Minnesota's First Congressional District representative Jim Hagedorn, R-Blue Earth, is being called out for a recent pro-confederate vote, and anti-Black Lives Matters Facebook post of over a month ago.
At the Minnesota Reformer, Ricardo Lopez reported Thursday in U.S. Rep. Hagedorn votes against removing confederate statues from U.S. Capitol:
U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, the GOP member from southern Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, was the lone no vote from the delegation on a measure calling for the removal of confederate statues around the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. Reps. Tom Emmer and Pete Stauber — Republicans from Minnesota’s 6th and 8th congressional districts — joined DFL Reps. Angie Craig, Betty McCollum, Ilhan Omar, Collin Peterson and Dean Phillips in voting to remove the statues.
Minnesota was famously the first state to send volunteers to the Union Civil War effort, and the State Capitol is replete with paintings and statues that honor Union veterans.
The U.S. House voted 305-113 to replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice. The legislation, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, would also remove all statues of those who voluntarily served the confederacy.
Taney wrote the infamous Dred Scott decision that ruled Black Americans are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States.”
As small children learn in school in Minnesota (at least we in the St. Peter Public Schools back when), Dred Scott's got some Minnesota history. In a 2014 Spokesman Recorder article, How is Dred Scott connected to MN history?,
The Dred Scott case and its impact on this country too often have been undervalued in U.S. history. Scott was a Black man born around 1799 and had moved with the Peter Blow family from Virginia to St. Louis, Missouri. When Blow died, Scott was bought by Dr. John Emerson, an army surgeon.
Scott traveled with Emerson to several military posts, including Fort Snelling, which was in the then-Wisconsin Territory (now Minnesota) and Illinois, two areas that were free states. While at Fort Snelling, Scott met and married Harriet Robinson.
After Emerson died in 1843, his widow refused to accept Scott’s offer to buy his freedom and instead hired him out. That prompted Scott to file suit against her in St. Louis in 1846, beginning 11 years of legal battles before ending at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dred Scott v. Sandford “is a landmark decision that changed the course of this country,” proclaimed Chief Michael Davis of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The ruling, which strongly influenced events leading up to the Civil War, “outlined for centuries the thinking of Caucasians of the capacity of African Americans to be functional human beings,” Davis pointed out. . . .
Lovely vote, Rep. Hagedorn.
The editors of the Mankato Free Press noted in a short editorial, Our View: Hagedorn on wrong side of history:
Thumbs down to 1st Dist. Rep. Jim Hagedorn for being the sole member of Minnesota’s House delegation to oppose legislation to remove statues commemorating officials of the Confederacy and other white supremacists from the U.S. Capitol.
The rest of Minnesota’s representatives — including Hagedorn’s fellow Republicans, Tom Emmer and Pete Stauber — supported the measure.
We said before about changing the name of a popular Minneapolis lake, this is not about changing history. It is about deciding what parts of our history we wish to celebrate and honor.
Hagedorn, like President Donald Trump, wishes to continue to venerate the memories of the men who took up arms to sunder the Union; to honor the chief justice who held that Blacks cannot be citizens; to pay homage to bygone advocates of slavery, segregation and white supremacy.
They are on the wrong side of history.
At MinnPost, Gabe Schneider reported in the latest DC Memo:
This isn’t Hagedorn’s first brush with divisive votes or use of racist language. At Popular Information, a newsletter that often reports on corporate influence in politics, Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria report on the companies still backing Hagedorn after he used language that mirrors white nationalist talking points in a Facebook post. On June 23, Hagedorn wrote that “Black Lives Matter” is at war with “our beliefs and western culture” and that we must “defend” our “Judeo-Christian values and American way of life.” One example: Technology company Intel gave Hagedorn $4,000 prior to his comments and is now asking for a refund.
Uff. Friday afternoon in the Rochester Post Bulletin, Matt Stolle reported in Hagedorn gets corporate blowback from BLM comments:
One corporation has asked for its donation back and another has pledged to no longer give to GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn over comments he made last month, saying Black Lives Matter and its "army of rioters" were at war with America and "western culture."
