Tina Peters, the former Colorado county clerk convicted of breaching her county’s secure voting equipment, drew cheers from fellow Republicans upon her release from prison Monday after Democratic Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence.

Other state Democrats, however, said remarks the 70-year-old Peters made in an online interview after leaving prison demonstrate that she lacks remorse and called the commutation “a big mistake.”

“Incredibly grateful that Tina Peters is free,” wrote Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in a post on X. “I’ll be praying that her coming days and years are filled with peace and joy.”

On social media, Rep. Scott Bottoms, a Republican running for governor, said Peters “deserves justice.”

“This is about more than one woman. It is about whether political power can be used to silence, punish, and destroy those who dare to expose the truth,” he said.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, who opposed Polis’ move to shorten Peters’ sentence, said Monday that Peters “should not be walking free.”

“Tina Peters is a felon,” Crow said in a post on X. “She propped up Trump’s Big Lie, was convicted by a jury of Coloradans, and has shown no remorse for her crimes.”

Polis cut Peters’ nearly nine-year sentence in half on May 15 — making her eligible for parole on June 1 — following sustained pressure from President Donald Trump, who described Peters a year ago as an “innocent Political Prisoner” and a “hostage.”

In his clemency letter, Polis said he agreed with a recent appeals court ruling that found Peters’ sentence on four felonies and three misdemeanor counts to be unduly harsh. Days later, the Colorado Democratic Party formally censured Polis, saying his decision had “materially harmed … efforts to defend democratic institutions and election integrity.”

Polis didn’t comment publicly after Peters was released, but in a Substack post on Sunday, he reiterated the reasoning behind his decision to abbreviate her sentence.

“Tina Peters should be punished for what she did,” Polis wrote. “She should not receive additional punishment for what she believed or said.”

While she apologized for making “mistakes” and said it was “wrong” to mislead the secretary of state in a social media post on the day she was granted clemency, Peters doubled down on unfounded claims that the state’s election system is rigged within hours of her early morning release from the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo.

In an appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room, Peters said she believes she was sent to prison as “retribution” for trying to prove certain theories surrounding voting systems.

“Democrats are going to cheat, and no one’s really addressing the problem that I spent my time in prison as retribution for, and that was exposing the election machines that allow the votes to be flipped,” Peters said.

Peters added that she intends to “fight to clear my name and bring out the truth for why they came after me the way they did.”

She also expressed gratitude to the supporters who stood by her during her 20 months of incarceration: “Thank you, everyone. Thank you so much. You all were the wind beneath my wings that gave me the hope to endure.”

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said in a statement that Peters’ shortened sentence will “embolden the election denier movement.”

Responding to a clip of the Bannon podcast on X, Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper accused Peters of “pushing the same election lies that got her convicted in the first place.”

Peters’ remarks drew criticism from the two Democrats running to take over after the term-limited Polis leaves office early next year.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a candidate for governor, said Peters is continuing to promote “false claims.”

“Tina Peters is out of prison and already spreading the same false claims about Colorado elections that led her to commit four felonies in the first place — all in service of Trump’s Big Lie,” Bennet posted on X. “That’s not what remorse looks like.”

Attorney General Phil Weiser, who helped prosecute Peters and is facing Bennet in this month’s gubernatorial primary, said in a statement that he would “continue to fight Tina Peters’ efforts to overturn her conviction in the courts.”

In an interview on the online MeidasTouch Network, Weiser said Peters’ crimes were serious.

“She broke the law. She broke her oath of office. She undermined election equipment at a cost of millions of dollars,” Weiser said. “I prosecuted her along with the Republican district attorney because it was about the rule of law. It’s about protecting our elections.

Weiser said after her interview on Bannon’s podcast that Peters showed she hadn’t changed her mind.

“Tina Peters’ conduct since her release makes clear that she lacks remorse,” Weiser wrote on X. “Instead of taking responsibility for her actions, she is challenging the basis of her prosecution. Her conviction was valid, her sentence was appropriate, and the commutation was a historic mistake.”