QAnon adherents congregated in Las Vegas over the weekend for a multi-day conference to spread misinformation about the 2020 election, Covid vaccines, and probably most everything else that was addressed at what was dubbed the For God & Country Patriot Double Down convention.
One of the speakers was “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin, and he shared some unkind words for his group’s namesake.
“We supported President Trump for his fight for justice, and for four years we cried, ‘Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock her up.’ We know she’s a criminal,” Griffin said. “What did the president tell us? ‘If I was in charge of the law, you’d be in jail.’ OK, Mr. President, you’ve been in charge of the law for four years. At the end of your four-year time, the only ones locked up were men like me, and others like me, that have stood by the president the strongest.”
Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin blasted Trump at the QAnon conference today. He said Trump promised he would lock up Hillary, but “at the end of your 4 year time, the only ones locked up were men like me, and others like me, that have stood by the president the strongest.” pic.twitter.com/8eWzODQ1QY
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 24, 2021
The “men like me” to whom Griffin is referring are the Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol and rioted on January 6th — something that is very much illegal.
Griffin is not currently locked up, but he was indeed among those who marched to the Capitol in what turned out to be a violent effort to overturn the 2020 election.
Griffin was arrested later in January, and in August was offered a plea agreement to resolve the misdemeanor criminal charges he’d been slapped with for breaching the Capitol grounds.
He didn’t enter the building but allegedly used a bullhorn to lead the crowd in prayer on a terrace outside the Capitol.
In addition to leading Cowboys for Trump, Griffin serves as a county commissioner in southern New Mexico.
A political committee tried to recall him this summer alleging he was missing meetings in service of Cowboys for Trump, and that he was using the group as a money-making apparatus.
Griffin survived the recall effort in September after the committee failed to get enough signatures to trigger a special election.
Griffin was a huge fan of the former president, as his group’s name implies, and reportedly met with Trump “several times” over the course of his term in office.
Like the president, Griffin has a history of making racist comments, including telling people who supported the playing of the Black national anthem at football games to “go back to Africa,” and calling those who opposed the Confederate flag “vile scum.”
In the spring of 2020, Trump tweeted a video of Griffin telling a crowd of supporters that “the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”
Griffin also made news in February when he claimed that he would travel to Biden’s inauguration with firearms to “take a stand for our country and for our freedoms.”