Colorado Democrats thought they could keep Tina Peters locked up.
They made one big mistake.
And Democrats handed Trump one weapon he can use to free Tina Peters.
Colorado Democrats play games with Trump's pardon power
Tina Peters sits in a Colorado women's prison serving nine years for making backup copies of election system data before a May 2021 software update.¹
The 70-year-old former Mesa County clerk maintains she was following federal law requiring preservation of election records for 22 months after an election.²
Colorado prosecutors convicted her anyway for allowing unauthorized access to voting equipment.
Trump pardoned Peters on December 11, calling her "a Patriot who simply wanted to make sure our elections were fair and honest."³
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser immediately declared Trump's pardon has "no precedent in American law."⁴
He's dead wrong — and the precedent comes from Democrat Presidents.
Eisenhower showed presidents how to override rogue states
Peters' attorney David Clements released a video pointing out the massive hole in Democrats' argument.
President Dwight Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard in 1957 when Governor Orval Faubus used state forces to block black students from entering Little Rock Central High School.⁵
Eisenhower didn't ask permission from Arkansas officials.
He issued Executive Order 10730, stripped control of the Arkansas Guard from the governor, and sent 1,000 paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock.⁶
Federal troops physically escorted nine black students past hostile state police and angry mobs into the school.
Governor Faubus screamed about states' rights and federal overreach — the exact same arguments Colorado Democrats are making today.
Eisenhower's response was simple: "Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts."⁷
The Supreme Court had declared segregated schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.
Arkansas refused to comply with federal law.
So Eisenhower used federal authority to enforce it.
Kennedy followed the same playbook against segregationists
President John F. Kennedy took identical action at the University of Mississippi in 1962 after Governor Ross Barnett used state police to prevent James Meredith from enrolling.⁸
Kennedy deployed over 30,000 federal troops to Oxford, Mississippi.
Two people died in the riots, but federal forces escorted Meredith past state officials who claimed Mississippi had "sovereign immunity" from federal orders.
Kennedy did it again at the University of Alabama in 1963 when Governor George Wallace literally stood in the schoolhouse door backed by Alabama state troopers.⁹
Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard and sent them to physically remove Wallace and his state forces from the entrance.
Democrats celebrated these actions for decades as heroic stands for civil rights against rogue state governments.
Now they claim the exact same federal authority doesn't exist when Trump uses it to protect an election official who preserved evidence.
The hypocrisy is staggering.
Clements pointed out that Trump could deploy federal marshals or federalize Colorado's National Guard exactly like Eisenhower and Kennedy did.
Trump could order federal forces to La Vista Correctional Facility where Peters is imprisoned and take custody of her.
Colorado prison officials can scream about states' rights — federal authority trumps state authority when constitutional rights are being violated.
If Trump declares that Colorado violated Peters' rights by prosecuting her for federal record preservation duties, he has the same authority Eisenhower exercised.¹⁰
Weiser called this "an outrageous departure from what our constitution requires."¹¹
But Eisenhower and Kennedy both deployed federal troops against states defying federal authority.
Trump doesn't need Colorado's permission any more than Eisenhower needed Governor Faubus's approval.
The Constitution's Supremacy Clause makes federal law superior to state law.
Democrats spent 60 years praising federal intervention against segregationist governors who claimed states' rights.
Colorado Democrats thought they could hide behind states' rights to keep a 70-year-old grandmother locked up.
Trump just showed them the playbook their own party wrote.
When federal and state authority collide, federal wins.
Now Democrats learn that lesson applies to them too.
¹ Quentin Young, "Tina Peters' lawyers citing Trump pardon launch new efforts to free her," Colorado Newsline, December 16, 2025.
² Arizona Sun Times, "Trial of Former Colorado County Clerk Tina Peters," July 25, 2024.
³ Donald Trump, Truth Social post, December 11, 2025.
⁴ Phil Weiser statement, quoted in "Trump claims to pardon jailed Colorado election clerk Tina Peters," ABC News, December 11, 2025.
⁴ Phil Weiser statement, quoted in "Trump claims to pardon jailed Colorado election clerk Tina Peters," ABC News, December 11, 2025.
⁵ "Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957)," National Archives, October 4, 2023.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ "Mob Rule Cannot Be Allowed to Override the Decisions of Our Courts," National Archives, September 24, 1957.
⁸ "What happened when Lyndon Johnson federalized the National Guard," NPR, June 9, 2025.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Quentin Young, "Trump signs formal pardon for Tina Peters," Colorado Newsline, December 12, 2025.
¹¹ Phil Weiser statement, quoted in "Trump claims to pardon jailed Colorado election clerk Tina Peters," ABC News, December 11, 2025.
