Update, 12/19/2019: The Youtubes of the events in the Mankato area are embedded at the bottom of this post.
We're noticing a theme in Minnesota's First District Congressman Jim Hagedorn's town halls. In June, the Post Bulletin's Matt Stolle reported Hagedorn meets a restive crowd in town hall. That was the event when the first-term legislator said that detainees at the southern border "they can leave. Nobody is holding them."
In August, the Albert Lea Tribune reported in Hagedorn hosts town hall in Albert Lea, "Emotions ran high Friday night during a town hall meeting with U.S. House Rep. Jim Hagedorn that included questions on everything from climate change and gun laws to rural access to medical care and immigration."
In September, City Pages reported Jim Hagedorn: People who commit suicide 'go to hell'. That was a moment in Winona.
In early October, the Winona Daily News reported Hagedorn drew "disapproving groans and approving applause" at a town hall in LaCrescent.
In November, Eric Johnson reported in the Austin Herald, Hagedorn town hall meeting turns contentious.
if our readers haven't gotten a picture yet of the atmosphere in the swing district, perhaps the headline about two Hagedorn town halls in the Mankato Free Press can clear thing up: Hostility common at Hagedorn's Mankato-area town hall meetings. Mark Fischenich reports:
Before Saturday’s North Mankato “Town Hall” meeting with Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn began, a pastor offered an opening prayer thanking God “for the opportunity to talk to and learn from each other ... and to love one another.”
A few minutes later — particularly when topics turned to climate change, gun violence and immigration — it appeared that the pastor should have prayed harder.
Both at the afternoon meeting at South Central College and a morning version in Mankato, it was clear that Hagedorn has serious policy differences with many of his Mankato-area constituents, that neither side seemed to be persuading the other, and that learning and loving weren’t in the cards for the town hall meetings.
With the afternoon forum, it started with the first question-card North Mankato Mayor Mark Dehen pulled out of a fishbowl filled with questions submitted by Nicollet County residents.
“OK, the first one I have here is from ...,” Dehen said before pausing and setting the card aside. “That’s a personal question.”
“No, no, no. That’s not a thing,” James Dimock shouted from the back of the auditorium. “You can’t do that ... Read it.”
After more back and forth — including someone shouting “Free speech!” — Dehen read the card: “’As a Christian, how do you think Jesus would respond to thousands of kids being locked up at the border?’”
“How is that a ‘personal question?’” Dimock responded, which prompted a Hagedorn supporter to stand up and heatedly say he’d had enough of Dimock’s (expletive.)
When the crowd eventually — but only momentarily — settled down, Hagedorn answered: “People on this Earth are supposed to follow the laws of their government.”
“You think that’s what Jesus would respond?” the questioner asked, clear skepticism in her voice.
“Yeah, the laws of the government,” Hagedorn said. “You want people to come here in an illegal fashion. I’m the strongest person for secure borders that you’re ever going to find.”
Even topics that began with a calm discussion sometimes became emotionally charged by the end. Paul Gorman of North Mankato referenced the repercussions for farmers of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, wondering how the Republican Party can square its platform — of limited government interference in private business — with Trump “disrupting 50 years of ag international market development.” . . .
We find it fascinating that Hagedorn and his crowd are fine with a town hall statement about people who commit suicide going to hell, but asking ’As a Christian, how do you think Jesus would respond to thousands of kids being locked up at the border?’ is a constituent's (expletive).
Lovely. And there's this:
When the first-termer from Blue Earth said that “the climate has been changing since God created it,” retired MSU physics Professor Louis Schwartzkopf interrupted with “I’m sorry, but you don’t have the science right.” That prompted applause from some but also shouts of “hoax, hoax” from others.
Schwartzkopf spent a few seconds explaining the science behind climate change before Hagedorn jumped in.
“They called this ‘the greenhouse effect’ about 30 years ago,” the congressman said. “Then it was ‘global warming.’ Now it’s ‘climate change.’ What’s it going to be next week? I’m just wondering about that.”
“It’s all the same thing,” a woman responded, followed by a half-dozen people speaking at once.
Read the entire article at the Free Press--when Fischenich is at his best, it's the best journalism in the area.
We're expecting video to be available and will post it here when we are able.
Update: here are YouTubes of the town halls:
Hagedorn topped DFLer Dan Feehan by 0.45 percentage points in 2018; Feehan is running again for the seat. St. Charles area farmer and businessman Ralph Kaehler is also seeking the Democratic endorsement.
Other earlier coverage of Hagedorn's town halls
City Pages: Rep. Jim Hagedorn's solution to climate change: 'Move people around'
Bluestem Prairie: MN01: Hagedorn echoes colleague's remark about kids being free to leave detention centers (June)
MN01 VIDEO: the climate change minutes of "contentious" Hagedorn town hall in Austin
Photo: A farmer and Congressman Hagedorn consider trade policy. Jason Forderer at the Mankato Free Press.
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