Cowboys for Trump leader Couy Griffin attended his first Otero County Commission meeting on March 11 since his arrest by the FBI and subsequent national disgrace after the Capitol riots on Jan. 6 in Washington D.C.
Griffin, wearing his C4T shirt, signaled his continued alignment with the former president. He said he hasn’t been allowed to attend commission meetings because he’s been on quarantine orders since his release.
Griffin was called out for being the only commissioner not wearing a mask by public attendees of the meeting. He also encouraged other public commenters to take off their mask stating, “It’s OK if you need to take it off, the Stanford study shows they don’t really do anything.” He told the same speaker who said he was receiving his second COVID vaccine shot, “Good luck, I hope you don’t come away with a limp.” “The Stanford study” Griffin refers to appears to be a hoax email supposedly from a Stanford University board member (it wasn’t) telling people they could avoid COVID by drinking water and test themselves by holding their breath. Neither are true and neither was the connection to Stanford, though the hoax continues to be spread in conservative social media.
“You’re getting paid by the county to be a commissioner, and you need to get your personal life in order.”
The commission tackled an agenda item to discuss a press release that Commissioners Gerald Matherly and Vickie Marquardt sent to media calling for Griffin’s resignation. Marquardt had harsh words for the C4T leader saying, “I’ve been working my ass off as a commissioner, I’m here full-time and since last June you’ve been fully committed to Cowboys for Trump. You’re getting paid by the county to be a commissioner, and you need to get your personal life in order.”
Griffin addressed statements he made in May in a video shared to the Cowboys for Trump social media pages where he states, “I’ve come to a place where I’ve come to the conclusion that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” Griffin said he was speaking as if it was a pep rally. “I was talking about the election, and how we needed to annihilate them, we need to kill them, we need to crush them and destroy them.”
Griffin is facing a litany of charges after he was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Jan. 17 when he returned to Washington, vowing opposition to President Joe Biden’s election victory and inauguration. He was released on bail on Feb. 5, pending his trial. Griffin is also being investigated by the state Attorney General for using $30,000 in C4T donations for personal use.
After a three-hour meeting, Commissioners Matherly and Marquart refused to withdraw their statement. Griffin did get a majority of support for a resolution calling on the FBI to investigate the destruction of the obelisk on Santa Fe Plaza during protests over the summer.