Minnesota hasn&#8217;t had a Republican senator since Norm Coleman lost his re-election bid in 2008, but Minnesota Republicans might have their best chance since then to win a Senate seat after Democratic Sen. Tina Smith announced on Thursday that she will not run for re-election in 2026.
The GOP is already excited about the opportunity in the blue state. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott told The Daily Wire, &#8220;Minnesota is in play, and we play to win. Minnesotans deserve a Senator who will fight for lower taxes, economic opportunity, and safer communities.&#8221;
In her retirement announcement, Smith reassured her constituents that Democrats have a &#8220;deep bench of political talent&#8221; from which her replacement will arise. Smith didn&#8217;t mention any names specifically — possibly out of embarrassment for who&#8217;s actually on that bench — so we compiled a list of potential candidates Democrats have to offer.
<h3>Tim Walz</h3>
<div id="attachment_876775" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-876775" class="wp-image-876775 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167066123-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167066123-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167066123-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167066123-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167066123-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167066123-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167066123-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167066123-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images</div>
Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz is fresh off running one of the worst presidential campaigns in modern American history alongside former Vice President Kamala Harris. The failed 2024 vice presidential candidate, who had his pants pulled down on national TV by JD Vance during their debate in October, sits at the top of Minnesota&#8217;s &#8220;deep bench&#8221; of potential Senate candidates.
The open Senate seat would give 60-year-old Walz a chance to stay relevant on a national level, a development that could push Democrats&#8217; male outreach efforts back decades. The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/us/politics/tina-smith-minnesota-senate.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that an aide confirmed Walz is considering a run for Senate while also mulling a third term as governor. As ridiculous as it sounds, if Walz decides against the Senate bid, Democrats might be forced to make an even more bizarre choice.
<h3>Ilhan Omar</h3>
<div id="attachment_876781" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-876781" class="wp-image-876781 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1247561204-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1247561204-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1247561204-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1247561204-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1247561204-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1247561204-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1247561204-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1247561204-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Credit: Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
Rep. Ilhan Omar could try to ride her wave of Somali support all the way to the Senate. The openly anti-America and anti-Israel Democrat will be &#8220;talking with Minnesotans about the future of the Senate seat,&#8221; according to her spokesman. This is the same woman who once <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-controversies-anti-semitism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> the 9/11 terror attacks as a day &#8220;when some people did something,&#8221; and compared the U.S. and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban.
There&#8217;s no denying that an Ilhan Omar Senate bid would gain some traction in Minneapolis and Mogadishu, but her anti-America sentiment probably won&#8217;t play well on the farms in Traverse and Martin counties.
<h3>Keith Ellison</h3>
<div id="attachment_876801" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-876801" class="wp-image-876801 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167837360-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167837360-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167837360-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167837360-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167837360-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167837360-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167837360-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2167837360-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</div>
Former DNC deputy chair and current Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is another politician being floated to run for Minnesota&#8217;s open Senate seat. Ellison, like Walz and Omar, already has experience in Congress as he served in the House from 2007 to 2019. And like Walz and Omar, Ellison has a great track record of pushing radical leftist policies.
Ellison is probably best known for his <a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/nation-islam-calls-keith-ellison-cowardly-repudiating-louis-farrakhan/">ties to antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan</a>, and prosecuting Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of second- and third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd. The Democrat AG also made headlines for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-news-whitewashes-vile-racist-comments-aimed-at-clarence-thomas-by-black-ag" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comparing</a> conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to a &#8220;house slave&#8221; and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-rips-into-democrat-ag-for-appearing-to-celebrate-brazils-x-ban" target="_blank" rel="noopener">celebrating</a> Brazil&#8217;s crackdown on free speech when the country banned X. What a guy.
<h3>Peggy Flanagan</h3>
<div id="attachment_876825" style="width: 852px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-876825" class="wp-image-876825 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1947479530-842x576.jpg" alt="" width="842" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1947479530-842x576.jpg 842w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1947479530-300x205.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1947479530-768x525.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1947479530-1536x1051.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-1947479530-2048x1401.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 842px) 100vw, 842px" />Credit: Natasha Campos/Getty Images for IllumiNative</div>
Minnesota Lieutenant Gov. Peggy Flanagan has essentially already thrown her hat in the ring for Senate, <a href="https://x.com/peggyflanagan/status/1890089977637401055" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a> on X on Thursday, &#8220;I love Minnesota and my intention is to run for U.S. Senate and continue to serve the people of this state.&#8221;
Flanagan is known for her complete support of life-altering gender surgeries on children. In 2023, Flanagan used her position to vouch for gender procedures on minors while <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/protect-my-kids-from-ghouls-minnesota-lt-gov-slammed-after-telling-parents-to-support-gender-affirming-care" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wearing a shirt</a> emblazoned with a dagger next to the phrase &#8220;Protect Trans Kids.&#8221;
A few other Democratic candidates could emerge as the 2026 race heats up, including Reps. Angie Craig and Kelly Morrison, or former Rep. Dean Phillips. But running against the name recognition of politicians like Walz and Omar could prove difficult in a Democratic primary. They are the true stars of the Democrats&#8217; &#8220;deep bench&#8221; in Minnesota.

