'She Bent Over and Started Crying': Colorado GOP Nominee Laughs Recalling Slamming His Wife Into a Door

The Republican nominee for governor of Colorado is being criticised after a resurfaced recording of a podcast showed him laughing as he described how he grabbed his wife and slammed her into their front door over an argument that she said she could look after herself.

Victor Marx, a 61-year-old Marine veteran and ministry leader, described the incident in a 2021 interview, alongside a separate account in which he described throwing his toddler son across a room. In another recording, he told a conference that 'God had given him a gift for violence'.

Marx won the Republican nomination on 30 June and faces Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Democratic nominee, in November, as the recordings surface and prominent Republicans publicly break with him over his candidacy.

A 'Bouncing Push' on The Protector Nation

The account came during an appearance on The Protector Nation, a podcast hosted by Byron Rodgers. Marx said he had become infuriated after his wife told him she no longer needed martial arts training because she was married to a Marine black belt.

He then described what he did. 'She goes, "I can handle myself." I said, "You can?" And I remember grabbing her, slamming her into our front door,' Marx said, laughing as he told the story.

He went on to describe the force and her reaction. 'I mean, it was a decent push. It'd be a bouncing push, right? She hit that, bent over and started crying, facing the opposite way,' he said.

A Toddler Thrown Across the Room

A second account came from his own podcast. In a 2020 episode, Marx described an incident in which his son, then a toddler, pushed his young daughter so hard that she started screaming.

Marx said he reacted by snatching up the boy and throwing him across the room. 'I reacted so fast and so disproportionately that I snatched him up and threw him across the room,' he said, adding: 'He started crying. And I'll never forget, I went, what was that? I mean, I couldn't believe it.'

Marx himself described his reaction as disproportionate, and unlike the story about his wife, he told this one as a moment that shocked him.

The third remark came before a religious audience. At a Turning Point USA Pastors Summit in San Diego in 2023, Marx joked that he had a knack for conflict and told attendees: 'I feel like God gave me a gift for violence, against a manifestation of evil,' HuffPost reported.

The remark came as he described hitting a man who, he said, had cheated on his wife and abused his daughter.

All three accounts are Marx's own descriptions of his past, given in interviews, sermons and his own broadcasts. The reporting cited here does not say that any of the three incidents resulted in criminal charges. The Daily Beast said it had contacted Marx for comment.

Recordings That Land on a Fractured Party

The clips add to a candidacy already under scrutiny. Marx has built his campaign on a dramatic life story, including his claims that a stepfather forced him to kill a man when he was seven, that he has performed exorcisms, and that, as a civilian, he called in a military airstrike that killed dozens of Islamic State fighters.

Those claims have proved difficult to corroborate independently, according to The New York Times. Some senior Republicans have openly broken with him. Dick Wadhams, a former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, has said Marx is not fit to be governor.

Marx narrowly beat state senator Barbara Kirkmeyer and state representative Scott Bottoms in the primary, taking about 39.8 per cent of the vote to Kirkmeyer's 39.4 per cent, while Representative Lauren Boebert has endorsed him.

Marx continues to draw support from grassroots conservative evangelicals. He has promised to consecrate Colorado to God, has described the state's problems as part of a coordinated socialist takeover, and has said he can become the state's first Republican governor since 2002 if Christian voters turn out.

He has avoided a head-to-head with Weiser. Marx has declined multiple invitations to traditional moderated debates; he initially agreed to one event believing it would be unmoderated, then withdrew when it was not. The two are due to appear at a Colorado Chamber of Commerce forum on 8 October, which is not a debate.

His campaign also faces an ongoing campaign finance case. The Colorado Secretary of State's Elections Division accused the campaign of accepting more than £61,200 ($83,000) in excessive contributions and sought a penalty of £37,920 ($51,427.62). At a September administrative hearing, the campaign admitted the underlying allegations but disputed the penalty, and the case remains open.

Marx has spent years telling audiences about his past as a story of violence redeemed by faith, and the newest recordings show him telling one part of it with a laugh.

If you are affected by domestic abuse, help is available. In the US, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is on 1-800-799-7233. In the UK, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is free and open 24 hours on 0808 2000 247.