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Eagle County sheriff set to read book by alt-right conspiracy theorist to local kids

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August 22, 2024, 5:25 pm

An image featured in an email from U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s congressional office last year. Posobiec is pictured on the left.

Eagle County’s only elected Republican, Sheriff James van Beek, will be reading a book meant for children that was written by far-right extremist and “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec this Saturday.

The Eagle County Republican Party twice in the last week has promoted the reading of Posobiec’s “The Island of Free Icecream [sic]” as a political event in email blasts to constituents. 

The event ties itself to the national “Brave Books” campaign, in which Christian-right activists have promoted conservative children’s booksunder the pretense of free speech, while also calling for bans against books that do not conform to their own values.

Eagle County Sheriff James Van Beek
Sheriff James van Beek

In an email dated Aug. 17, the Eagle County GOP wrote, “Story Hour is back! 2nd Annual BRAVE Books ‘See You at the Library Story Hour’, Hosted by: The Eagle County Republicans, 10:30-12:00 at the Eagle Public Library, Eagle. Doors open at 10:15. See Attached flyer.” The local GOP promoted the event again in an email on Wednesday, Aug. 21.

In the first email, Eagle County GOP Chairman Tony Martinez wrote, “Lately, I’ve been hearing from God that it’s not about the numbers of people we have, but the quality of those serving.” Apparently, they’re targeting younger and younger recruits.

Eagle County has become increasingly blue in recent years, with van Beek the only elected Republican and the local GOP failing to even put forth candidates in races like the recent District 2 Eagle County Commissioner contest.

Posobiec’s book, “The Island of Free Ice Cream,” is an apparent warning for kids ages 4 to 12 about the dangers of socialism and the rewards of capitalism.

Posobiec rose to fame in 2016 when he started spreading the false Pizzagate conspiracy that Democrats were running a child sex ring at a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. The conspiracy led to a North Carolina man being arrested after firing an assault rifle in the restaurant.

Posobiec gained further notoriety when he was retweeted by then President Donald Trump in the wake of the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. The Southern Poverty Law Center keeps an “Extremist File” on Posobiec and rates his ideology as “General Hate.”

USA Today recently reported that U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Trump’s running mate, previously endorsed another book by Posobiec, titled “Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them).”

Current 3rd Congressional District U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a far-right, pro-gun extremist who is running again in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, last year used her office to promote Posobiec in a press release about free speech. An article on the topic in the Colorado Times Recorder described Posobiec as an antisemitic, alt-right conspiracist.

An image featured in an email from U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s congressional office last year. Posobiec is pictured on the left.

Eagle County Sheriff van Beek is no stranger to controversy when it comes to firearms and right-wing media. In 2019, van Beek avoided local media and took to social media and FOX News to explain his opposition to Colorado’s newly minted red-flag law that allows law enforcement and family members to petition a judge to temporarily confiscate guns from someone deemed a danger to themselves or others. The previous year, van Beek indicated he would support the law.

Van Beek also has been criticized for using his taxpayer-funded, ghost-written columns in the Vail Daily to downplay deadly serious matters such as two suicides at the Eagle County jail.

William Day, an Eagle resident and first vice chair of the Eagle County Democratic Party, said he reached out to the library and the sheriff about Saturday’s reading.

“This concerns me greatly that we have people in this county that would promote books written by an author of this type. My concern is it’s far-right wing extremism, and I believe [Posobiec is] dangerous,” said Day, who founded the Children’s World Peace Organization nonprofit.

“I’m so concerned that I’ve called Sheriff van Beek to make him aware. Although he’s volunteered to read one of these books, I want to make sure he knew what he was reading and hadn’t been hoodwinked,” added Day. “And while I’m not surprised that the Trumplicans — because I don’t think they’re Republicans anymore — I’m not surprised they’re doing this, I’m just very disappointed that they would stoop to this.”

Day said the Eagle Library staff told him they do not have Brave Books on the shelves and that they don’t endorse events that are held in the library meeting space that’s available to all nonprofit organizations. A library staff member did not return an email from RealVail.com.

An Eagle County spokesman referred inquiries to the “sheriff and/or his public relations staff”. Emails to Sheriff van Beek and his staff were not returned as of Thursday evening, but any comment will be added to this story.

Van Beek is not up for reelection in November. In 2022, he won a third four-year term.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on the Colorado Times Recorder website.

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.