Tim Walz, Keith Ellison, Ilhan Omar

Here’s The ‘Deep Bench’ Of Minnesota Democrats Who Could Run For Senate

2026 Midterms

Ilhan Omar

Keith Ellison

Minnesota

Senate

Tim Walz

One of the main lines of attack against Jair Bolsonaro, who served as president of Brazil until 2022, was one that we&#8217;re all very familiar with at this point. Liberals claimed that Bolsonaro was an &#8220;enemy of democracy.&#8221; Media outlets — both in the United States and Brazil — claimed that Bolsonaro was an autocrat who wanted to suspend the rule of law and use the force of government to punish his political enemies. This message resonated with Brazilians because some very prominent figures promoted it — including a former prosecutor-turned Supreme Court judge named Alexandre de Moraes. Among the Brazilian Left, de Moraes was something of a hero for taking on Bolsonaro. Most notably, the judge presided over a tribunal that banned Bolsonaro from running for office for 8 years.
Why? Bolsonaro allegedly spread &#8220;lies about voting machines,&#8221; which supposedly inspired a mob to ransack Congress, the presidential palace and other government buildings. It was basically Brazil&#8217;s January 6. So in the name of protecting democracy, the judge prevented people from voting for Bolsonaro for the better part of a decade.
He did to Bolsonaro exactly what the Left wanted to do to Donald Trump.
So what are the &#8220;defenders of democracy&#8221; up to in Brazil, just two years later? How are these crusaders for democratic norms faring in 2024?
As you may have heard, de Moraes just issued maybe the single most undemocratic and authoritarian court decision in the modern history of Brazil. He has unilaterally ordered a total ban on Elon Musk&#8217;s social media platform, X. No one in Brazil — a country where more than 20 million people used X — is legally allowed to use the platform. Anyone caught using a VPN to bypass this restriction can be fined roughly $9,000 per day, which is about 6 times the average Brazilian&#8217;s monthly salary. Additionally, de Moraes has fined X more than $3 million.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1437-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
He&#8217;s also frozen the assets of Elon Musk&#8217;s company Starlink, which provides internet access to hundreds of thousands of Brazilians living in remote areas. The point was to compel Starlink, an independent internet provider, to ban X as well. And on top of that, the Brazilian court system is now pressuring SpaceX, even though they have nothing whatsoever to do with the company. So SpaceX now has to pull employees out of Brazil.
The judge has gone to war with X for a very simple reason: The company refused to block certain accounts that, in the eyes of the Brazilian government, &#8220;harmed democratic institutions in Brazil.&#8221; And then, X refused to appoint an in-person local legal representative in Brazil, because the judge had threatened to arrest the representative to extract concessions from X. So in order to &#8220;protect democratic institutions&#8221; supposedly, tens of millions of Brazilians can no longer access the single most popular news app in the country. They have to turn to the corporate press to learn what they&#8217;re allowed to hear. Only approved narratives are allowed in Brazil right now.
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For Elon Musk, the showdown in Brazil is obviously a major test. He&#8217;s long maintained that he&#8217;ll obey the laws of whatever countries his companies are operating in. But he maintains that Brazil&#8217;s judges are violating Brazil&#8217;s constitution, which isn&#8217;t exactly a hard case to make at this point. This week The Economist took a closer look at the judge who issued this order against X and Starlink. <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2024/09/03/the-all-powerful-judge-taking-on-elon-musk">Here&#8217;s</a> what they found:
<blockquote>Mr Moraes also has form: he is a man who likes and understands power. He has extensive contacts in the federal police, military and intelligence services. &#8230; Other decisions have made the court look authoritarian. In 2019 Mr Moraes was put in charge of investigating misinformation about the Supreme Court and threats against the court’s members and their relatives. These had spiked after the election of Mr Bolsonaro. The &#8216;fake-news&#8217; inquiry was contentious from the start. Normally investigations are opened by the public prosecutor or the police. By giving itself the power to initiate investigations the Supreme Court became victim, prosecutor and judge all at once. No time limit was set, there is no legal definition for disinformation in Brazil and Mr Moraes has not made public which accounts he has ordered shut and why.</blockquote>
This is a violation of one of the most basic principles of every functioning legal system, which is that courts are only supposed to resolve legal disputes that are brought to them. That is their one and only job. Some party — whether it&#8217;s a citizen or the government or some other entity — needs to bring a case to the courts. And then the courts rule on it.
Once the courts have the authority to generate cases on their own, and make up arbitrary rules to enforce, then they&#8217;re not really courts anymore. Instead of judges, you have de facto dictators. And that&#8217;s what&#8217;s happening right now to Elon Musk and his companies in Brazil.
You&#8217;d hope that an incident like this would trigger immediate condemnations from the State Department. After all, the Biden administration claims to care very deeply about democracy. It&#8217;s essentially all they ever talk about. But there has been no condemnation from the mainstream Left in this country. In fact, if you listen to the corporate press, you&#8217;ll find a handful of reports essentially blaming Elon Musk for objecting to what the courts in Brazil are doing. 
Here for example is the BBC, which for some reason is pretending Taylor Lorenz — who openly hates Elon Musk — is an impartial expert on this topic. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Brazil suspends social media platform X | BBC News" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J1jcDq0ywIg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;He could have prevented the ban, but he chose not to.&#8221; Notice how the Brazilian government — which just shut down an entire social media app for millions of people — has no agency in Taylor Lorenz&#8217;s analysis. A private company refused to do the bidding of the Brazilian government. And therefore, it&#8217;s the private company&#8217;s fault that they got shut down. That&#8217;s how Taylor Lorenz, who works for The Washington Post, is selling this decision by the Brazilian Supreme Court. It&#8217;s how the BBC is presenting the news.
It&#8217;s not hard to see what&#8217;s going on here. Brazil is the template for mass censorship in the United States. If they can pull it off in Brazil, they&#8217;re going to try to pull it off here. That&#8217;s why the corporate press is presenting Elon Musk as the villain in this scenario. The media has a vested interest in shutting down X because it&#8217;s one of their biggest competitors. Random posts on X get more viewers than CNN&#8217;s entire primetime lineup. So in order to lay the groundwork for shutting down X in this country, they&#8217;re saying Elon Musk had it coming in Brazil. 
And it&#8217;s not just the media that&#8217;s trying to send this message. Senior figures in the Democrat Party are doing it too. For example, Keith Ellison is the attorney general of the State of Minnesota. He&#8217;s the chief legal officer of a major state. He&#8217;s also closely aligned with Kamala Harris&#8217; campaign. He just spoke at the DNC a few weeks ago. Here&#8217;s what Keith Ellison says about what&#8217;s happening to Elon Musk&#8217;s companies in Brazil.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
obrigado Brasil!
&mdash; Keith Ellison (@keithellison) <a href="https://twitter.com/keithellison/status/1830720700019028109?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;obrigado Brasil,&#8221; which translates to &#8220;Thank you, Brazil.&#8221; 
Again, Keith Ellison is not some backbench politician from a no-name congressional district. He&#8217;s the chief law officer of Minnesota. And he&#8217;s endorsing the total shutdown of a major social media platform because it wouldn&#8217;t censor the political opponents of the government.
Politicians like Keith Ellison crave censorship because they&#8217;re corrupt. They only care about power. And they&#8217;re willing to lie in order to get it. Remember what Keith Ellison did during the George Floyd riots. Ellison&#8217;s office hid bodycam footage showing that George Floyd said, &#8220;I can&#8217;t breathe,&#8221; several times, while he was struggling with cops in the backseat of a police cruiser — long before he was on the ground with a knee near his neck. That was obviously relevant information because it suggested that Floyd was having a fatal overdose, and that he couldn&#8217;t breathe because he had taken a lethal quantity of fentanyl. So Keith Ellison&#8217;s office suppressed the footage.
Democrats like Keith Ellison want total control of social media platforms like X so that they can suppress information like that even more often, and even more easily. They want to be able to shut down any information or opinions that contradict their preferred narrative. That&#8217;s why they&#8217;re thrilled with what&#8217;s happening in Brazil. 
It&#8217;s also why they have no problem with what the Biden administration is doing to Tusli Gabbard. Gabbard has emerged as one of the most effective critics of the modern Democrat Party. She has what no prominent Democrat has, which is integrity. She was on the fast-track to be a senior official in the Democrat Party, even serving as vice chair of the DNC. But she threw all of that away because she wanted to follow her principles — particularly concerning foreign affairs — instead of seeking power. So, Tulsi Gabbard can&#8217;t be controlled by party elites. What&#8217;s their solution? They put her on a terror watch list. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Kamala says she believes in freedom, but I was put on a secret terror watch list after I publicly criticized her. No one will be safe from political retaliation under a Harris administration. I put my life on the line for this country. Now the government calls me a terror threat. <a href="https://t.co/3xjgjmrLhD">pic.twitter.com/3xjgjmrLhD</a>
&mdash; Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1831346487969698259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2024</a></blockquote>
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This should be leading every nightly newscast in the United States. There is no reason for a political figure like Tusli Gabbard to be placed on any kind of terror watch list, or to receive 30 minutes of extra screening every time she tries to fly. The only conceivable explanation is that this is a federal program intended to harass and intimidate her. She&#8217;s not following the party line, so this is what she gets.
But she&#8217;s able to speak freely about what&#8217;s happening to her on X, at least for now. That&#8217;s the platform where Tulsi Gabbard posted that video I just showed you. It&#8217;s where she — and many other political dissidents in many other countries — can speak their minds, for the most part. At the very least, it&#8217;s a freer platform than any of the alternatives. That&#8217;s why the government, in both this country and Brazil, wants to shut X down. It&#8217;s also why France is trying to shut Telegram down and jail its founder. We are in the middle of a historic war on the freedom of speech, in countries where it would&#8217;ve been unthinkable just a few years ago.
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If they&#8217;re allowed to succeed in places like Brazil and France, it won&#8217;t be long until they try the same thing here. Our Constitution won&#8217;t protect us. Brazil and France have constitutions that supposedly protect the freedom of speech, and it&#8217;s not working out so well for them. The only solution is to do exactly what Elon Musk and Tusli Gabbard are doing, which is to respond to censorship and intimidation with more speech — call out what they&#8217;re doing. And in November, do everything you can to prevent these tyrants from seizing any more power than they already have.

Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre De Moraes

Brazil Bans Free Speech In The Name Of Democracy. Are We Next?

Brazil

Elon Musk

Free Speech

Taylor Lorenz

Tulsi Gabbard

Twitter

Elon Musk said on Monday that the Democratic Party was attempting to destroy free speech after leftist Minnesota Democratic Attorney General <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/keith-ellison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Keith Ellison</a> appeared to celebrate the ban of X, previously known as Twitter, in Brazil. 
On Labor Day, Ellison posted a message in Portuguese translated to &#8220;Thank you Brazil!&#8221; as the country blocked X at the orders of Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. De Moraes ruled that the social media company did not comply with his orders revolving around appointing a legal representative for the country or suspending several accounts. De Moraes said that Musk had &#8220;total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty.&#8221;
Musk, the CTO and executive chairman of X, ripped into Ellison over his apparent support for the block. 
“The Democratic Party – same one that used to defend the First Amendment –now wants to destroy the First Amendment,” Musk posted. 
&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Democratic Party – same one that used to defend the First Amendment –now wants to destroy the First Amendment <a href="https://t.co/36KAhzA0la">https://t.co/36KAhzA0la</a>
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1830826870146727941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Other conservatives also ripped into Ellison over his post. 
“Tim Walz&#8217;s attorney general in Minnesota &#8212; Keith Ellison &#8212; thanks Brasil for crushing free speech platform X,” <a href="https://x.com/MZHemingway/status/1830777820953362850" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway. 
“Tim Walz&#8217;s Attorney General, Keith Ellison, Celebrates Brazil Banning X,” <a href="https://x.com/SteveGuest/status/1830939872627957830">said</a> conservative communicator Steve Guest. “Take note: Keith Ellison is a ENEMY of free speech.”
In his decision last week, de Moraes said that X must be restricted in Brazil because the company refused to comply with several court orders. He also said that people who try to access the platform through other means, like a VPN, could face daily fines of nearly $9,000. 
X’s Global Government Affairs argued that de Moraes’ requests violated Brazilian law. 
“We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that,” it said in a <a href="https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1829296715989414281">statement</a>.
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The decision to suspend access to X was upheld on Monday by a panel of judges on the Brazilian Supreme Court. 
“Economic power and the size of a bank account do not give rise to outlandish immunity,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/02/world/americas/brazil-elon-musk-supreme-court.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Justice Flavio Dino, saying that X “seems to believe it’s above the law.”
De Moraes has long clashed with X, ordering the social media company earlier this year to censor certain X accounts, which Musk refused to do. 
“We believe that such orders are not in accordance with the Marco Civil da Internet or the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and we challenge the orders legally where possible,” the company <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brazilian-judge-orders-suspension-of-x-social-media-platform-responds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> at the time. “The people of Brazil, regardless of their political beliefs, are entitled to freedom of speech, due process, and transparency from their own authorities.”