Tech company Intel this week asked the Hagedorn campaign to return the $4,000 it donated in 2018 and pledged to refrain from future campaign donations to the first-term congressman, according to news sources.
And UnitedHealth Group has made a similar promise, saying it regrets its past contribution to his re-election campaign, which has amounted to $7,500, new sources say.
"We were unaware of these egregious and hurtful statements attributed to Rep. Hagedorn and they in no way reflect the values of our company," UnitedHealth Group said in a statement.
The corporate blowback comes a month after a Facebook post by Hagedorn that some praised as a defense of Western culture and Christian values and others criticized as tone deaf to the larger cause espoused by Black Lives Matter of ending racism and police brutality. . . .
Read the rest at the Rochester Bulletin. While the corporate blowback stems from the June 23 Facebook post, Hagedorn forges on with similar rhetoric. In a video posted by Post Bulletin staffer Traci Westrom in Photos: Hagedorn, Lewis mark the opening of the Trump Victory field office in Rochester (eleventh image down), Hagedorn says:
People on the left and they're a big chunk of the Democrat Party now, they used to be on the sidelines, now the Democrats have given them a platform and they truly are out talking about the destruction of this country. They don't like the founding of our country. They don't like our founding fathers. They don't like our history. They don't like the way the country is put together, . . . a republic. . . We need to take it as a serious risk. This is the greatest country in the history of the world. The United States is worth defending . . . I will continue to do that on your behalf in Congress, thank you for your support. Let's get the President and all the Republicans down the ballot elected. I very much appreciate your being here today . . .
Those remarks were given on Saturday, July 18, 2020. On July 22, he voted to let Taney's image hang out, along with confederate statues around the U.S. Capitol. Yep, statues of those who fought to tear the country in two. Nice.
At Ballotpedia, Hagedorn's opponent, Dan Feehan sums up how much he wants the destruction of this country:
"Born in Minnesota, Dan Feehan grew up north of Rochester and was inspired into service after witnessing the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 while he was a college student.
He committed himself to military service in the coming months, signing up for Army ROTC . From 2005 through 2009, he served as an active duty soldier and completed two combat tours of duty as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In Iraq, Dan searched for roadside bombs and his service earned him the Bronze Star for Service, the Army Commendation Medal with Valor, and the Ranger Tab.
Even as his military duty was ending, Dan felt a new calling to serve children at home as a middle school math teacher and later became an acting Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon.
His experiences as a soldier, teacher, and Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense taught him the enormous impact public policy has on the lives of everyday people, and Dan hopes to use that wisdom as a lawmaker.
Dan and his wife Amy, live in North Mankato with their two young boys, Conor and Declan, and their newborn daughter, Maeve."
Feehan tweeted Saturday:
Thanks to everyone who is out helping at the Habitat for Humanity of Martin and Faribault County today in Truman. In times like these, it is critical that we find ways to serve others and give hope. #MN01 pic.twitter.com/nOmNRVzkLh
— Dan Feehan (@danielfeehan) July 25, 2020
It's sweltering today in the upper Midwest. That's devotion to community.
Related posts:
- Rightwing values and performance art in MN-01: Mr. Quist and "Mr. Conservative" (2009)
- Republican Party of MN reports self-employed James, Hagedorn lives in St. Louis Park
- RPM, Friends of Hagedorn confuse state & federal campaign finance reports in answering PB question about Hagedorn's residence
- MN01: Meet a Hagedorn Washington legislative assistant working on agriculture issues
- MN01: the hostile world of Hagedorn town halls, updated with videos of Mankato area meetings
- Nazi namecalling: two Southern MN Republicans lose their wits about Warren, insulin critics
- MN01: Hagedorn echoes colleague's remark about kids being free to leave detention centers
- Congressman Hagedorn's campaign emails share only the finest COVID-19 news sources
Photo: GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn visits with supporters during a gathering to mark the opening of their Rochester campaign office on Saturday, July 18, 2020, in Rochester. (Traci Westcott / [email protected]) Via Rochester Post Bulletin. On Thursday, the paper reported in New cases still up, hospitalizations down in Olmsted County: "The seven-day average of COVID-19 cases appears to be slowing but is still higher than last month, county health officials say."
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