CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil has grilled Colorado Governor Jared Polis on the issue of freeing one of Donald Trump’s key pardon targets.
Trump, 79, is insistent that former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, 70, should be pardoned for health reasons. The election denier was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2024 after being found guilty of tampering with voting machines.
Trump has been vocal on the issue in recent weeks. Last month, the president granted her a “full pardon” in a Truth Social post, claiming she had been “targeted” by Democrats. His pardon was called legally baseless, symbolic and performative by legal experts in Colorado, where Peters remains behind bars.
On New Year’s Eve, he posted again. “God Bless Tina Peters, who is now, for two years out of nine, sitting in a Colorado Maximum Security Prison,” he wrote in a screed which also incorrectly identified her as a 73-year-old (she is 70).
The president also directly insulted Polis in a separate Truth Social post last month, calling him a “SLEAZEBAG” who was refusing to allow an “elderly woman” out of jail. Peters is nine years younger than Trump.
Earlier this month, Polis said he was examining Peters’ case, calling her nine year sentence “harsh.”
Dokoupil was hosting CBS Evening News from Denver on Monday, where he followed up on Trump’s insistence on the pardon with the governor.
Repeating Trump’s embarrassing mistake on Truth Social on New Year’s Eve, the MAGA-curious host also added an extra three years to Peters’ age.
“She’s in jail right now, 73-years-old,” Dokoupil said to Polis, adding, “President Trump wants this woman out of prison.”
“You seem to oppose him on this, but now maybe you’re coming around, I read?”
Polis had told CBS last week that Peters’ age was a factor in a possible pardon, stating, “When you have people that are in their 70s and 80s in our system — how much of a threat to society are they? And we balance that in a way that makes sure that they can spend their last few years at home.”
The Colorado Governor told Dokoupil that he was not giving Trump “the headspace” on Peters.
“You look at every case on clemency on the merits,” he said. “You have somebody who is non-violent, first time offender, elderly. On other hand, does she take full accountability for her crime? We don’t look at this in isolation. I have dozens of these requests that we look at regularly. And I want to make sure we don’t look at this one in any different way.”
Dokoupil pressed the governor, saying, “So you’re thinking about it?”
Polis replied “We’re thinking about all of them,” and added “mercy and giving people a second chance is a core value of mine.”
During her contentious hearing in 2024, Colorado trial court Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters, “I’m convinced you’d do it all over again if you could.”
Barrett said her goal had been to “obtain power, a following and fame.”
Dokoupil then conducted a second “overtime” interview with Polis for social media only, where he pushed the issue again, claiming that “one of your voters over there was not happy with your Tina Peters answer on whether she should come out of jail or not.”
The governor responded, “There’s not an answer until there’s an answer, right? So people are waiting to hear what I’m looking at.”
He admitted some facts in Peters’ case “work in her favor, some work against her.”
“Frankly, the harder cases for me on clemency are people that have committed assault or felony murder,” Polis said. “I’ve done some of those over the years, and to let somebody out at some point, have they made restitution, is a tough decision, but it’s one that I’m never afraid to shy away from.”
The Daily Beast has contacted CBS for comment.
Dokoupil has been traveling across the U.S. to broadcast in different states to win over viewers. Installed by new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, the host said he was promising to be “more accountable and more transparent” than legendary CBS newsman Walter Cronkite.
In a New Year’s Day video, he called out the “elites” and the “legacy media.”
“On too many stories, the press has missed the story,” Dokoupil said. “Because we’ve taken into account the perspective of advocates and not the average American. Or we put too much weight in the analysis of academics or elites, and not enough on you.”
He was subsequently called out after flying in a helicopter with billionaire Cowboys owner Jerry Jones last week. He also shares a renovated four-floor townhouse with wife and MS Now anchor Katy Tur in an affluent Brooklyn neighborhood.
Dokoupil attended a $53,000-per-year prep school in Miami, which he said was funded in part by his father’s drug-dealing connections. After that, he attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Columbia University in Manhattan for a PhD program.