MixCollage-03-Sep-2024-12-01-PM-9595

Elon Musk Rips Into Democrat AG For Appearing To Celebrate Brazil’s X Ban

Celebrities

First Amendment

Politics

Minnesota Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison rounded out his recent criticism of Supreme Court Justice <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joy-behar-whitesplains-racism-to-actual-black-americans-tim-scott-and-clarence-thomas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clarence Thomas</a> with a vile, racist reference – and CBS News opted to cover the criticism with no mention of the racist attack.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tucker-carlson-reacts-to-george-floyd-body-cam-footage-slams-ag-keith-ellison-for-refusing-to-release-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ellison</a>, who is black, suggested that Thomas — the second black justice to serve on the nation&#8217;s highest Court — was akin to a &#8220;house slave&#8221; who worked alongside the slave master to ensure that others could not escape to freedom.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Former DNC Chief Keith Ellison: 
&quot;Anybody who&#39;s watched the movie &#39;Django,&#39; just watch Stephen, and you see Clarence Thomas.&quot;
The Stephen character was a house slave that conspired with his slave master to impede Django&#39;s quest for freedom. <a href="https://t.co/naIUzv4FYf">pic.twitter.com/naIUzv4FYf</a>
&mdash; Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1680963065234300928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Well, Clarence Thomas &#8230; all you got to &#8230; anybody who&#8217;s watched the movie &#8216;Django,&#8217; just watch Stephen, and you see Clarence Thomas,&#8221; Ellison said. &#8220;Clarence Thomas is a &#8230; has decided that his best personal interests is siding with the powerful and the – and the special interests regardless as to who they&#8217;re gonna hurt.&#8221;
GOP Rapid Response Director Jake Schneider shared a screenshot of local CBS News affiliate WCCO&#8217;s coverage of Ellison&#8217;s remarks — and while it was clear from the headline that the former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman had been critical of the Supreme Court Justice, there was no mention of the racially charged comparison he&#8217;d made.
&#8220;AG Ellison says Justice Clarence Thomas &#8216;needs to be impeached&#8217; report says,&#8221;
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Keith Ellison compared Clarence Thomas to a house slave and this is how the Minnesota media decided to cover it.
Not even a mention of his disgusting remark. <a href="https://t.co/TAet16NsvH">pic.twitter.com/TAet16NsvH</a>
&mdash; Jake Schneider (@jacobkschneider) <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobkschneider/status/1681298681683935232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Not even a mention of his disgusting remark,&#8221; Schneider commented.
&#8220;The left’s vile, vicious attempts to smear Justice Thomas are utterly transparent. They just can’t stand that he doesn’t share their radical orthodoxy,&#8221; Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1681039715166814209" target="_blank" rel="noopener">observed</a>.
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George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley also tore into Ellison over the comment, saying, &#8220;Sen. Klobuchar ran for president on the promise that she would &#8216;end the hateful rhetoric that has become all too routine during the Trump Administration.&#8217; Gov. Walz pledged to combat &#8216;the forces of hatred and bigotry.&#8217; Does that extend to Democrats like Ellison?&#8221; he asked.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&#8230;Putting aside his absurd claim that Thomas is illegitimate because Ellison disagrees with his rulings, Ellison portrayed him to a house slave because of his race. He did not declare Alito or Gorsuch as house slaves or illegitimate. Just Thomas.
&mdash; Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) <a href="https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley/status/1680976735012003841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Turley went on to note that Thomas was the only target of Ellison&#8217;s wrath — despite being one of several justices who had ruled in a way with which Ellison disagreed — solely because of his race.
&#8220;Putting aside his absurd claim that Thomas is illegitimate because Ellison disagrees with his rulings, Ellison portrayed him to a house slave because of his race. He did not declare Alito or Gorsuch as house slaves or illegitimate. Just Thomas,&#8221; he said.

House Democrats Hold Press Conference On Environmental And Social Policy In Financial Regulation

CBS News Whitewashes Vile Racist Comments Aimed At Clarence Thomas — By Black AG

Clarence Thomas

Media

Racism

Supreme Court

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Democrat Attorney General Keith Ellison (MN) is seeking a harsh prison sentence for former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, citing &#8220;particular cruelty&#8221; the officer allegedly showed to George Floyd last year.
In a legal brief filed Friday, Ellison argued Chauvin &#8220;showed a lack of remorse&#8221; for Floyd during the arrest and detainment, The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/05/01/derek-chauvin-floyd-minnesota-ellison/">reported</a>.
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“Mr. Floyd was treated with particular cruelty,” Ellison wrote, adding, “Defendant continued to maintain his position atop Mr. Floyd even as Mr. Floyd cried out that he was in pain, even as Mr. Floyd exclaimed 27 times that he could not breathe, and even as Mr. Floyd said that Defendant’s actions were killing him.”
&#8220;Chauvin, who is scheduled to be sentenced on June 25, faces up to 40 years in prison for second-degree unintentional murder,&#8221; the Post noted. &#8220;Judge Peter Cahill would have to find there were &#8216;aggravating factors&#8217; in Floyd’s death to go above the 12½-year sentence recommended under state sentencing guidelines for the murder charge of someone without a previous record. Prosecutors did not say in the filing how much time they are seeking Chauvin to serve.&#8221;
Chauvin defense attorney Eric Nelson is arguing that &#8220;prosecutors failed to prove the aggravating factors during the trial that would trigger additional prison time,&#8221; the Post said.
“Mr. Chauvin was authorized, under Minnesota law, to use reasonable force&#8221; during the arrest of Floyd, “an actively-resisting criminal suspect,&#8221; Nelson argued in a court filing.
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As highlighted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-doj-was-going-to-arrest-derek-chauvin-in-court-if-jury-found-him-innocent-report">The Daily Wire</a>, it was revealed last month that the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) reportedly planned to arrest Chauvin in court and charge him with civil rights violations if the jury were to acquit Chauvin of the murder charges.
“Leading up to Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, Justice Department officials had spent months gathering evidence to indict the ex-Minneapolis police officer on federal police brutality charges, but they feared the publicity frenzy could disrupt the state’s case,” a <a href="https://www.startribune.com/feds-plan-to-indict-chauvin-other-three-ex-officers-on-civil-rights-charges/600051374/?refresh=true">report</a> from the Minneapolis Star Tribune outlined. “So they came up with a contingency plan: If Chauvin were found not guilty on all counts or the case ended in a mistrial, they would arrest him at the courthouse, according to sources familiar with the planning discussions.”
This “backup plan,” the report said, wasn’t “necessary” for the DOJ, since the jury on April 20 found Chauvin guilt of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in relation to the death of George Floyd.
Still, the DOJ is reportedly moving forward with the case, planning to level charges of civil rights violations against the former officer, who is still awaiting sentencing for the murder and manslaughter convictions.
Nelson on Tuesday filed a motion for a new trial, claiming that his client’s right to due process and a fair trial was violated, in part, when the court decided against sequestering the jury and against granting a venue change.
“The Court abused its discretion when it failed to sequester the jury for the duration of the trial, or in the least, admonish them to avoid all media, which resulted in jury exposure to prejudicial publicity regarding the trial during the proceedings, as well as jury intimidation and potential fear of retribution among jurors, which violated Mr. Chauvin’s constitutional rights to due process and to a fair trial,” the filing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/derek-chauvins-attorney-files-motion-for-new-trial">said</a>.
Nelson separately requested a hearing to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/derek-chauvins-attorney-files-motion-for-new-trial">throw out the verdict</a> “on the grounds that the jury committed misconduct, felt threatened or intimidated, felt race-based pressure during the proceedings, and/or failed to adhere to instructions during deliberations.”
Days ago, it was revealed that now-public juror <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chauvin-juror-speaks-out-to-help-push-for-change-suggests-hes-been-pulled-over-by-cops-because-hes-black">Brandon Mitchell</a>, 31, back in August, wore a “Black Lives Matter” and a T-shirt that says “BLM” with the words, “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” a reference to the death of Floyd. He also attended a racial justice rally in Washington, D.C., which in part focused on police brutality and featured remarks from members of the Floyd family.
The revelations seem to contradict statements Mitchell gave to the court during the jury selection process. For example, on his juror questionnaire, Mitchell reportedly answered “no” when asked about past participation in demonstrations. Star Tribune reported:
<blockquote>
The first question asked, “Did you, or someone close to you, participate in any of the demonstrations or marches against police brutality that took place in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death?”
The second asked, “Other than what you have already described above, have you, or anyone close to you, participated in protests about police use of force or police brutality?”
</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-doj-was-going-to-arrest-derek-chauvin-in-court-if-jury-found-him-innocent-report">Biden DOJ Was Going To Arrest Derek Chauvin In Court If Jury Found Him Innocent: Report</a>

