Democ­rats in Colorado’s con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion crit­i­cized a speech by Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump in which he claimed, with­out evi­dence, that the Nov. 3 elec­tion was rigged and stolen from him, call­ing the president’s words reck­less and absurd.

“Such dan­ger­ous rhetoric under­mines the fun­da­men­tal insti­tu­tions that have gov­erned our repub­lic since its found­ing, and must be reject­ed,” said Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat.

Two Repub­li­cans in the del­e­ga­tion, mean­while, did not direct­ly echo or con­demn the president’s remarks but sug­gest­ed some votes may have been cast illegally.

“Every vote that com­plies with state elec­tion laws should count. Ille­gal votes under­mine the integri­ty of the elec­tion process and con­fi­dence in the elec­torate,” said Rep. Doug Lam­born, R‑Colorado Springs.

“Con­gress­man Buck believes that all legal votes should be count­ed and that the process should be ful­ly trans­par­ent,” said a spokes­woman for the Wind­sor Repub­li­can, who also chairs the Col­orado Repub­li­can Par­ty. “It is impor­tant that we pro­tect the integri­ty of our free and fair elections.”

On Thurs­day evening, Trump spoke for 17 min­utes from the White House, cast­ing him­self as the vic­tim of a vast con­spir­a­cy to cor­rupt­ly remove him from office. Despite offer­ing no evi­dence of ille­gal votes, he claimed to have won the elec­tion “if you count the legal votes.” The elec­tion remains too close to call at this time.

On Fri­day, The Den­ver Post asked the offices of all nine mem­bers of Con­gress from Col­orado whether they agree with the president’s alle­ga­tions. Sev­en of the nine respond­ed, the excep­tions being Sen. Cory Gard­ner, R‑Yuma, and Rep. Scott Tip­ton, a Cortez Repub­li­can. Both lost elec­tions this year.

“Who could pos­si­bly be sur­prised by that press con­fer­ence? I mean, hon­est­ly,” said Rep. Jason Crow, an Auro­ra Demo­c­rat and for­mer pros­e­cu­tor in the impeach­ment tri­al of Trump last win­ter. “After four years of the pres­i­dent doing things like this, this is not sur­pris­ing. It’s ter­ri­ble, to be sure.”

“He has shown repeat­ed­ly a will­ing­ness to use the pow­er of the pres­i­den­cy, tax­pay­er mon­ey, and the bul­ly pul­pit to under­mine our democ­ra­cy for his own per­son­al, polit­i­cal self-inter­est, and I think he’ll con­tin­ue to do that,” Crow said.

Sen. Michael Ben­net, a Den­ver Demo­c­rat, called the president’s remarks “absurd and dan­ger­ous,” adding that they will “fuel con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries and sow divi­sion” rather than unite the nation. Rep. Ed Perl­mut­ter, an Arva­da Demo­c­rat, called them an attempt to “under­mine the will of Amer­i­can voters.”

Rep. Diana DeGette, anoth­er Den­ver Demo­c­rat, said the president’s words are “not only un-pres­i­den­tial, they are un-Amer­i­can. And they should be con­demned by every sin­gle leader in this coun­try, regard­less of party.”