{"id":1576818,"date":"2022-07-28T14:19:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T18:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1576818"},"modified":"2022-07-28T14:19:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T18:19:45","slug":"he-rules-by-fear-colorado-didnt-investigate-powerful-dem-appointed-bureaucrat-until-three-years-after-allegations-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/he-rules-by-fear-colorado-didnt-investigate-powerful-dem-appointed-bureaucrat-until-three-years-after-allegations-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He Rules by Fear\u2019: Colorado Didn\u2019t Investigate Powerful Dem-Appointed Bureaucrat Until Three Years After Allegations, Report Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhe-rules-by-fear-colorado-didnt-investigate-powerful-dem-appointed-bureaucrat-until-three-years-after-allegations-report-says%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1576818&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">State this month began an investigation into Michael Willis<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\"><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tColorado director of emergency management Michael J. Willis \/ dhsem.colorado.gov\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/robert-schmad\/\" title=\"Posts by Robert Schmad\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Robert Schmad<\/a> \u2022 July 28, 2022 2:10 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Colorado this month started investigating allegations made in 2019 against a powerful Democrat-appointed official after the <em>Denver Post<\/em>\u00a0started digging into the allegations, the <em>Post<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2022\/07\/25\/mike-willis-colorado-emergenecy-management-complaints-suspensions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado director of emergency management Michael Willis, who has played a significant role in the state&#8217;s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was &#8220;visibly intoxicated&#8221; and &#8220;struggled to focus on things&#8221; as his department responded to a May 7, 2019, school shooting, a state employee told investigators. A different employee also reported that Willis was &#8220;wobbly&#8221; that day. While both employees originally made their allegations in 2019, the state did not launch an investigation until this month.<\/p>\n<p>This is far from the only allegation against Willis. In the last 18 months alone, the state has twice suspended Willis for &#8220;berating female staffers, throwing objects in rage, and intimidating workers to the point they thought it was close to getting physical,&#8221; the <em>Post<\/em> reported. Multiple witnesses told the paper that Willis has repeatedly &#8220;been drunk after-hours at industry conferences and nearly fought other attendees.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Willis &#8220;rules by fear,&#8221; said the state employee who alleged Willis was drunk on the day of the shooting. &#8220;He intimidates. He threatens.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Willis was appointed in 2017 by then-Colorado governor John Hickenlooper (D.),\u00a0who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hickenlooper.senate.gov\/issues\/gun-violence\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">made<\/a>\u00a0gun violence a cornerstone of his successful 2020 Senate campaign. A state ethics commission <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/hickenlooper-guilty-on-ethics-charge\/\">found<\/a>\u00a0that year that Hickenlooper as governor was guilty of multiple ethics charges. While Hickenlooper is not up for reelection this year, the allegations against Willis may hurt Colorado&#8217;s other Democratic senator, Michael Bennet, who is running in November. Colorado is a &#8220;top Senate target for Republicans,&#8221; <em>Axios<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/07\/24\/colorado-senate-republicans-odea-bennet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation, which began under Hickenlooper&#8217;s successor, Gov. Jared Polis (D.), concluded that the 2019 drunkenness allegations against Willis were unsubstantiated. Willis has denied being drunk on the day of the shooting.<\/p>\n<p>Willis played a &#8220;prominent role&#8221; in Polis&#8217;s COVID-19 response but recently &#8220;has been less publicly visible,&#8221; <em>Axios<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/denver\/2022\/07\/25\/colorado-emergency-management-mike-willis-suspended\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. Polis&#8217;s office declined to respond to <em>Post<\/em> and <em>Axios<\/em> inquiries on Willis&#8217;s behavior.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats State this month began an investigation into Michael Willis  Colorado director of emergency management Michael J. Willis \/ dhsem.colorado.gov  Robert Schmad \u2022 July 28,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1576818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1576818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1576818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1576818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1576818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}