&lt;&gt; on March 21, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Democrat AG Keith Ellison Seeks Harsher Sentence For Chauvin: ‘Particular Cruelty’

Derek Chauvin

George Floyd

In a “60 Minutes” <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/live/">interview</a> with Scott Pelley, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison discussed the guilty verdict of former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin in the George Floyd case, saying that the prosecution did not have evidence that race was a factor in Chauvin&#8217;s actions.
Last week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jury-finds-derek-chauvin-guilty">a jury found Chauvin</a> guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in relation to the death of Floyd.
According to a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/derek-chauvin-prosecutors-george-floyd-death-60-minutes-2021-04-25/">transcript</a> of the interview, Pelley asked Ellison about his response to the verdict, saying, “When you first heard the word &#8216;guilty,&#8217; you thought what?”
Ellison answered, “Gratitude &#8212; humility &#8212; followed by a certain sense of, I&#8217;ll say satisfaction. It&#8217;s what we were aiming for the whole time. I spent 16 years as a criminal defense lawyer. So, I will admit, I felt a little bad for the defendant. I think he deserved to be convicted. But he&#8217;s a human being.”
“Somehow, I did not expect to hear from you a note of compassion for Derek Chauvin,” Pelley said. 
Ellison answered, “I’m not in any way wavering from my responsibility. But I hope we never forget that people who are defendants in our criminal justice system, that they&#8217;re human beings. They&#8217;re people. I mean, George Floyd was a human being. And so I&#8217;m not going to ever forget that everybody in this process is a person.”
Later in the interview, Pelley asked, “Was this a hate crime?”
“I wouldn&#8217;t call it that because hate crimes are crimes where there&#8217;s an explicit motive and of bias,” Ellison said. “We don&#8217;t have any evidence that Derek Chauvin factored in George Floyd&#8217;s race as he did what he did.”
Pelley said, “You could&#8217;ve charged him with a hate crime under Minnesota law, and you chose not to.”
“Could have,” Ellison answered. “But we only charge those crimes that we had evidence that we could put in front of a jury to prove. If we&#8217;d had a witness that told us that Derek Chauvin made a racial reference, we might have charged him with a hate crime. But I would have needed a witness to say that on the stand. We didn&#8217;t have it. So we didn&#8217;t do it.”
Pelley pressed, “The whole world sees this as a white officer killing a Black man because he is Black. And you&#8217;re telling me that there&#8217;s no evidence to support that?”
“In our society, there is a social norm that killing certain kinds of people is more tolerable than other kinds of people. In order for us to stop and pay serious attention to this case and be outraged by it, it&#8217;s not necessary that Derek Chauvin had a specific racial intent to harm George Floyd,” Ellison said.
He continued: “The fact is we know that, through housing patterns, through employment, through wealth, through a whole range of other things &#8212; so often, people of color, Black people, end up with harsh treatment from law enforcement. And other folks doing the exact same thing just don&#8217;t. If an officer doesn&#8217;t throw a white neurologist in Eden Prairie, Minnesota to the ground and doesn&#8217;t sit on top of his neck, is he doing it because this is a fellow white brother? No. He&#8217;s doing it because he thinks, ‘This is an important person and if I treat them badly somebody&#8217;s going to ask me about this. This person probably has lawyers. He probably knows the governor. He probably knows &#8212; he has connections. I can look at the way he&#8217;s dressed and the way he talks, that he&#8217;s probably, quote, unquote, ‘somebody.&#8221; And so that&#8217;s really what it&#8217;s about.”
Later in the interview, Ellison was asked: “Does George Floyd bear any responsibility in your view for what happened that day?”
Ellison answered, “No, he doesn’t.&#8221;
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz made Ellison the prosecution leader of the George Floyd case last summer, <a href="https://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-governor-puts-ag-ellison-in-charge-of-george-floyd-case">saying</a>, &#8220;I have made a decision that I think so many others have made, that Keith Ellison, our Attorney [sic], needs to lead this case, and I say that with a lot of experience to say it. …I watched him gain the respect of the entire U.S. Congress…he understood the systemic issues that were holding us back&#8230; and his voice was loud.”
After the verdict was announced, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minnesota-ag-keith-ellison-says-he-wouldnt-call-guilty-verdict-justice-but-rather-accountability">Ellison said</a> that he would not call the verdict justice. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minnesota-ag-keith-ellison-says-he-wouldnt-call-guilty-verdict-justice-but-rather-accountability">The Daily Wire</a> reported that Ellison said, &#8220;justice implies true restoration. But it is accountability, which is the first step toward justice.” He also reportedly called for systemic change and said that anyone who wants to honor Floyd’s legacy, such as through demonstrations, should do it “calmly, and legally and peacefully.”
“I urge everyone to continue the journey to transformation and justice. It’s in your hands now,” he said at the time.
The full transcript of the “60 Minutes” interview can be found <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/derek-chauvin-prosecutors-george-floyd-death-60-minutes-2021-04-25/">here:</a>
<blockquote>Derek Chauvin is in solitary confinement tonight awaiting sentencing for the murder of George Floyd. The former Minneapolis police officer was convicted this past Tuesday. After the verdict, the prosecution team sat down with us — including lead prosecutor, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Scott Pelley: When you first heard the word &#8220;guilty,&#8221; you thought what?
Keith Ellison: Gratitude&#8211; humility&#8211; followed by a certain sense of, I&#8217;ll say satisfaction. It&#8217;s what we were aiming for the whole time. I spent 16 years as a criminal defense lawyer. So, I will admit, I felt a little bad for the defendant. I think he deserved to be convicted. But he&#8217;s a human being.
Scott Pelley: Somehow, I did not expect to hear from you a note of compassion for Derek Chauvin.
Keith Ellison: I&#8217;m not in any way wavering from my responsibility. But I hope we never forget that people who are defendants in our criminal justice system, that they&#8217;re human beings. They&#8217;re people. I mean, George Floyd was a human being. And so I&#8217;m not going to ever forget that everybody in this process is a person.
Scott Pelley: Was there ever a time that you thought you could lose this case?
Keith Ellison: I was never convinced we were going to win this case until we heard the verdict of guilty. I remember what happened in the Rodney King case when I was a pretty young man, young lawyer.
Keith Ellison: And I remember how devastated I felt when I heard that the jury acquitted those officers. Whenever &#8212; an officer is charged with an offense, particularly when the victim is a person of color, it&#8217;s just rare that there&#8217;s any accountability. And so, there was every moment of this case, I thought, &#8220;What are we missing? What haven&#8217;t we done?
57-year-old Keith Ellison represented Minneapolis in Congress. He became attorney general in 2019. In the Chauvin case, the governor passed over the local county attorney in favor of Ellison, to give the prosecution independence. Ellison&#8217;s team of 14 attorneys worked 11 months to explain nine minutes and 29 seconds.
Keith Ellison: We never thought we could play the video and sit down. We always knew we had to put on a full case and act as if we didn&#8217;t have a video. We made sure that the witnesses could carry it.
There were 45 witnesses over three weeks. Including the Minneapolis chief of police.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo during trial: it is not part of our training, and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values.
And a leading authority on the complexities of a simple breath.
Dr. Martin Tobin during trial: That&#8217;s the moment the life goes out of his body.
Scott Pelley: Which witness sealed this case for you?
Keith Ellison: I think it was Mr. McMillian.
Keith Ellison: 61-year-old guy. Didn&#8217;t know George Floyd. And he came in there and he cried on the witness stand.
