Moment pro-life Colorado Republican is brutally grilled about abortion (2024)

Colorado congressional candidate and sitting State Rep. Richard Holtorf received a rough grilling at the hands of local news anchor over abortion last week.

The 59-year-old Republican made headlines back in January when he defended footing the bill for his girlfriend's abortion,despite sponsoring a failed 2020 measure that would have banned the procedure in the state after 22 weeks.

'I respected her rights and actually gave her money to help her through her important, critical time,' Holtorf said at time, of the procedure administered sometime in 1986.

Holtorf, who represents the Eastern Plains, is running against Lauren Boebert. He's a staunch opponent of abortion - so much so thatdropped his firearm inside the Capitol while rushing to cast a vote against abortion rights a few months back.

9News anchor Kyle Clark honed in on this hypocrisy, questioning the candidate for Colorado's 4th Congressional District at length in the process.

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'If abortion was the best choice for your girlfriend, why try to deny that choice to other women?' Clark asks bluntly to begin.

Holtorf, at first, appears to fumble for a straight answer, before saying he's 'a pro-life Catholic' who believes that 'everyone should choose life.'

'If you listen to my presentation on the house floor - did you listen to it?'Holtorf asks, referring to his now widely seen comments made on the House floor earlier this year.

'I did, in fact - I just quoted from it,' Clark replies, showing no fear in the face of the politician seated a few feet away.

'Okay so - what was the major theme and what did I have to repeat probably, like, 20 times,'Holtorf shoots back.

'Let me let - me help you,' he quickly adds, interrupting the interviewer in the process.

'Oh I thought you were asking me a question,' Clark claps back, as things continued to get heated.

'Go ahead. Go ahead,'Holtorf says at this point, before having his words dissected by the9News journalist.

'In fairness your logic was a bit scattered in that speech,' Clark says, apparently ready for round two.

'What I'm asking you about is, thefact that you said that you respected your girlfriend's right to an abortion and then gave her money to help her through an important time.'

'Exactlywhat I did,'Holtorf replies.

'But yet you've tried to deny that to other women, and I'm asking why is an abortion good for your girlfriend but bad for other women,'Clark continues.

'That's my question. Simple, simple question.

'So you deflected. And you did a good job of it by the way.'

Holtorf, at this point, appears visibly annoyed, not donning his characteristic cowboy hat for the outing either.

He responds by saying the 'the major theme of that presentation, if you listen to it, and I want you to listen to it again, is "choose life",' a message he claims to have said '20 times' during the January display.

'There are times when that choice can't be made or it's complicated particularly for the woman, okay?' he continues.

'What were you doing when you were 20 years old,' he asks Clark at this point, referring to his and his then-girlfriend's young age at the time of the procedure.

When Clark answers that he was ajunior in college,Holtorf goes on to offer more insight onto the decision.

'I found out that she was pregnant the week I deployed to military training in the

summer of, uh I think it was 1986, and guess what you do when you have military orders - you deploy. Okay? I went to Fort Washington, spent a month and a half there, then I went to California, and spent another month, and then I came back from my military training to Fort Collins Colorado, where I was attending as a student.

'Guess what my girlfriend told me she did which I asked her not to do,' he says.

'I said, Kyle, we'll figure this out when I get home... She had an abortion.

'Was that her choice?Yes. Did she have that right? Yes. Was it my my choice, Kyle? No.'

Clark, seemingly unphased, goes on to ask: 'Why do you seek to deny the choice that you said was best for your girlfriend's life?'

Holtorf attempts to interrupt, but Clark this time doesn't give him the option.

'Why do you seek to deny it to other women?'

Holtorf responds by saying that as 'a pro-life person,' he thinks 'you should try to choose life every time.

'But there are exceptions,' he goes on to claim. 'And there are times when you need abortion. Abortion is a medical procedure.'

'Is one of the exceptions when Richard Holtorf's the father?' Clark asks, prodding the politician.

'It's not about me. Don't personalize it and make it about me,' Holtorf shoots back.

Clark then again reminds Holtorf how he'd discussed his girlfriend's abortion on the floor of the Colorado House - a fact the politician dismisses as an unimportant detail.

'That doesn't matter,' Holtorf says in the now viral clip. 'That's a story. That's not that important. What's more important is the policy.'

Aside from his stance on abortion Holtorf recently made headlines by criticizign his Colorado GOP rival in Boebert, saying the rep 'needs to learn how to dress' while comparing her to women working the streets near the Colorado capitol building.

'[The ones that wear] high heels, short skirts, low cut blouses', he said.

Boebert's personal and family drama, Holtorf said, would also encourage voters in Colorado to support someone else.

'She has a lot of problems with her family, and herself, and her family life that with a lot of judicial troubles,' he said last monht. 'And that does not reflect well, with respect to a son that just recently has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies.'

Holtorf is referring to Boebert's son Tyler getting arrested and hit with 22 criminal charges, including five felonies, as police say he and his friends were caught using stolen credit cards in connection with a series of vehicle break-ins in Rifle, Colorado.

He previously admitted that he understands why former President Donald Trump endorsed Boebert, but he thinks Colorado voters want someone who does not have as much personal drama.

'I still just don't think the electorate is going to go for it despite the fact that they are very strong supporters of Donald Trump for president,' he said. 'I don't think that completely exonerates her from the carpet-bagging and the seat-swapping.'