Tag: Jason Lewis

While President Trump Vows to Rip Away Health Care from Millions of Americans, Jason Lewis Says He and Trump Are ‘Joined at the Hip’

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – In an interview with 60 Minutes this week, President Donald Trump made it clear he wants the Supreme Court to end the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Meanwhile, U.S. Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis affirms his unyielding loyalty to Donald Trump, instead of Minnesotans.

Lewis has always been quick to fall in line behind Trump. In an interview with Fox News this week, Lewis declared “I’m running with the President and glad to do it. We’re joined at the hip.”

It’s no surprise that Lewis is on board with President Trump’s plan to rip away health care from millions of Americans and gut protections for those with pre-existing conditions by overturning the ACA. Lewis has declared that he has “no disagreements” with President Trump and can’t name even one policy he disagrees with. The former congressman alsoadvocated to “get rid of the pre-existing condition mandate,” told struggling families who can’t afford insulin that the “government is not compassionate,” and said that if they needed help to “go out and find it.” This is all on top of hisrecord of voting to repeal the ACA.

ICYMI: Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan Blasts Jason Lewis’ Rhetoric on COVID-19 as ‘Nothing Short of Dangerous’

In a response to Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis’ campaign of fear and division, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan urges Minnesotans to not fall for his distractions, writing  in a Star Tribune op-ed that Lewis “much rather we pay attention to his fearmongering than to the very real challenges we face.”

In the piece, Lt. Governor Flanagan highlights how dangerous Lewis’ rhetoric has been, and how it continues to  pose a danger to Minnesotans’ lives. Lewis has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, spread misinformation and conspiracy theories by calling masks “muzzles” designed to enforce “total, absolute conformity” and mocked Minnesotans who are concerned about the pandemic, saying they have a  “bizarre obsession with risk.” Lewis has also claimed that “anybody under the age of 50 has exactly a 99.98% chance of survival,” while the deadly virus has now claimed over 2,000 lives in the state. 

In her op-ed, Lt. Governor Flanagan leaves Minnesotans with a reminder of the seriousness of COVID-19, and that they should expect more empathy from leaders who are supposed to represent all of us in Washington. That choice is clear: U.S. Senator Tina Smith.

Continue reading “ICYMI: Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan Blasts Jason Lewis’ Rhetoric on COVID-19 as ‘Nothing Short of Dangerous’”

Think Cross Burnings Targeting Black Families Are Hate Crimes? This GOP Senate Hopeful Disagreed.

New comments emerge from Jason Lewis’s past as a conservative Minnesota broadcaster.

Before launching his 2020 campaign to become a Minnesota senator, Jason Lewis spent more than two decades as a conservative broadcaster. While in 2016 he parlayed his media perch into a single term as GOP congressman for the state’s second district, covering suburban tracts south of Minneapolis, his true career has been as a “conservative bomb-thrower” rousing and exciting a radio audience. His less-noticed television work centers on his time as the right leaning co-host on a Crossfire-style talk show that aired in the mid-‘90s and early ‘00s. In recently surfaced footage of an episode from 1999, Lewis casts doubt on the need for hate crime statutes in dismissive tones, at one point describing the hypothetical burning of a cross in a Black couple’s lawn as “trespassing.”

During the April 1999 episode of the Sunday morning show, Face to Face, Lewis—who is challenging incumbent Democrat Sen. Tina Smith this November—railed against legislation introduced in the state senate that would expand Minnesota’s existing hate crime statue. At the time of taping, only a few offenses, like assault, were eligible for prosecution in the state as hate crimes. The bill would have widened the pool to include more than a dozen other crimes, including trespassing or interference with religious observance. Richard Cohen, a Democratic state senator who introduced the measure, appeared on the show to promote it. 

Lewis’s opposition was forceful. “You’re balkanizing America here, Dick,” he said. Victims of crimes not motivated by hate, Lewis reasoned, would be relegated to second class citizens with less protections than hate crime victims, calling it “un-American.”  Continue reading.

New CNN Reporting Shows GOP Senate Candidate Jason Lewis Mocked Victim of Sexual Harassment at Elementary School, Chalked it up to ‘Teasing’ and ‘Billy’ Chasing ‘Susie’

New reporting from CNN on previously unreported video footage brings to light how GOP Senate candidate Jason Lewis mocked a victim of sexual harassment, who was a fifth grade girl at the time. Lewis dismissed the harassment–which included a male student grabbing the fifth grader’s breasts and telling her he wanted to “get in bed with her”–as “teasing” and “Billy” chasing “Susie.” Lewis made the comments while co-host of a public affairs show called Face-to-Face.

As CNN highlights, this is not the first time Lewis has mocked victims of sexual assault. This is also not the first time Lewis has refused to take responsibility for his past comments. When approached about the remarks Lewis made on Face-to-Face, Lewis and his team “did not respond to the substance of Lewis’ comments.”

You can read the CNN report here or below:

Continue reading “New CNN Reporting Shows GOP Senate Candidate Jason Lewis Mocked Victim of Sexual Harassment at Elementary School, Chalked it up to ‘Teasing’ and ‘Billy’ Chasing ‘Susie’”

GOP Senate Nominee Jason Lewis Founded A Social Network Where People Promoted A Pro-Hitler Documentary

A members-only social media network founded in 2013 by former representative Jason Lewis, the current Republican nominee for Senate in Minnesota, hosted message boards that promoted a pro-Hitler documentary, called for migrants to be put in camps, and raised money for an ad campaign that paid Lewis and his business partners.