Charles McMillian was among those witnesses who could plainly see the humanity that never seemed to register in the eyes of Derek Chauvin.
Scott Pelley: As you looked on the faces of the 12 jurors during the more difficult eyewitness testimony, what did you see in their faces?
Jerry Blackwell and Steve Schleicher presented the case.
Jerry Blackwell: I saw a kind of empathy in their faces that they could feel what the witnesses felt. They could feel the anguish, they could feel the pain, they saw the tears.
The dozen jurors remain anonymous. Socially distanced, from one another, they were never seen on camera.
Steve Schleicher: They were bright and they were taking their responsibilities very seriously. And you could see that throughout the entire trial. They would lean forward, engaged.
Jerry Blackwell: Taking notes, lots of notes.
Steve Schleicher: Furious, yeah, furiously taking notes.
Several jurors had advanced degrees; one was a registered nurse.
Jerry Blackwell: They were overwhelmingly under the age of 40 which was unique.
Half were White, half people of color.
Keith Ellison: Two, what I would call traditional African Americans. You know, people like me. There were two African immigrants. There were two folks who were mixed race, who had, I think, an African descendant parent and a White parent. And then the White jurors were very diverse too. You know, some of them were working class. Others were very highly educated folks.
The identity of the jurors is one of two mysteries of the trial&#8211; the other is the motive for the murder.
Scott Pelley: Was this a hate crime?
Keith Ellison: I wouldn&#8217;t call it that because hate crimes are crimes where there&#8217;s an explicit motive and of bias. We don&#8217;t have any evidence that Derek Chauvin factored in George Floyd&#8217;s race as he did what he did.
Scott Pelley: You could&#8217;ve charged him with a hate crime under Minnesota law, and you chose not to.
Keith Ellison: Could have. But we only charge those crimes that we had evidence that we could put in front of a jury to prove. If we&#8217;d had a witness that told us that Derek Chauvin made a racial reference, we might have charged him with a hate crime. But I would have needed a witness to say that on the stand. We didn&#8217;t have it. So we didn&#8217;t do it.
  Scott Pelley: The whole world sees this as a white officer killing a Black man because he is Black. And you&#8217;re telling me that there&#8217;s no evidence to support that?
Keith Ellison: In our society, there is a social norm that killing certain kinds of people is more tolerable than other kinds of people. In order for us to stop and pay serious attention to this case and be outraged by it, it&#8217;s not necessary that Derek Chauvin had a specific racial intent to harm George Floyd. The fact is we know that, through housing patterns, through employment, through wealth, through a whole range of other things&#8211; so often, people of color, Black people, end up with harsh treatment from law enforcement. And other folks doing the exact same thing just don&#8217;t. If an officer doesn&#8217;t throw a white neurologist in Eden Prairie, Minnesota to the ground and doesn&#8217;t sit on top of his neck, is he doing it because this is a fellow white brother? No. He&#8217;s doing it because he thinks, &#8220;This is an important person and if I treat them badly somebody&#8217;s going to ask me about this. &#8220;This person probably has lawyers. He probably knows the governor. He probably knows&#8211; he has connections. I can look at the way he&#8217;s dressed and the way he talks, that he&#8217;s probably, quote, unquote, &#8216;somebody.'&#8221; And so that&#8217;s really what it&#8217;s about.
Scott Pelley: Why would this officer assault George Floyd?
Keith Ellison: Well, that&#8217;s a question we spent a lotta time asking ourselves. And all we could come up with is what we could divine from his body language and his demeanor. And what we saw is that the crowd was demanding that he get up. And then he was staring right back at them defiantly. &#8220;You don&#8217;t tell me what to do. I do what I wanna do. You people have no control over me. I&#8217;m going to show you.&#8221;
And what he showed them, he showed to 13 video cameras.
Scott Pelley: Could you have won conviction without the bystander video?
Keith Ellison: I don&#8217;t know. If it was just the witnesses&#8217; statements, I have to say to you that it was&#8211; I think it was an indispensable piece of this case.
Scott Pelley: The first public statement that the Minneapolis Police Department made hours after Mr. Floyd was killed was that the police had been involved and someone had died of a medical emergency. Do you think we ever would&#8217;ve known the truth without the video?
Keith Ellison: You know, I have real doubts of &#8212; that we ever would.
Scott Pelley: Why would Derek Chauvin commit murder or even assault if he knew he was being recorded.
Keith Ellison: I think that if he looks at history, he has every reason to believe that he would never be held accountable. There&#8217;s never been anyone in Minnesota convicted&#8211; any police officer convicted of second-degree murder in the history of our state. So this was precedent setting in that way. So history was on his side.
Scott Pelley: Does George Floyd bear any responsibility in your view for what happened that day?
Keith Ellison: No, he doesn&#8217;t.
Scott Pelley: If he&#8217;d gotten in the car, he&#8217;d be alive today.
Keith Ellison: The fact is that police officers are paid and trained to deal with people who are having problems. And if they&#8217;re allowed to use deadly force on people who are just having a bad day, then we&#8217;re going to be in a very, very lethal situation. We need officers who have the judgment and the ability to discern what somebody is going through so that people survive these encounters. George Floyd was not armed. He never threatened a soul, he never struck out on&#8211; against anybody. He did everything the officers said, except he had claustrophobia and anxiety and couldn&#8217;t bring himself to get in that car. How could Chauvin justify being on him three minutes after he had no pulse? How could he justify not rendering CPR? How can he justify not heeding George Floyd&#8217;s 27 requests to be able to breathe? &#8220;I can&#8217;t breathe&#8221; he said 27 times. How can he just ignore that? So I&#8217;m hard-pressed to find how George Floyd bears responsibility for what happened here.
Jerry Blackwell and Steve Schleicher presented the closing arguments, but they&#8217;re not career prosecutors. They were recruited by the attorney general from big law firms—because of their talent. Both volunteered to work this case for free.
Jerry Blackwell: It meant a lot to me personally. I mean, I have&#8211; had my own experiences of being stopped by the police for no reason, being harassed for no reason. And I wanted to do my part, just as a citizen, to say that the rule of law matters.
Scott Pelley: What does this verdict change? Does it change anything?
Steve Schleicher: Well, we won&#8217;t know. Right? We&#8217;re in the middle of history right now. And so that&#8217;s yet to be seen. But the rest of it is really&#8211; up to the world whether it changes, what it changes, to what extent. We&#8217;re in the middle of this story.
Jerry Blackwell: I don&#8217;t think that there are any inevitabilities in it because we don&#8217;t make progress on the wheels of inevitability. In fact, I think progress rolls like a brick. And so each one has to be flipped each time. So when people talk about inflection points and so on&#8211; I&#8217;m not really a subscriber to inflection points. There&#8217;s no reason to believe that things are easier going forward than they were to get here. And I think we have to make a consistent effort every day to protect the vulnerable and then to work to reform ourselves which, if we don&#8217;t do, there won&#8217;t be any lasting change anyway. If each person doesn&#8217;t work to make the change.
Three other former officers will go on trial, together, in August. 45-year-old Derek Chauvin will be sentenced by the judge in mid-June. George Floyd&#8217;s family can make a statement at that hearing and so could Chauvin, if he chooses. He faces a maximum of 40 years.
Scott Pelley: A maximum sentence would send what kind of message?
Keith Ellison: I think it is important for the Court to not go light or heavy. I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s right for a judge to send a message through a sentence because the sentence should be tailored to the offense, tailored to the circumstances of the case. Look, the State never wanted revenge against Derek Chauvin. We just wanted accountability.</blockquote>

