The following article by Mike Mullen was posted on the City Pages website August 9, 2017:
Erik Paulsen says the “community” is “united” after the Bloomington mosque bombing. Maybe he read about it in the paper?Facebook/Erik Paulsen
Erik Paulsen just cannot get Facebook to work.
He’s able to publish posts, sure, and can get all the words and photos to show up online. It’s what happens after that, when everyone jumps in to say he’s full of shit, that’s giving him so much trouble.
Back in May, GOP US. Rep. Paulsen was among the crucial votes for a now-infamous repeal-and-regress of the Affordable Care Act, which would’ve booted tens of millions of people off Medicaid. Within a couple hours, the congressman’s Facebook page was a boiling cauldron of constituent vitriol.
Last night, Paulsen’s most charitable constituents might have believed his heart was in the right place. It’s the rest of him that was missing.
Posted under his official account, this certainly implies Erik Paulsen was present for last night’s unity gathering at the site of this past weekend’s bomb attack. And that sure would make sense: The city of Bloomington, and this mosque, are in Paulsen’s district.
But a few people were quick to call Paulsen’s photographic pledge of support into question. In fact, they’re pretty sure Erik wasn’t anywhere near this event.
City Pages reached out to Paulsen’s office for comment about these allegations, and we haven’t heard back yet. (We will not our breath.) But Minnesota Public Radio’s Bob Collins reveals the exact same photo Paulsen posted on Facebook and Twitter was originally posted by John-Paul Yates, Paulsen’s district director, before it wound up appearing under Paulsen’s name.
On behalf of @RepErikPaulsen, joining hundreds in Bloomington to show of support for Al-Farooq. This is a community united.
John-Paul generously described himself as being their (sic) “on behalf of” Paulsen, who, according to Collins, is “on vacation with his family.” He’s been “in contact with” the Dar-Al Farooq mosque, and “plans to visit” next week.
Oof. It’s Paulsen’s Trumpcare/Ryancare/Don’tcare vote all over again. He did the wrong thing (this time, avoiding the site of a bombing in his district for more than a week); took credit for it (“a community is there for them,” or so Paulsen’s top aides tell him); and was mercilessly crushed by his cynical constituents.
“They are not alone,” Paulsen wrote. They “are united.” He’s right. They’re united without him.
So are the people who are sick of him hiding from his duties, and his district. They’ll have to wait until next week to see him, and until next year to vote against him.
View the post here.