Hakeem Jeffries

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said President Donald Trump is “very focused on revenge” in Colorado but stopped short Wednesday of saying Democrats could base an impeachment inquiry on the attacks if they retake Congress in November.

“He has targeted the people of Colorado in the same way he’s targeted the people of New York, New Jersey and Virginia — and other places that have voters who did not support him,” Jeffries told a group of journalists during a Denver visit. “This is a level of … retributive behavior that should not come from people in high office, because the American people are the ones who we should center in our efforts — and not divide them according to red states, blue states or purple states.”

Jefferies, of New York, is in line to take the speaker’s gavel if Democrats win a majority in the House of Representatives in November. He was in Colorado to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and to support Democratic candidates Manny Rutinel and Jessica Killin in their quests to flip two Republican-held seats in the state — those occupied by U.S. Reps. Gabe Evans and Jeff Crank, respectively.

He made his remarks after meeting with the Black Ministerial Alliance in Denver.

Since Trump returned to office last year, his administration has denied major Colorado disaster relief requests, though he approved a separate request for this year’s Gold Mountain and Aspen Acres fires earlier this month. He’s also sought to dismantle a nationally recognized climate lab in Boulder and to move U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Alabama. He’s targeted Colorado for large grant funding cuts, attempted to force the state to rapidly recertify 100,000 low-income people who receive food benefits and vetoed legislation that would have brought clean water to rural parts of the state.

Much of that happened as Trump repeatedly lashed out at Gov. Jared Polis for not pardoning Tina Peters, the disgraced former county clerk who was convicted of election-related felonies.

Polis, a Democrat, later granted Peters a commutation and ordered her released early, though he denied his decision had anything to do with pressure from the Trump administration.

In August, an email surfaced in court that appeared to show Colorado was singled out when Trump officials met “to prioritize Colorado for the purposes of ensuring grants and federal support are in line with administration priorities.” The email was sent in December, at the height of Trump’s public furor over Peters’ imprisonment.

Opponents characterized the email as a “smoking gun” in a lawsuit over the administration’s campaign against Colorado.

Regarding potential investigative actions by a Democratic-majority House next year, Jefferies deferred to members who sit on the House Judiciary Committee, including U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse of Lafayette — who appeared with him at Wednesday’s event — and the House oversight committee. He said they “haven’t ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out” in terms of actions a potential Democratic majority might take.

Instead, he said his focus was on affordability and other Democratic priorities.

“We’re going to follow the facts, we’re going to apply the law, we’re going to be guided by the Constitution and we’re going to let the chips fall where they may, in terms of conducting the oversight that is part of being a separate and coequal branch of government.”

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