By J. Patrick Coolican | Editor-in-chief
Good morning, Reformers.
Today we’ve published a powerful indictment of the Trump administration’s attack on the Congress and indeed Article 1 of the Constitution in their attempt to denaturalize Rep. Ilhan Omar.
First, though, I have to question why Omar is participating in an event with Sen. Omar Fateh and Hasan Piker, the internet famous Twitch streamer. I don’t watch him, but everything I see and read sounds awful, and it’s not just normie libs like me who think so. Here’s Ayana Smith-Kooiman, chair of the Minneapolis DFL: “Will never understand why he gets glazed in left-wing political circles the way he does.” Calumny followed this tweet, of course.
The Jewish Community Relations Council put out a statement Monday night calling on Democrats to condemn Piker for his record of “denigrating Orthodox Jews as ‘inbred,’ dismissing well-documented accounts of October 7 sexual violence as ‘rape fantasies,’ and expressing support for Hamas.” The statement praises U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Sen. Amy Klobuchar for having already called him out.
He’s retracted and apologized for statements that he gets asked about a lot, like America deserved 9/11, but Jonathan Chait highlights a monologue about a Vietnamese refugee:
“Piker’s stream typically includes snippets of videos that he and his audience watch together, interspersed with his own commentary. As the video showed the refugee saying ‘We have endured suffering under the Communist regime,’ he threw back his head in disbelief and began to rant: ‘Okay, f*ck you, dude. I mean seriously, f*ck you, old lady. Shut the f*ck up, you stupid f*cking idiotic old lady with your stupid f*cking gamer headset. Who has f*cked you harder, America or f*ckin’ Ho Chi Minh? Suck my d*ck, old lady. Goddamn, dude. F*ck this refugee.”
This should have particular resonance here in Minnesota.
For laughs, you can watch the comedian Ziwe interview him.
The man can say and do whatever he wants. It’s America. But I don’t understand why candidates in safe blue seats would talk about anything other than Donald Trump, the injustices of Operation Metro Surge, corruption and inflation, which is what would help their fellow Democrats in more competitive races 10 days out from the election.
OK that’s this week’s Get Off My Lawn, Hasan Piker rant.
To the Reformer:
By Alyssa Chen
Matt Little promises to “hold ICE accountable” if he’s elected to Congress. The 41-year-old attorney, former Lakeville mayor and one-term state senator is running to represent the 2nd Congressional District, which encompasses the south suburbs of the Twin Cities and rural Le Sueur County and has been the state’s most competitive for about a decade.
Republican Sen. Eric Pratt worked in finance and banking for three decades, most recently at U.S. Bank. He’s touted his experience leading risk management and fraud prevention teams as proof that he’ll effectively cut spending and prevent fraud in government programs, a central issue in Minnesota politics following revelations of widespread fraud in the state’s safety net programs.
The race between Little and Pratt is a barometer of the swift changes in American politics in the past two years. If elected, Little would represent a leftward shift for the swing district that had a streak of voting red until 2018, as well as the possibility that Operation Metro Surge has led to enduring changes in the attitudes of suburban, exurban and even rural Minnesotans on the issue of immigration enforcement.
By Michelle Griffith
Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth wants to run against Gov. Tim Walz in her bid for governor.
As Michelle reports, Klobuchar won’t have it:
Klobuchar, who was Hennepin County attorney before her election to the U.S. Senate in 2006, sought to shut down Demuth’s attack quickly: “I have been very clear. I would have caught that fraud. I would have done something about it. We have very different backgrounds. … I would have clearly not pardoned a sex offender. I could list a number of other ways I’m different than Tim Walz. I know you wish you were debating Tim Walz, but I’m the one here right now.”
This is newsy: Klobuchar says no new taxes. This flies in the face of a lot of Democratic-Farmer-Labor thinking at the Capitol, where you’ll see a push for a fifth income tax tier.
By Andy Craig
This is the first take I’ve read about how by denaturalizing Omar, the Trump administration is trying to attack what is specifically a legislative branch function, as spelled out in the Constitution: Seating their own members.
“Until the House says otherwise, she remains a member, and Article I, Section 6 protects members from arrest while Congress is in session and while going to and returning from it, in all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace. Normally those exceptions are so broad the protection has little practical effect. But immigration detention and removal are civil proceedings, not criminal ones, and fall under none of the exceptions. An ICE officer who arrested a sitting congresswoman on her way to the Capitol would be doing precisely what that clause was written to prevent.”
As Craig notes, the executive branch trying to choose who sits in the legislature is a common tactic of authoritarians, which is why this clause was included in the Constitution:
“There is no reason to suppose Omar will be the last. An executive that can manufacture a disqualification for one member can do it for others, and she is far from the only naturalized citizen in Congress (currently there are 17 in the House and two in the Senate). A president willing to do this three weeks before an election is not going to stop at one.”
IN OTHER NEWS
With 2 weeks until midterms, analysts say Dems still on track to win US House majority | Reformer via States Newsroom
OH BY THE WAY
Blind Melon’s “Change” popped up on my Spotify cuz the computer knows my age prolly. Lead singer Richard Shannon Hoon died in 1995 at the age of 28, cutting short what might have been. Don’t do drugs kids.
Have a good day all! JPC
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