The Star Tribune's ever-excellent Briana Bierschbach reports today:
A maskless crowd of roughly 2,000 people gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol to protest COVID-19 restrictions and vaccine requirements. https://t.co/KZGFiS9e0X
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) August 28, 2021
In her coverage, Bierschbach included remarks by state senator Jim Abeler's speech on the capital lawn:
Republican legislators said they've authored bills to include a religious exemption for vaccine requirements, and they want to add vaccination status to the state's list of groups protected against discrimination. They've also introduced bills to prohibit vaccine passports.
"You are the best ones to make decisions for your families, not government," Rep. Eric Lucero, R-Dayton, told the crowd. "We will continue to fight for you."
Sen. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, said he thinks state Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm should be removed from the job because he said the state hadn't done enough to tell citizens about the potential risks of the vaccine.
Senate Republicans, who hold the power to confirm Walz's appointees, rejected two of his commissioners during special sessions last year. In July, Pollution Control Agency Commissioner Laura Bishop resigned ahead of an expected rejection in the Senate.
"It seems the only language the governor understands is the removal of another commissioner," said Abeler, who noted that he had previously defended Malcolm.
Apparently, this isn't good enough for some of the maskless, unvaccinated patriots visiting St. Paul. Blooming Prairie's Chad "Redbeard" Radfal published the photo at the top of this post on his Facebook page.
We shared the image with this tweet:
Abeler spoke at the rally, but not everyone attending appreciated this Republican #mnsenate lawmaker. From Chad "We The People" Rafdal's Facebook page. #mnleg #mngop #antivaxxers https://t.co/70hhUHQVg9 pic.twitter.com/KBRVJay4ad
— Sally Jo Sorensen (@sallyjos) August 28, 2021
If that's not party and patriot unity, we're not sure what that might be.
Radfal is one of the organizers of another event Sunday at a private wedding/ event barn in rural Waldorf:
We'll be processing tomatoes and cucumbers and catching up with coverage of the last LCCMR meeting, so we'll have to miss the program.
Images: Via Radfal's Facebook page.
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