In 2014, Lewis sat down with Fox Business host John Stossel to promote the network, which he called Galt.io, after the hero of an Ayn Rand novel. Lewis, still a talk radio host, explained that Galt.io would be a closed community whose members could invest using a digital currency earned with their participation or bought with real money. The Galtcoins functioned like Reddit upvotes, signaling which topics people cared the most about as they invested into “causes” or “missions.”

“We’re not going to tell people what causes are going to win,” Lewis told Stossel. “That’s going to be a function of the marketplace. So once that cause is out there, what people are interested in is going to be determined on Galt.io.” Continue reading.

Redwood Falls Gazette Editor Responds to Jason Lewis Hawking Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory: “I Didn’t Think it was Funny”

Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate Says COVID-19 “Will All be Over on Nov. 4

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis, who repeatedly pushes conspiracy theories, is at it again, this time in Redwood Falls where he suggested that the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax that will be gone after Election Day.

It’s worth noting that former Trump campaign manager and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon–who was charged yesterday with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors–once scolded Lewis for hawking another conspiracy theory. After Lewis suggested that the COVID-19 death toll was being artificially inflated in an interview with Bannon, Bannon asked Lewis “Are you gonna be one of these guys that argues the death count? Yes or No?” After a tense back and forth, Bannon bluntly told Lewis, “I guarantee the way you’re gonna lose in Minnesota in the fall is argue the death count. Just a word to the wise.”

And now, in Redwood Falls, the local paper is calling Lewis out for spreading more misinformation. Editor Deb Moldaschel described her encounter with Lewis in this editorial, writing:

Continue reading “Redwood Falls Gazette Editor Responds to Jason Lewis Hawking Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory: “I Didn’t Think it was Funny””

New Video Shows Jason Lewis Proclaiming He’s ‘Not Real Keen’ on Certain Minnesotans Voting

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA – As Minnesotans prepare to vote in tomorrow’s State Primary, new video footage of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis shows him admitting that he’s not “real keen on [unemployed voters] going to the polls or the caucus system.”

Minnesota DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin called Lewis’ comments “outrageous and undemocratic.”

Lewis’ newly surfaced comments come as tens of thousands of Minnesotans have lost their jobs or taken a pay cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and amid all of this Lewis has repeatedly expressed opposition to making it easier for Minnesotans to vote by mail.

Lewis made the comments on a public affairs show he co-hosted called Face-to-Face: Continue reading “New Video Shows Jason Lewis Proclaiming He’s ‘Not Real Keen’ on Certain Minnesotans Voting”

Minnesota Farmers Sound Off on Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Jason Lewis’ Past Comments That We Should Let Farms Fail

Agriculture Community Upset by Former Congressman’s Claim that America has “Glamorized” Farming

SAINT PAUL, MN — After the Star Tribune shared previously unreported comments made by Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Jason Lewis on farming — including that America has “glamorized” farming and saying that it was “naive” for members of Congress to run on “not one more farm going under” — Minnesota farmers and members of the agriculture community are rightfully outraged. Lewis suggested that we should let farms fail and that the government should not try to help them stay afloat during rough times.

Jason Lewis was part of a public access television show called Face-to-Face. On the show, Lewis also said that “it’s amazing how we hold these commodities up as though they’re gold or God,” and that “the government shouldn’t have anything to do with farming.”

Minnesota farmers are speaking out:

Continue reading “Minnesota Farmers Sound Off on Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Jason Lewis’ Past Comments That We Should Let Farms Fail”

Jason Lewis Doubles Down on Letting Minnesota Farms Fail

Lewis: “I Have Nothing to Take Back”

Just hours after the Star Tribune revealed Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis’ past comments demeaning the agriculture community, and his record of voting against the bipartisan Farm Bill, Lewis doubled down in a new interview saying, “I don’t take back anything I said” and “I have nothing to take back.”

Lewis made the comment this afternoon on WCCO’s Chad Hartman Show where he was repeatedly asked–three different times–whether he regretted saying the government shouldn’t have anything to do with farming.

Here is the transcript of Lewis doubling down on his comments: Continue reading “Jason Lewis Doubles Down on Letting Minnesota Farms Fail”

Republican Senate Candidate Jason Lewis’ Previously Unreported Comments Show He Would Let Minnesota Farms Fail

Lewis: “The Government Shouldn’t Have Anything to do With Farming”

Republican U.S. Senate candidate for Minnesota, Jason Lewis, repeatedly puts his own rigid ideology ahead of Minnesotans. Newly-released reporting by the Star Tribune reveals a series of demeaning comments Lewis made about the farming community and their importance to Minnesota and our nation.

In video footage reported on by the Star Tribune, Lewis claimed that America “glamorized” farming, opposed farm safety nets, and said the government “shouldn’t have anything to do with farming.” Lewis made these comments while a co-host on a public affairs television show called Face-to-Face. Continue reading “Republican Senate Candidate Jason Lewis’ Previously Unreported Comments Show He Would Let Minnesota Farms Fail”