Minnesota AG Keith Ellison Says There Is No Evidence Chauvin ‘Factored In George Floyd’s Race’ When He Acted

After a jury found former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts in the death of George Floyd, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said that he doesn&#8217;t consider the verdict &#8220;justice&#8221; but rather &#8220;accountability.&#8221;
&#8220;I would not call today&#8217;s verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration. But it is accountability, which is the first step toward justice,&#8221; said Ellison, who called for systemic change, <a href="https://www.axios.com/minnesota-keith-ellison-guilty-verdict-bc288800-584b-477b-87cc-c16f7e123151.html">reports</a> Axios. Ellison also said any people who decide to honor Floyd&#8217;s legacy, such as through demonstrations, should do it &#8220;calmly, and legally and peacefully.&#8221;
&#8220;I urge everyone to continue the journey to transformation and justice. It&#8217;s in your hands now,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;We need to use this verdict as an inflection point,&#8221; Ellison <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEtxYzRzrUo">said</a>. &#8220;What if we just prevented the problem instead of having to try these cases. We don&#8217;t want anymore community members dying at the hands of law enforcement and their families lives ruined. We don&#8217;t want anymore law enforcement members having to face criminal charges and their families lives ruined. We don&#8217;t want anymore communities torn apart.&#8221;
Ellison suggested ways to prevent such negative outcomes, including re-examining &#8220;the use of force and our old subtle assumptions,&#8221; by &#8220;acknowledging and lifting up everyone&#8217;s humanity,&#8221; and maintaining accountability for officers who violate laws and policies.
&#8220;This verdict demands us to never give up the hope that we can make enduring change,&#8221; said Ellison. &#8220;Generations of people said slavery would never end, generations said Jim Crow would never end, generations said women would never be equal to men.&#8221;
Ellison also said officers deserve to work in departments &#8220;where they don&#8217;t have to worry about colleagues who don&#8217;t follow the rules,&#8221; and proclaimed that &#8220;the work of our generation is to put an end to the vestiges of Jim Crow and the centuries of trauma, and finally put an end to racism.&#8221;
Chauvin was found guilty on three counts, including second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter, nearly a year after video of his last moments prompted national unrest and riots. Closing arguments in the case concluded Monday — when the jury was briefly sequestered — and the verdict was reached late Tuesday. Chauvin&#8217;s bail has been revoked, and the judge expects him to be sentenced in roughly eight weeks. 
The verdict has been met with swift reaction from politicians, including former President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Today, a jury did the right thing. But true justice requires much more,&#8221; said Obama. &#8220;Michelle and I send our prayers to the Floyd family, and we stand with all those who are committed to guaranteeing every American the full measure of justice that George and so many others have been denied.&#8221;
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Today, a jury did the right thing. But true justice requires much more. Michelle and I send our prayers to the Floyd family, and we stand with all those who are committed to guaranteeing every American the full measure of justice that George and so many others have been denied. <a href="https://t.co/mihZQHqACV">pic.twitter.com/mihZQHqACV</a>
&mdash; Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1384626851511951360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice, for being there to call out to your mom,” said Pelosi in a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “How heartbreaking was that, call out for your mom, I can’t breathe, but because of you and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.”
Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), whose policing bill was blocked by Democrats last year, said that he believed the jury reached the correct decision.
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My statement on the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. ⬇️ <a href="https://t.co/5FPHi0j4k0">pic.twitter.com/5FPHi0j4k0</a>
&mdash; Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorTimScott/status/1384620976386854914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2021</a></blockquote>
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“While this outcome should give us renewed confidence in the integrity of our justice system, we know there is more work to be done to ensure the bad apples do not define all officers—the vast majority of whom put on the uniform each day with integrity and servant hearts,&#8221; said Scott.  &#8220;We must all come together to help repair the tenuous relationship between law enforcement and Black and minority Americans.&#8221;

Minnesota AG Keith Ellison Says He Wouldn’t Call Guilty Verdict ‘Justice,’ But Rather ‘Accountability’

On Tuesday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson reacted to the leaked body camera footage from two officers involved in the arrest of George Floyd, hitting prominent Democrat Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for refusing to release the footage.
Floyd died in police custody at the end of May following an arrest that went viral on social media. A partial clip of the arrest, showing an officer holding his knee over the 46-year-old&#8217;s neck for several minutes, sparked national outrage and unrest, including mass protests and acts of vandalism, rioting, and looting.
AG Ellison did not release the bodycam video from the officers involved in the arrest.
On Monday, however, the Daily Mail released leaked <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-police-bodycam-footage-shows-moment-by-moment-arrest-of-george-floyd-for-the-first-time">footage</a> taken from the body cameras of Officers Thomas Lane, 37, and Alex Kueng, 26, after responding to a call that Floyd was allegedly using counterfeit money at Cup Foods.
As noted by The Daily Wire, the footage shows Floyd acting in an erratic manner that prompts police to question if he is intoxicated and includes Floyd resisting attempts to get him in the back of the police car, citing his “claustrophobia,” “anxiety,” previously having “COVID,” and his difficulty breathing. Floyd eventually begins yelling that he “can’t breathe” and saying he’d prefer to be on the ground than in the car.
&#8220;Why haven&#8217;t we seen the rest of the video until right now?&#8221; questioned the &#8220;Tucker Carlson Tonight&#8221; host. &#8220;The video seems relevant, particularly considering all that has happened next.&#8221;
&#8220;And the answer to why we haven&#8217;t seen it is simple,&#8221; Carlson continued. “Because Keith Ellison – he’s the attorney general of Minnesota – hid the video from the public; he refused to release the footage, and he admitted it.&#8221;
The Fox host then showed a clip of Ellison from early June explaining to The Washington Post his decision to withhold the body cam footage from the public.
“I’m a firm believer in transparency, and the public’s right to know, but a higher priority for me is a successful prosecution,&#8221; the AG <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/keith-ellison-releasing-body-camera-201758036.html">told</a> The Washington Post. &#8220;Therefore, I’ll consult with our lead investigators and I’ll say to them, ‘When can we release this information to the public and still safeguard the prosecution?’ If we can do it before [trial], I would have no problem with doing that, but I am reluctant to do anything that would undermine the prosecution of this case.&#8221;
Carlson mocked Ellison, &#8220;Right. &#8216;I&#8217;m a firm believer in transparency and the public&#8217;s right to know,&#8217; says Keith Ellison.&#8221;
&#8220;But apparently that&#8217;s not true,&#8221; Carlson asserted. &#8220;Videos like this are released all the time by authorities. In this case, it was hidden, and in fact, if it weren&#8217;t for a leak to a foreign newspaper, we wouldn&#8217;t have seen that video.&#8221;
Ellison is <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1020403a-3488-4c1e-9eac-f52c41bb3f85">leading</a> the prosecution of the police officers accused of killing Floyd.
“Holding these four individuals accountable is a necessary part of establishing equality before the law for all people,” Ellison <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1020403a-3488-4c1e-9eac-f52c41bb3f85">told</a> the Financial Times this week. “We need a lot more than a conviction in this case, but we do need to hold these individuals accountable. &#8230; It’s a necessary but insufficient condition to try to establish justice.”
&#8220;Floyd&#8217;s death has been used to justify a nationwide convulsion of violence, destruction, looting, in some cases killing,&#8221; Carlson said earlier in his show, adding, &#8220;In addition to unprecedented levels of political upheaval, the wholesale reordering of our most basic institutions. Floyd&#8217;s death changed everything. It was a pivot point in American history. No matter what side you&#8217;re on, that&#8217;s very clear at this point. So with all of that in mind &#8230; it&#8217;s striking how little we really know months later about how exactly George Floyd died.&#8221;
&#8220;You can decide for yourself what you think of that video,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And we hope that you will. That&#8217;s the whole point of having a news network, to bring you the facts and allow you to decide what they amount to. We hope that takes place in this case.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Tucker talks about newly released police bodycam footage from moments before George Floyd’s death. <a href="https://t.co/A3ylnxFg1i">pic.twitter.com/A3ylnxFg1i</a>
&mdash; Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1290805346538332161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Tucker Carlson, Keith Ellison

Tucker Carlson Reacts To George Floyd Body Cam Footage, Slams AG Keith Ellison For Refusing To Release It

Tucker Carlson

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison warned on Monday to not expect a swift conviction of George Floyd’s alleged killer.
Ellison <a href="https://www.today.com/video/minnesota-ag-keith-ellison-on-case-against-derek-chauvin-it-s-hard-to-convict-the-police-84172869787">appeared</a> on NBC’s “Today” and said that successfully prosecuting police officers for alleged abuses is difficult no matter how much evidence one has. In the case of Floyd, Ellison said, protesters should be aware that this case may drag out over a long period of time, and they should have the patience to let the justice system work.
“I’m not really commenting on evidence at all. What I’m really saying is, you know, it’s hard to convict the police even when the criminal wrongdoing appears to be in front of your eyes, and so it takes preparation, it takes planning, it takes time,” Ellison said. “That’s what I am trying to prepare people for.”
“I just want to tell everybody if they think there is going to be some conviction by this weekend, that’s just not true,” Ellison added. “I can assure them their trust in me is legitimate, but I ask them to give me the space that we need to do a prosecution, conviction, and investigation which is going to stick.”
Ellison took the lead in the case against 44-year-old Derek Chauvin on Sunday at the request of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“This decision is one that I feel takes us in that direction and the step to start getting the justice for George Floyd,” Walz said at the time, according to the <a href="https://www.startribune.com/ag-keith-ellison-to-take-over-case-in-floyd-killing/570911922/">Minnesota Star Tribune</a>. “When I spoke to the Floyd family they were very clear: They wanted the system to work for them. They wanted to believe that there was trust and they wanted to feel like the facts would be heard and justice would be served.”
Ellison told “Today” he agreed to take on the case because “we need the resources of the whole state to do an effective, fair, thorough investigation and prosecution.”
Police arrested Chauvin on Friday and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-thousands-arrested-during-wave-of-riots-across-us">charged</a> him with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Large protests erupted in Minneapolis after videos began circulating online showing Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck while Floyd was being arrested. Chauvin and three other officers were fired from the Minneapolis Police Department after the incident. Chauvin is the only one yet to be charged.
A criminal complaint says that Chauvin used his knee to pin Floyd to the ground for nine minutes while Floyd begged for relief saying he could not breathe. Floyd was unresponsive for about three minutes. An ambulance took him to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The protests over Floyd’s death have devolved into riots around the country. City mayors and state governors have activated the National Guard to help control rampant looting that has broken out in cities such as Minneapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dominate-the-streets-trump-announces-major-crackdown-on-violent-rioters">addressed</a> the riots Monday, empathizing with protesters over Floyd’s death. He also said that if cities and states failed to control the widespread rioting and looting, he would use military force to curb the violence.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Keith Ellison On Prosecuting Floyd’s Alleged Killer: ‘It’s Hard To Convict Police’

