Minnesota Republicans following GOP nominee’s divisive lead
Minnesota Republicans continue to follow Donald Trump’s divisive lead by embracing his ignorant and detestable rhetoric. In a week where the GOP presidential nominee is trying to pivot away from past offensive statements on race, immigration and religion, Minnesota Republicans are feeding off of the toxic culture he has created.
This week, Republican State Senator David Osmek echoed the dystopian vision of the GOP standard bearer on an appearance on the AM 1130 Morning Show when talking about education:
“Boy, those schools are just doing a crack job aren’t they? Whoops, I shouldn’t use crack and schools and Minneapolis because frankly there’s probably a lot of it there.” [TCNT Morning Show, Monday 8/22/16]
“These dog whistle politics are just another in a long line of outrageous comments from members of the Minnesota Republican Party targeted at communities across Minnesota,” said DFL Party Chair Ken Martin. “GOP leaders need to denounce this kind of divisive, ignorant and intolerant speech. Right now we should be working to unite our state, not further divide it.”
Whether it’s the Minnesota 7th Congressional District Republican Party’s “#NegroProblem” Facebook post, Representative Jim Newberger’s claim that running the Northstar rail between the prison in St. Cloud and north Minneapolis would be “convenient”, or their endorsement of Jason Lewis, who has claimed that the government had no right to stop someone from owning a slave, it’s clear that the Minnesota GOP is embracing the rhetoric of Donald Trump.
Rather than tamp down this type of talk State Republican leaders like Senator Minority Leader David Hann, who has explicitly called for Republicans to support Donald Trump, have instead chosen to remind silent.