Local News
Salazar said to have threatened to "punch out" reporter

By Allison Sherry
The Denver Post

Posted: 11/13/2012 04:46:22 PM MST

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior and former Senator from Colorado, arrives for the speech by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. (Denver Post file photo)




WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ken Salazar threatened to punch a reporter with the Colorado Springs Gazette after the reporter asked him about the Bureau of Land Management's wild horses program at an Election Day get-out-the-vote event.


Reporter Dave Philipps conducted a two-minute interview with Salazar, a Democrat, at the event at an Obama campaign office in Fountain on Election Day.


The interview — recorded by Philipps and witnessed by Ginger Kathrens of the Cloud Foundation, a Colorado-based wild horse advocacy organization — was "perfectly pleasant" until the end, Kathrens said.


"He asked him about what his major accomplishments were and then asked him about his travels, what he was doing, and then he asked him about the 1,700 wild horses in BLM holding facilities," she said. "Salazar said he didn't know very much about it but that it was his understanding there was an investigation being done."


Philipps broke a story in September, in cooperation with ProPublica, about a Colorado man named Tom Davis who has purchased 1,700 wild horses from the federal government but can't produce documentation on what happened to them.


Davis is a proponent of horse slaughter, which is illegal on wild horses roaming public lands. For two years, he has sought investors for a slaughterhouse, Philipps' story said.


After the interview, Kathrens said she tried to shake Salazar's hand. He brushed past her, she said, and approached Philipps.


Salazar then reportedly was caught on tape saying, "Don't you ever ... You know what, you do that again, ... I'll punch you out."


Salazar's spokesman Blake Androff said Tuesday that, "the secretary regrets the exchange."


Philipps referred questions to his editor, who did not return calls from The Denver Post.


"He (Salazar) has anger-management issues," Kathrens said. "He has anger-management issues on this particular issue. He was very angry over ... a couple of innocuous questions."


Allison Sherry: 202-662-8907, asherry@denverpost.com or twitter.com/allisonsherry