Minnesota Democrat Attorney General Keith Ellison suggested on Thursday that supporters of socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who are often referred to as &#8220;Bernie bros,&#8221; are not mean or rude to other people despite numerous reports showing the opposite.
Ellison, who is a supporter of Sanders, wrote on Twitter, &#8220;I have never seen @BernieSanders supporters being unusually mean or rude. Can someone send me an example of a ‘Bernie Bro’ being bad? Also, are we holding all candidates responsible for the behavior of some of their supporters? Waiting to hear.&#8221;
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, quickly responded to Ellison, writing, &#8220;I can think of an example.&#8221;
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I can think of an example. <a href="https://t.co/KwuvyYgyGw">https://t.co/KwuvyYgyGw</a>
&mdash; Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveScalise/status/1230573658768379910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 20, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Scalise was referencing the Democrat terrorist, who was a supporter of Sanders, who shot up a baseball field full of Republican lawmakers in June 2017.
Scalise was seriously wounded in the politically motivated terrorist attack and spent <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/26/539519731/rep-scalise-released-from-hospital-following-gunshot-wound">six weeks</a> in a hospital fighting for his life.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who was at the Virginia baseball field during the terrorist attack, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rand-paul-reveals-media-hid-key-detail-about-gop-ryan-saavedra">later mentioned</a> that the Democrat terrorist was screaming, &#8220;this is for health care!&#8221; as he shot at lawmakers.
“I was there at the ball field when Steven Scalise almost died from a very, very angry violent man who was incited really by rhetoric on the left,” Paul said. “And this hasn’t been reported enough, when he came on the field with a semi-automatic weapon firing probably close to 200 shots at us, shooting five people and almost killing Steve Scalise, he was yelling ‘this is for healthcare!&#8217; He also had a list of conservative legislators, Republicans, in his pocket that he was willing to kill.”
“So what happens is that when Democrats say ‘get up in their face,’ they need to realize that there are a lot of unstable people out there,” Paul continued. “There are people with anger issues, there are people who are prone to violence.”
Ellison&#8217;s suggestion that Sanders&#8217; supporters are not &#8220;mean&#8221; or &#8220;rude&#8221; also ignores the explosive videos that were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/twitter-suspends-james-okeefe-for-reporting-on-democrat-bernie-sanders">released</a> by James O&#8217;Keefe&#8217;s Project Veritas earlier this year that showed paid Sanders staff allegedly talking about wanting to kill or harm political opponents.
In South Carolina, Project Veritas provided the following highlights of things that Sanders&#8217; campaign field organizer Mason Baird allegedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sanders-campaign-rocked-again-more-staff-caught-advocating-violence-against-opponents">said</a>:
<ul>
<li>“A lot of the stories we’re told in the United States about, you know, the gulags and the persecution of the Kulaks and things like that are exaggerated … we certainly don’t have, uh, a straight perspective on that stuff here in America.”</li>
<li>“We would need a federal government and a labor movement that is working together to strip power away from capitalists and preferably directing that violence towards property.”</li>
<li>“It would, it’s gonna take, you know, it’s gonna take militancy … like a militant labor movement that’s willing to … strike, and if necessary, you know, just destroy property and things like that.”</li>
<li>“… after we abolish landlords, we don’t have to kill them …”</li>
</ul>
In South Carolina, Project Veritas provided the following highlights of things that Sanders&#8217; campaign field organizer Daniel Taylor allegedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sanders-campaign-rocked-again-more-staff-caught-advocating-violence-against-opponents">said</a>:
<ul>
<li>“We don’t want to scare people off, you first have to feel it out before you get into the crazy stuff … You know we were talking about more extreme organizations like Antifa, you were talking about, Yellow Vests, all that but we’re kinda keeping that on the back-burner for now.”</li>
<li>“We have all this momentum, where do we go, regardless of the outcome, after it’s all over? Change won’t come easily, regardless. Even if Bernie is elected, change will not come swiftly or easily, so the connections we make now in the campaign with people, and volunteers, it’s important we retain that regardless of the outcome. It’s unfortunate that we have to make plans for extreme action but like I said, they’re not going to give it to us even if Bernie is elected.”</li>
</ul>
In South Carolina, Project Veritas provided the following highlights of things that Sanders&#8217; campaign field organizer Martin Weissgerber allegedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/another-bernie-staffer-allegedly-promotes-violence-kill-the-rich-put-republicans-in-camps">said</a>:
<ul>
<li>“Let’s force them (billionaires) to build roads … rebuild our roads, rebuild our dams, rebuild our bridges. Let’s force them to do that.”</li>
<li>“Well, the gulags were founded as re-education camps. … What will help is when we send all the Republicans to the re-education camps.”</li>
<li>“I’m already on Twitter, following numerous groups around the country that are ready to organize yellow vest protests. I’m ready … I’m ready to start tearing bricks up and start fighting. … I’m not — no cap, bro. I’ll straight up — I’ll straight up get armed, I want to learn how to shoot, and go train. I’m ready for the f***ing revolution, bro. … I’m telling you. Guillotine the rich.”</li>
<li>“I think I was radicalized from the day; first day I was born … my dad, is a Marxist. Like, straight-up from Belgium … he took part in Paris ’68 and all that, which is really cool. … I’ve always made it, I’ve always been unapologetic about it since I was younger, I always said, you know I’m a Communist … in my house, we had, you know Das Kapital, Engels, and Marx and all that sh*t. … I’m a Communist that believes in direct democracy, direct communes on everything. Pretty much, anarcho-syndicalism. Unions everything. I hope, but I don’t know how effective that is in addressing climate change, for instance.”</li>
<li>“Oh, yeah. My dad is real; my mom is, but my mom is really left as well. But she can’t make her views known, because she works for WBUR, which is NPR, so she’s more held back. But you know … But then I went, I started studying it. That’s what I studied in college, I studied Russian his–., Soviet history … I became the resident Marxist. … But, yeah, I’m all about the complete seizure of the means of production, nationalizing everything.”</li>
<li>“I only learned this sh*t in college when I started studying the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was not horrible … I mean, for women’s rights, the Soviet Union — I think — the most progressive place to date in the world.”</li>
<li>“The first gulag that was opened; have you heard about Belomorkanal? They dug a canal; the plan was, in 1922, I think, to dig a Canal from the White Sea all the way to Saint Petersburg … a long way, if you look on a map … and, the whole point — it was going to be called the Belomorkanal, and I read — I spent a whole semester actually studying primary accounts from the Belomorkanal. The whole point of the Belomorkanal, there were no machines allowed. They forced the people to dig with shovels and hoe the whole canal, right? You should see the people writing about their time at the Belomorkanal. There’s this one guy, he was a thief from Georgia who had been captured. He was sent to the Belomorkanal to work and in his writing, like ‘I reject all thievery, I reject that past life.’ He said, capitalism made me into this thief, because when there’s poor people, there’s going to be crime. He said, ‘I went to the Belomorkanal and I worked.’ He became a shock worker, which is what they call the leading workers, people who always met the quota and exceeded the quota … and, like people came from America to work at the Belomorkanal for the Soviet project, the communist project. It was a beautiful thing.”</li>
<li>“Leave it to the Soviets to make the most badass f***ing, most effective gun in the world … AK-47 … the destroyer of imperialism and coloniali[sm] … that’s why I want to get it [AK-47] tattooed on me.”</li>
<li>“So, do we just cease — do we just dissolve the Senate, House of Representatives, the judicial branch, and have something Bernie Sanders and a cabinet of people, make all decisions for the climate? I mean, I’m serious.”</li>
</ul>

Steve Scalise Keith Ellison

Keith Ellison Claims ‘Bernie Bros’ Are Not Violent. Steve Scalise Responds With A Zinger.

