At Dakota War College on Monday, we read in Update on the staff changes in the Secretary of State’s office:
. . . Another hire might just be a shift of positions (checking on that), but I’m told the most recognizable hire in the elections office is Logan Manhart, who had been a candidate for District 1 State House this past election. You’ll probably recognize the name as he had withdrew when it was determined that he had not been a resident of the state for two years.
Well jeepers. That's certainly something to learn on the day when the Associated Press reported Jan. 6 panel urges Trump prosecution with criminal referral.
The image at the top of this page is taken from Manhart's January 1, 2022 tweet, that's the young man from the Aberdeen area at Trump's January 6 Election Denial rally.
We first posted about Manhart's involvement in our post, In SD District One, GOP candidate & operative doesn't want to talk to press about January 6.
Manhart did not storm the Capitol that day, but Dakota Free Press picked up the main point iin Big Liar: District 1 House Candidate Manhart Protests Free and Fair Election:
District 1 may have a real fascist on its ballot.
Republican House candidate Logan Manhart from Bath lived in Wisconsin for the last three years campaigning for Donald Trump and other fascists. Amidst that campaigning, he participated in the Big Lie protest that turned into the Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021. Yesterday he commemorated his participation in that protest with this promulgation of the fascist lie [the tweet]
“A year ago today we were told to protest ‘peacefully and patriotically‘,” tweets Manhart with pictures of himself smiling at the scene of a domestic terrorist attack, “and that’s exactly what we did. Protesting for a cause we believed in.”
The most generous interpretation I can make of this Tweet is that Manhart looks like Grandpa pulling out the photo album and saying, “Look at these swell pictures Grandma and I got of Japanese airplanes during our honeymoon in Honolulu on December 7, 1941. Hawaii is so pretty!”
But Manhart is not oblivious to historical and political context. He tweeted these photos and this text on the anniversary of the violent Capitol insurrection to promote his fascist cause, the Big Lie.
Don’t get lured into a debate over Manhart’s adverbs. The pictures offer no proof that Manhart himself participated in the non-peaceful activity of January 6, 2021 or himself waved any of the non-patriotic flags carried by the domestic terrorists who surround him in the crowd and who stormed the Capitol. Manhart disavowed the violence of his fellow Trumpists that day as the “absolutely disgusting” action of “a reckless few” that “tainted” the activity of “Millions of… Patriots peaceably assembled….”
Manhart’s day-of miscount of the crowd rallying for Trump on January 6, 2021—120,000 is far short of “millions”— shows Manhart’s willingness to participate in the fascist dictator’s willful lies. But the key word exposing his fascism in his yesterday tweet is “protest”. Protest what?
Logan Manhart joined thousands of others in the nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, to protest a free and fair election. . . .
In May, DFP broke the story of Manhart's bogus candidacy Manhart Voted in Wisconsin in 2021, Thus Ineligible to Run for South Dakota House in 2022.
Yes, that led to Manhart's withdrawal from the ballot.
The recent personnel decision by Secretary of State Monae Johnson makes me as confident in her abilities as the headline in Joshua Haiar's story, South Dakota’s new secretary of state has ties to vocal Minnesota election denier, which we first read at the Minnesota Reformer. From the content:
Barnett has publicly rejected tabulator-related concerns of voter fraud. But Johnson said her concerns about voting tabulator machines and online voter updates are shared by “highly qualified professionals.”
“I had people reaching out to me saying ‘no’ because anything can be hacked,” Johnson said. “That was the biggest thing. The people reaching out to me were IT people, military people.”
Johnson did not name the IT and military sources who expressed those concerns, but campaign manager Gretchen Weible did: Chiefly, her husband Rick Weible, a former mayor of St. Bonifacius, Minnesota, who traveled Minnesota prior to the midterms and posted videos claiming election fraud and pushing for changes to election procedures, hardware, and software. The Weibles were on stage with Johnson during her election night victory speech in downtown Sioux Falls. . . .
If one can judge an individual by the company she keeps, Bluestem is feeling even less confident in South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson.
Related posts
- SD Republican Secretary of State candidate: The trouble with Monae Johnson and Jell-O
- Funhouse mirrors? The peculiar GOP endorsed secretary of state candidates in MN & SD
- Minoritarian Manhart Says Only Small-Towners Like Himself Are “True” Americans [Dakota Free Press]
- “Proud Regressive” Manhart Stokes Replacement Theory [Dakota Free Press]
- News digest: Manhart pulls out of SD1 race
- Eligibility questioned, Logan Manhart withdraws from South Dakota District 1 House race
- Dakota Free Press post: Manhart voted in Wisconsin in 2021, thus ineligible to run for South Dakota House in 2022
- Manhart candidate integrity questioned: docs from 32CIV22-92; McCleerey vs Barnett
- In SD District One, GOP candidate & operative doesn't want to talk to press about January 6
- Media scrutiny of SD District 1 House Logan Manhart candidate integrity questions continue
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