biden might look suspect, or at least that was their fantasy.

Arithmetic was lost on Griffin and others. Biden routed Trump in New Mexico by 100,000 votes. Unfounded claims of voting irregularities two years after the election would change nothing.

Most Republicans had no doubt Biden defeated Trump in New Mexico, in the popular vote and in the Electoral College. Griffin was part of a fringe group committed to mythology instead of truth.

Judge Mathew took a some heat for ousting Griffin from his elected position on the county commission. The Wall Street Journal criticized Mathew in an editorial that actually made a better case against Griffin holding public office.

"The breadth of this precedent is troubling, which is no defense of Mr. Griffin's conduct on Jan. 6," the Journal wrote. "According to the court's findings, he trespassed on restricted areas outside the Capitol and riled up the mob with a bullhorn. In a Facebook video the next day, he said 'Joe Biden will never be president' and floated the idea of 'a Second Amendment rally on those same steps,' in which case 'there's going to be blood running out of that building.' "

Griffin once told me he expected to win his case in the Supreme Court. With his pipe dream finished, the cowboy can disappear on the horse he rode into the muck of Trump's final days.

Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.