2020 Election

Bernie Sanders

Steve Scalise

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar is supposed to be in a fairly safe district having secured around 75% of the vote in her last go-round, but if some Minnesota Democrats have their way, she may be facing a significant primary challenge.
<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/433970-democrats-upset-over-omar-seeking-primary-challenger">The Hill reports</a> that Minnesota Dems are so frustrated with what they see as Omar&#8217;s blatant anti-Semitism and refusal to learn from her mistakes that they&#8217;re already talking about holding recruitment for a primary challenger, even though Omar has been in office less than three months.
&#8220;There&#8217;s definitely some buzz going around about it, but it&#8217;s more a buzz of is anyone talking about finding someone to run against her than it is anyone saying they&#8217;re going to run against her or contemplate it. There&#8217;s definitely talk about people wanting someone to run against her,&#8221; one Minnesota state senator, who represents part of Omar&#8217;s district, told the Washington, D.C. outlet.
That&#8217;s a fairly sharp critique, particularly from someone who represents the same district as Omar, but the evidence that her Minnesota constituents might be better off cutting her tenure in Congress short is mounting. In the first several weeks of her term, she was censured (sort of) twice for repeating the same or similar comments, all anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish legislators being subject to &#8220;dual loyalties&#8221; to both the United States and Israel.
Despite repeated attempts to &#8220;help&#8221; Omar understand the problems with her comments, she continues to make allusions to &#8220;dual loyalty&#8221; in different forms, showing she&#8217;s either incapable or uninterested in marked change.
In particular, Jewish lawmakers want Omar to face consequences for her anti-Semitic language.
&#8220;Our community is exasperated by Rep. Omar&#8217;s unfulfilled promises to listen and learn from Jewish constituents while seemingly simultaneously finding another opportunity to make an anti-Semitic remark and insult our community,&#8221; the head of a major Jewish group in Minnesota &#8212; who was among the Jewish leaders who met with Omar to help her understand why her &#8220;dual loyalty&#8221; comments were hurtful, inappropriate, and downright scandalous &#8212; told The Hill.
Omar, like her fellow freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is in a good place to handle a challenger, though. She faced a six-way primary in the last election cycle (though she was the endorsed candidate), and prevailed. She&#8217;s also in a district that heavily matches her demographic. Even if outside groups won&#8217;t tolerate Omar&#8217;s anti-Semitism, her direct constituents have shown they have no problem &#8220;questioning&#8221; Jewish leadership; they tolerated Rep. Keith Ellison for several terms, and he had direct ties to anti-Semitic hate preacher Louis Farrakhan.
Other problematic Democrats might be easier targets. Ocasio-Cortez had only a narrow victory over her Democratic opponent in her New York district&#8217;s primary, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has faced many of her own accusations of anti-Semitism, and also deployed the &#8220;dual loyalty&#8221; smear against some of her Congressional colleagues, got into office on a fluke when the heir apparent for the seat in Congress was forced to drop out of the race. A similar scenario may not happen twice in a row.

Democrats, Fed Up With Rep. Ilhan Omar, Are Working On Finding A Primary Challenger

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Anti-Semitism

Rashida Tlaib

CNN announced this week that &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/27/europe/anti-semitism-analysis-ward-intl/index.html">Anti-Semitism never disappeared in Europe. It&#8217;s alive and kicking</a>.&#8221; The fact that this was a shocking revelation proves that there is a widespread and blatant lack of understanding when it comes to the depth and longevity of anti-Semitism.
This headline highlights the commonly held view that anti-Semitism is specific to Europe for which the horrors of World War 2 and The Holocaust were a brief blip of bigotry. Europe itself has a deep and dark history of discrimination, persecution, and violence toward Jews. Originating with the hatred of Jews during the Pre-Christian eras of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, it continued in the form of centuries of Christian anti-Semitism, resulting in the repeated expulsion and murder of Jews across Europe. While many think that anti-Semitism began in early 20th century Germany, the Nazis did not invent anti-Semitism. They simply capitalized on a deeply-rooted hatred.
The fact that CNN required a study of European nations to conclude that anti-Semitism is still &#8220;alive and kicking&#8221; shows a shocking ignorance of reality. Despite the defeat of Nazi Germany, anti-Semitic sentiment has existed across Europe. There has been a demonstrated increase in anti-Semitic attacks in countries like France and Germany in recent years, often associated with the increase of Muslim anti-Semitism following waves of immigration, or the rise of far-right political groups.
This headline is also indicative of a deeper problem. The issue is that mainstream acknowledgement of anti-Semitism is carefully selective in an attempt to limit it to the political Right. While anti-Semitism clearly exists in the far-Right, the reality is that it also exists in the mainstream Left.
Recent CNN headlines such as, &#8220;In 2008, there was hope. In 2018, there is hurt. This is America&#8217;s state of hate,&#8221; and &#8220;Has anti-Semitism returned with a vengeance?&#8221; promote the notion that we can blame anti-Semitism on Donald Trump&#8217;s rhetoric. While Trump&#8217;s behavior concerning the anti-Semitic alt-right during his 2016 campaign was deplorable, his policies as president have been massively pro-Jewish and pro-Israel. Conversely, criticism of anti-Semitism within the Left is severely lacking.
While CNN discuss the &#8220;hope&#8221; that came with Obama, they willingly ignore the fact that Obama&#8217;s stance towards Iran made the despotic Islamic nation a regional superpower. This allowed them to continue funding terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah &#8212; organizations whose prime goal is the expulsion and extermination of Jews.
The same willing ignorance is applied to other prominent members of the Left. The vocally anti-Semitic views of progressive thought-leaders such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib are dismissed. Blatant anti-Semites such as Keith Ellison, Linda Sarsour, and Louis Farrakhan are also afforded the same protections.
This attitude isn&#8217;t specific to the American Left. In the United Kingdom, Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn faces continual criticism from both the Conservative Party and members of his own party for failing to combat anti-Semitism in his own ranks. Corbyn is vocally anti-Israel, with a long history of supporting anti-Semites. He attended a ceremony commemorating the orchestrators of the 1972 Munich massacre, has called Hamas and Hezbollah &#8220;his friends,&#8221; and even claimed (somewhat ironically) that British Jews don&#8217;t understand British irony. Despite these facts, he remains popular with his base, and may become Britain&#8217;s next Prime Minister.
The core issue which explains the willingness of the Left to ignore anti-Semitism is that most of this bigotry is thinly veiled, and thereby protected, as being anti-Israel. After centuries of ethnic or religious anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism is simply the next version of contemporary anti-Jewish sentiment.
To their credit, CNN made a positive step recently by firing Marc Lamont Hill for advocating for the expulsion or murder of Israeli Jews by repeating the Palestinian nationalist slogan: &#8220;free Palestine from the river to the sea.&#8221; However, this attitude must be applied consistently to have any long-term impact.
We can all agree that &#8220;obvious&#8221; forms of anti-Semitism are morally abhorrent, such as the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, violent attacks on Jews in France or New York, the desecration of Jewish cemeteries, or the vocal support of anti-Semitic political policies. Yet the true vehicle that keeps anti-Semitism alive is the protection of subtle or masked anti-Semitism:
<ul>
<li>Calling Israel a racist, fascist, apartheid state while ignoring the blatant and continual human rights abuses of the surrounding Muslim nations is anti-Semitic.</li>
<li>The media failing to condemn Palestinian organizations for targeting Israeli civilians with indiscriminate attacks launched from Palestinian schools and hospitals, while only reporting on the conflict when Israel responds defensively, is anti-Semitic.</li>
<li>The fact that the United Nations Human Rights Council targeted Israel with 83 of their 97 resolutions between 2012 and 2015 is anti-Semitic.</li>
<li>Using accusations of anti-Semitism as protection against legitimate criticism of prominent Jews such as George Soros is anti-Semitic, as it makes it easier to dismiss true anti-Semitism. It is also wrong to blindly reject specific and consistent criticism of Israeli policies as being immediately anti-Semitic.</li>
<li>The selective use of anti-Semitism as a manipulative political tool of sympathy, regardless of political affiliation, is anti-Semitic.</li>
</ul>
It is also important to reject the use of anti-Semitism to drive further bigotry. An upsurge in Islamophobia has followed an increase of Muslim anti-Semitism in Europe. Bigotry should never excuse bigotry, and so-called retaliatory Islamophobic attacks are just as disgusting as the original acts of anti-Semitism.
If we, as a society, truly want to combat anti-Semitism, then we must fight it in all forms, rather than only focusing on blatant cases of violence, or cherry-picking instances based on geographic location or political affiliation. As long as anti-Semitism is permitted in mainstream political discourse, it will continue to thrive. Time for the Left and Right to put their shekels where their mouths are.