One more post about Fosston Republican Steve Green's recent attention-grabbing remarks to the Hubbard County board, which got him a place in Snopes, as we reported in Ruled false: Rep. Steve Green's Minneapolis remarks hit big time with his own Snopes entry.
It's not the first time Green has warned about the intentions of Muslims. We had forgotten about a six-year-old post, MN2B: in epic rant, freshman Steve Green stirs gun rights, immigration, terrorism & Ebola fears, which includes this audio:
The text from the unlisted Bluestem Youtube:
During a candidate forum held in Fosston MN on Monday and broadcast live over KKCQ radio in Fosston, Representative Green made the following remarks:
I know that people like to talk about the 2nd amendment rights like, like it’s your privilege to hunt.
Well, I got news for you, it’s not about hunting. It’s about protecting your family. It’s about protecting your country. It’s about being able to defend yourself. We have borders now on our southern borders in this country that are wide open. We don’t know who’s coming across. We’ve had our first beheading in the United States from radical Muslims. And, and this stuff is coming at us.
According to some of the news reports I’ve heard, these people now, have, have said straight out that they’re going to infect their own soldiers with Ebola and get them to cross the southern border. They’ve also said that when they get here they’re gonna hunt down and kill all the family members of the soldiers that are fighting overseas. We need our 2nd Amendment rights.
And we need a government that’s willing to stand up and defend this country. It’s one of its main purposes. It’s not; it’s not to give you a house. I hate to tell you that. It’s to defend you. It’s to get infrastructure in. And we’re failing in, the government is failing in the very places it’s supposed to be succeeding and it’s succeeding and growing bigger in areas that it has no business in.”
As the reader who sent Bluestem the clip to us notes:
This was part of Green's closing statement at the forum Monday night . . . . I was astounded when I heard it, especially since he managed to combine gun rights, immigration, terrorism and Ebola into one gigantic steaming pile of fear mongering.
Flash forward to April 19, 2020, which his 2014 opponent, David Sobieski wrote in a letter to the editor of the Park Rapids Enterprise, Spreading lies as bad as spreading virus:
In 2014, I ran against Rep. Steve Green for Minnesota House 2B. At a radio debate in Fosston that fall, I sat next to him and listened to him say that Ebola-infected terrorists were crossing our southern borders to kill U.S. servicemen and their families. It was one of the craziest things I think I have ever heard, but it was a story that had been making the rounds in right-wing media for a few weeks and it seemed to get people excited and concerned.
It was astonishing that, a few days ago, Green published a letter to the editor that appears on his official state page [link added] taking Gov. Tim Walz to task for “reactionary decisions” for extending his stay-at-home order to keep people safe. Republicans, at least according to the letter, aren’t telling folks to abandon social distancing or hand washing, but they are beginning to grumble that the governor and the Democrats are hamstringing the economy.
So, six years ago, be terrified! Now, when faced with a real pandemic and real loss of life, not so much. I say bullshit to that. I think the governor has been doing a good job. He has been informative and deliberative and has continually asked for Republican ideas and help. He has done as good as could be expected, given the slow and incompetent response of the president.
Ebola-infected terrorists are not crossing our borders. A pandemic is here and it's going to build and peak by May. We cannot be caught flat-footed. We have to be diligent in facing that threat. We have to have a plan. People will become sick in greater numbers as we go forward and we have to take care of our doctors, nurses, police, EMTs, farmers, grocery checkers, VA workers, elder care workers. We have to make sure the helpers have all the help they need.
And we need to begin with tests. We need to get the economy going and do it in a safe, tested, efficient manner where we are going to have to move people into and out of the workplace to keep all workers safe.
Steve Green, be a leader for rural Minnesota. Spreading lies is as bad as spreading this virus.
For more on the recent Green statements, check out Green and Grossell conduct dystopian fantasy workshop for Hubbard County Commissioners. The Minnesota Reformer soon posted a story (probably filed before our post appeared) as well.
Whatever the case--his anti-Muslim remarks are not a glitch, they're a feature.
Related posts:
- DFL candidate Suby: Green should find facts
- Ruled false: Rep. Steve Green's Minneapolis remarks hit big time with his own Snopes entry
- Career anti-Muslim figure Robert Spencer defends Steve Green against the MN Reformer
- Only Steve Green gets the blues: Hubbard County's list of 2020 polling locations includes bunches of mail ballot townships
- LTE: U of M Regents professor kindly explains why Rep. Steve Green is confused about CWD
- The unbearable lightness of Steve Green's sourcing for problem wildlife removal
- MN LWV president chides Rep. Steve Green for disregarding transgender student safety
- Nitrogen amnesia strikes state representative Steve Green during LWV Park Rapids Area forum
- In town hall & letters sections, constituents sass back to state rep Steve Green about lots of stuff
- MN 2B: Steve Green totally doesn't believe any science supports human role in climate change
Screengrab: The recent Park Rapids Enterprise's article originally appeared online with Matt Grossell's byline; the byline has been changed online at the Parks Enterprise to Shannon M Geisen.
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