The Freedom Caucus rebel who's pals with Liz Cheney — and opposes impeachment

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — Rep. Ken Buck is a card-carrying member of the Trump-aligned House Freedom Caucus. But when a local Republican asked recently if he could guarantee that elections are run safely, he didn’t sound anything like one.

The five-term representative assured a local GOP club meeting in this wealthy Denver suburb that the state's elections were "fair." He underscored that President Joe Biden won Colorado in 2020, dismissing the idea “that Democrats somehow are controlling the election system.”

Buck, one of only two Freedom Caucus members who voted to fully certify Biden's victory, then urged local Republicans to “trust the system.”

The moment epitomized his unique political persona in the House GOP: opinionated and at times contrarian, willing to isolate himself from the right flank at the risk of backlash from his own colleagues. The ex-federal prosecutor at times openly criticizes Donald Trump, a rare quality in the Freedom Caucus, and even defended former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as their party excommunicated her for taking on the former president over the Capitol riot.

He hasn't stopped pushing back on party orthodoxy, even as Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s paper-thin majority makes his loyalty ever more crucial for GOP leaders. But Buck keeps speaking out against some of their biggest decisions — and making the kind of headlines that McCarthy is desperate to avoid.

He’s openly critical of the speaker’s fiscal policy as Congress hurtles toward a shutdown. And he won’t stop nudging his colleagues to pump the brakes on impeaching Biden, even after McCarthy pushed the House into a conservative-backed impeachment inquiry.

Buck says he welcomes an inquiry that might find a smoking gun tying Hunter Biden’s business to Joe Biden. But Republicans, he adds, don’t have one yet. In a Washington Post op-ed on Friday, he wrote that “Republicans in the House who are itching for an impeachment are relying on an imagined history.”

That kind of candor often puts Buck in a bind inside the House Republican Conference.

“I constantly find myself searching for the truth and being surrounded by people who disagree with me — not that they aren't also searching for the truth, but they just disagree with me. And it's a frustrating position to be in,” Buck said as a staffer shuttled him out of his 30-min meeting with the Tusk Club, hosted by a senior living center in Highlands Ranch.

While Buck and McCarthy once had a stronger relationship, the Coloradan dropped hints during January's chaotic speakership election that he’d entertain other candidates if the vote dragged on. He ultimately stuck with McCarthy.

Asked after the Tusk Club meeting if he respects McCarthy, Buck took a noticeable pause.

He said the speaker has "done more with his talent than anybody I've ever seen." Asked the question again, he answered: “I respect all the things he's done.”

That somewhat faint praise comes as Buck faults McCarthy’s handling of the two biggest issues in Washington right now: the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry, which he dismissed in his op-ed as “a flimsy excuse,” and spending talks.

Buck is also annoyed with the speaker’s lack of movement on ideas to rein in spending, like assigning subcommittees to work on rooting out government waste — which could make him more of a threat to the speaker.

“Here's the problem: He said spending was his number one priority when he was elected speaker. And then he didn't institute any of the things that I'm talking about.”

Buck added that McCarthy can't gain back his confidence on the matter because the speaker's camp doesn't "take it seriously," lamenting that “their goal is to stay in power.”

Colleagues who know Buck well aren’t surprised to see him all but laugh off the blowback he’s getting, from public attacks by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to whispers about a primary challenge.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a friend since their days as law school classmates, described his ideology as “a very different brand of conservatism that is typical of the intermountain West," if not typically reflected in the party's base.

Take his dogged refusal to object to Biden’s win. Lummis recalled running into a fired-up Buck at the Denver airport, both of them headed to Washington for the election certification votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

“He knew that I was leaning towards not certifying Pennsylvania, which is the way I ended up voting," Lummis said. "And it was very clear, when we had our conversation at the airport, that he felt very strongly that the law and the Constitution was leading him to a very different conclusion."

Buck also recalled confronting McCarthy in a closed-door conference meeting ahead of the certification votes, warning him that he was wrong to choose a “politically expedient route” over “the good of the party.”

It was a prime example of what even some allies see as Buck's tendency to push too far when he's dug in.

Another thing that sets Buck apart from other conservatives: his willingness to appear side-by-side with a Biden Cabinet member whom many of them would like to impeach, Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Garland joined Buck last month in his district for an event honoring law enforcement. The two have a good relationship. They first became aware of each other during Garland's prosecution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh — a case that got moved to Denver, where Buck then led the criminal division of the U.S. attorney's office.

One veteran Colorado Republican official, granted anonymity to share candid views about Buck, said that the representative’s willingness to make waves “seems to me to be purposeful, about antagonizing your base."

Buck, who half-jokes that he has more House Democratic than GOP friends, flirted with going even further during Trump's second impeachment. He opposed Democrats’ second impeachment of Trump, but said “I may have voted differently” had the majority party conducted a full investigation of the then-president’s actions around Jan. 6.

Buck’s GOP critics roll their eyes at his rebelliousness, dismissing it as a way to get on TV or otherwise draw attention. The representative counters that his combative side stems from his background as a prosecutor and his commitment to following the Constitution.

At times, he’s defended Democrats against his own leaders: He was one of only two in McCarthy's conference who initially resisted booting Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from her committees over her past polarizing remarks about Israel. Buck argued that lawmakers deserve due process.

Buck has also clashed with House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a Freedom Caucus colleague, over how aggressively to move to restrict Big Tech — a split some believe has also spilled into his relationship with McCarthy.

Buck’s district is safely red, but in 2010 he encountered his limits as a statewide candidate, losing the Colorado Senate race to Democrat Michael Bennet after a tough primary and later missteps. Strategists in both parties saw his loss as a sign that he skewed too conservative for the then-purple — now mostly blue — state. He’s dismissed further statewide attempts as a pipe dream.

Now, some Colorado Republicans question how much longer Buck plans to stay in office — not that he would share that answer either way.

And his occasional texts with Liz Cheney are another instance of Buck's willingness to cut against the grain of his party. He has known the Cheney family since 1986, when Dick Cheney hired him to work on the Iran-Contra deal.

“I'll text her something and say, ‘good job on that show’ or whatever,” said Buck. “And she'll do something similar for me.”

Burgess Everett contributed to this report.