Opinion: 'Cowboy' has become an embarrassment

I wish Couy Griffin would do us all a favor the next time he goes on national television. Tell them you’re from Texas.

Griffin was one of a handful of Jan. 6 insurrectionists featured June 20 on a two-hour CNN special about the riot that day at the U.S. Capitol. He was arrested by FBI agents on federal charges of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority.

Among the pearls of wisdom he dispensed were the belief that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and protester Ashli Babbitt are still alive; and that Donald Trump was “anointed by God.”

“I feel like he carried God’s anointing in there, because he won all the time,” Griffin explained.

I guess that would qualify Tom Brady for sainthood.

Griffin knew that what he was espousing was bat-poop looney. He prefaced one statement with the qualifier, “I hate to be so crazy, conspiracy-minded.” Hate it or not, he went right on being crazy.

Every village has its idiot. But the fact that Griffin is an elected official smears all of us with his idiocy.

A recall attempt has been started to remove Griffin from his seat on the Otero County Commission. But, as anyone who was involved in the effort to try to remove former Treasurer David Gutierrez from office knows, recalls are incredibly difficult.

Griffin now says he has his eyes on a new political office. He wants to be the top law enforcement officer in Catron County. And, he might have a pretty good chance, assuming he isn’t serving time in federal prison.

I’ll admit it was hard not to feel a little bit sorry for Griffin, watching the part of the CNN special where he is on the Capitol balcony with a bullhorn, desperately trying to get wild-eyed rioters to instead take a knee in quiet prayer and reflection. I’ve rarely seen a person so ignored.

A recent story by Associated Press reporter Morgan Lee presented a sad tale of Griffin’s life today. Living in a trailer in Tularosa, divorced from his wife, estranged from his family, clinging to his commission seat and bracing for federal trial.

It’s a hard fall from where he was last year at this time. A former pretend cowboy who earned his living twirling a lasso for European tourists at Paris Disneyland, Griffin formed Cowboys for Trump and rode that schtick all the way to the White House.

In order to ensure that his act was reaching its intended target in the Oval Office, Griffin spiced up his message with comments like, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.” That earned a retweet from the president, perhaps the highest honor that can be awarded to a Trump acolyte.

Griffin and his band of merry cowpokes were riding high during the 2020 campaign. All of a sudden they were experts, making regular appearances on Fox News and opining on everything from foreign policy to land rights. All delivered in a down-home, folksy style, of course.

Griffin had way more than just 15 minutes of fame. For a few months last year, he had the attention of millions of people. It was an opportunity that very few of us will ever have. He could have done some real good. Instead, he used that time to pine for more dead Democrats.

Now his time is over.

Griffin is a pastor, and certainly understands the Bible much better than I. But there is one verse that seems appropriate to his situation.

It’s Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Walter Rubel is the former opinion page editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News. He lives in Las Cruces, and can be reached at:

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