Today is July 16, 2024, and here’s what you need to know:

Colorado Republicans praise Trump's pick of 'young, dynamic' JD Vance as his running mate

Leading Colorado Republicans and delegates to the party’s national convention applauded former President Donald Trump’s nomination of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate Monday, with some lauding the choice of the 39-year-old author as evidence Trump is empowering a new generation of Republicans.

“Sen. JD Vance is a fantastic choice, and we are over to moon that President Donald J. Trump along with Sen. Vance are on a clear path to victory come November, especially as Joe Biden and the Democrats implode and fall apart during the final chapter of this race,” said Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams, the chairman of the state’s 37-member delegation to the Republican National Convention.

Williams told Colorado Politics that the state’s delegates had a “joyous and fun” reaction on the convention floor when Trump posted to Truth Social that Vance was his pick.

Trump: ‘I’m not supposed to be here’

In this exclusive interview, former President Donald Trump tells Byron York, “I’m not supposed to be here.”

Former President Donald Trump can’t stop thinking about the way he moved his head in the split second before a gunman, intent on assassinating him, pulled the trigger during his speech in Pennsylvania Saturday evening. Trump was standing at the podium and began to refer to a large screen, hanging to his right, that showed statistics about immigration. To better see the screen, Trump turned his head to the right and a little up, and at the millisecond in which his head was at just the right angle for the bullet to graze his ear but not enter his skull — at that moment, the bullet whizzed by. Trump suffered a bloody wound to his ear, but no other injuries. It seemed like a miracle.

“The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” Trump said Sunday afternoon in a talk aboard his 757 as he flew to Milwaukee for the start of the Republican National Convention. “If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [the skull]. And because the sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of one percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.”

Colorado Rep. Steven Woodrow apologizes for 'inarticulate' tweet about Trump assassination attempt

Facing a backlash, state Rep. Steve Woodrow, a Democrat from Denver, described his tweet calling former President Donald Trump “the devil” following Saturday’s assassination attempt as “inarticulate” and apologized that his words “caused additional pain.”

Woodrow made the post shortly after a shooter tried to assassinate Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania. A bullet pierced Trump’s ear and Secret Service agents quickly whisked him from the stage, his ear covered in blood. The gunman was killed and a bystander also died.

After Saturday’s shooting, Woodrow posted, “The last thing we needed was sympathy for the devil but here we are.” Woodrow deleted his X account shortly after making the post.

Nonprofit that aided Polis' transition team violated campaign finance laws

A political nonprofit that aided in Gov. Jared Polis’s transition as Colorado’s chief executive shortly after his 2018 election has admitted to violating Colorado’s campaign finance laws and is on the hook for thousands of dollars in fines.

Boldly Forward Colorado, which helped in the recruitment and selection of Polis’ administration team, faced roughly $54,000 in fines for spending money on the Democrat-backed ballot measure called Proposition HH but not registering as a committee and failing to report its electioneering activities.

The group’s cooperation, however, reduced that amount by roughly a third of the total.

Trial begins in lawsuit alleging voter intimidation in Colorado after 2020 election

Three civic organizations began to make their case in federal court on Monday that the organizers of a Colorado election auditing effort conspired to intimidate voters in violation of longstanding voting rights law following the 2020 presidential race.

Testimony veered in various directions, touching on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. In response, U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeny admonished the parties to focus on what allegedly happened in Colorado in the months after the election.

At one point, she summoned all parties’ counsel to the bench to address them emphatically out of earshot.