Former Colorado Governor Bill Owens says ‘charlatan’ Trump has ‘captured’ GOP

DENVER – Colorado’s Republican Former Governor Bill Owens said the Republican party has been “captured” by “charlatan” Donald Trump in a Facebook post Tuesday.

Owens called for fellow Republicans to “do everything possible” to hold GOP majorities in various levels of state and federal government.

In the post, he called Trump a “narcissist who will throw us aside after doing his best to destroy [the Republican party], just as he has thrown aside so many of his properties and venture.”

Owens called for Republicans to try and hold onto majorities in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and said smaller local races needed help to hold on to Republican seats.

He then pointed to a need to reassess and rebuild the party following the election.

“After November 8 we must rebuild at the Presidential level so that we can once again give Americans a legitimate choice for President,” Owens wrote. “We have done so in the past and our Country needs us to do so again in the future.”

Owens is just the latest in a slew of Colorado Republicans who have denounced Trump or wavered on their support of him over the past week after a tape of Trump making lewd remarks and discussing sexually assaulting women in 2005 was leaked to the Washington Post.

Rep. Mike Coffman told Denver7 Friday he wanted Trump to step aside because of the comments.

Cory Gardner and Darryl Glenn joined Coffman in speaking out against Trump the next day, though Glenn, a candidate for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday he wanted to talk face-to-face with Trump before making his final decision.

Owens served as governor of Colorado from 1999 to 2007 and was re-elected in 2002 with the largest-ever majority in state history.