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Welcome to this week’s edition of the D.C. Memo. This week from Washington, Jim Hagedorn votes to keep Confederate monuments up, tons of Fifth District news and a lot of legislation. Let’s get on with this.
Hagedorn’s vote
Rep. Jim Hagedorn was the only member of the Minnesota House delegation, Republican or Democrat, to vote against removing Confederate monuments from the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday night. 72 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to remove the monuments. The final vote was 305-113.
This isn’t Hagedorn’s first brush with divisive votes or use of racist language. At Popular Information, a newsletter that often reports on corporate influence in politics, Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria report on the companies still backing Hagedorn after he used language that mirrors white nationalist talking points in a Facebook post. On June 23, Hagedorn wrote that “Black Lives Matter” is at war with “our beliefs and western culture” and that we must “defend” our “Judeo-Christian values and American way of life.” One example: Technology company Intel gave Hagedorn $4,000 prior to his comments and is now asking for a refund.
Debates in the Fifth District
This week, DFL candidates for Minnesota’s Fifth District debated their policy platforms at a League of Women Voters event in Minneapolis. The Republican primary forum was cancelled, after one of the two scheduled candidates did not confirm attendance. Omar was not in attendance, since she was in D.C. for votes.
On the night of the debate, Antone Melton-Meaux, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s most high profile opponent in the DFL primary, sent a Q&A-style email to supporters. One question and answer caught people’s eye:
Q: Will the money you’ve received from the Jewish community influence your policy decisions?
A: No. I have been clear from the begining of this campaign that I disagree with a number of Benjamin Netenyahu’s actions, including the unitlieral annexation of Palestinian territory. I have also made it clear that I support more humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, and I believe that the U.S> must work towards strategic reforms of Israeli policy that will ease the pressure of the occupation on Palestinians. More importantly, I’ve always been clear that my policy decisions will always be based on what’s in the best interests of the people in our district.
Joel Rubin, a senior official in President Barack Obama’s State Department and director for Jewish outreach for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, said that the remarks were inexcusable. Melton-Meaux, Rubin said to Jewish Insider, “repeated the lie that American Jews only care about Israel … He compounded this dual-loyalty trope by stating that the American Jewish political money he received wouldn’t guide his policy choices.”
The email plays into a larger conflict between Omar and Melton-Meaux, who believes Omar has irreparably damaged her relationship with CD-5’s Jewish community. Melton-Meaux’s email plays on the same anti-Semitic tropes that he has criticized Omar for, specifically when she said “It’s all about the Benjamins” in relation to Israel’s influence on American politics last year.
Omar was criticized because people thought her Tweet relied on tropes that wealthy Jews secretly influence politics and that American Jews are disloyal to the United States. In the email, Melton-Meaux relies on both tropes, suggesting “money” he’s “received from the Jewish community” influences American politics and conflates the American Jewish community with supporters of the current conservative Israeli government.
On Thursday, Melton-Meaux apologized. “We’ve gotten asked that question a lot—about the influence of getting support from the Jewish community and how that influences policy, and I wanted to answer that question. But the way I answered that question by conflating the Jewish community and issues of policy on Israel was a mistake,” he said. “I should not have done that, and I apologize for that.”
Also this week, more than 150 Jewish residents in CD-5 released an open letter in support of Omar this week.
Yes, Ilhan has made some mistakes, and we don’t agree with everything she has said, or every position she has taken. But she is no antisemite.
Nor has she singled out Israel in her leadership on human rights abroad. Her criticism of Israel has been mild compared to what she has said about Saudi Arabia, which she has accused of genocide in Yemen, and “daily atrocities carried out against minorities, women, activists.” Ilhan has been a staunch defender of human rights around the world.
We know some folks who want a softer touch in their politicians. But here’s the thing: Martin Luther King was divisive. Hubert Humphrey was divisive. Paul Wellstone was divisive. And even now, Black Lives Matter is divisive — but their protests are now supported by 64 percent of Americans. Sometimes that’s the way change happens. Jews have long been at the forefront of movements for social justice, and our support for Ilhan Omar is rooted in our deepest Jewish values.
The Fifth District race has also attracted outside spending from at least one Super PAC. Americans for Tomorrow’s Future, a self-described “Pro-Israel” PAC whose only other spending this cycle was to try to prevent Jamaal Bowman, a Black Democrat, from unseating Rep. Elliot Engel in New York (Bowman defeated Engel this month), has spent more than $200,000 on direct mail against Omar. None of the group’s major donors are from Minnesota.
In response to the outside money flowing into the race and the lack of clarity as to where it’s going, the DFL hosted a press conference this week “Let me be clear: We do not support efforts of big corporate Republican money coming into this state to try and support this election,” said DFL Chairman Ken Martin.
It’s also unclear how some of that money is being spent. Melton-Meaux’s campaign has paid two secretive Delaware LLC’s nearly $100,000. Melton Meaux was asked: Where is the money going? Who is behind the companies? What do they do? He and his campaign don’t want to say, eventually citing Non-Disclosure Agreements. Here’s what I was able to figure out about the companies.
NO BAN Act
On Wednesday, the House passed the NOBAN Act, sponsored by Rep. Judy Chu of California. The bill would prevent the president from unilaterally banning refugee applications from certain countries without congressional approval, specifically targeting the president’s Muslim Ban, a set of policies that prevented people from several majority Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
The bill passed 233-183, mostly along party lines. It is unlikely to get a vote in Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s Senate.
Omar, the only member of Congress from a country included in the ban, said in a speech on the House floor: “We have all been in the struggle together and we will continue to be in it until this ban goes away.”
Human rights organizations, like Amnesty International USA, applauded the bill.
“By passing the NO BAN Act, the House of Representatives is sending a clear message that the U.S. is a country that welcomes and protects people from all faiths and backgrounds, not one that applauds prejudice,” Ryan Mace, senior policy advisor for Amnesty International USA, said in a statement. “It has long passed the time for the Senate to show that it will uphold our ideals of freedom, fairness, and human dignity. We call on the Senate to take up and pass this critical legislation.”
National Defense Authorization Act
The National Defense Authorization Act, a yearly funding authorization bill for the Defense Department, passed in the U.S. House this week.
The bill passed 295 to 125, with primarily Republicans voting against it. Republican Reps. Tom Emmer, Jim Hagedorn and Pete Stauber voted against the bill, along with their Republican colleagues. Rep. Ilhan Omar, also voted against the bill, along with several of her progressive colleagues like Reps. Barbara Lee of California, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota’s Third District secured the passage of eight amendments in the bill, including amendments that help service members access drug prevention programs, requiring the Director of the Peace Corps to resume operations after the pandemic, and assistance for the family of Gold Star Families (families of those who were killed in combat).
Stauber was able to include one amendment to build in protections for federal contractors that are small businesses. “Too often, when a small business signs a contract with a federal agency, that agency issues a change order halfway through the project that delays the small business from being paid for the work that they already completed,” Stauber said in a statement.
Omar successfully included an amendment to force the Department of Defense to report on “the impact of airstrikes and human rights when troops are withdrawn from the African continent.” Additionally, based on legislation she introduced, the final bill amends the Insurrection Act, limiting the ability of the president to use military force in American cities without Congressional approval.
By the numbers
- 9: Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd, is being charged with 9 counts of tax fraud, according to Tony Webster in the Minnesota Reformer.
- 310: The Minnesota House delegation minus two voted for the Great American Outdoors Act, which would invest heavily in national parks. Rep. Pete Stauber broke with his two Republican colleagues, voting for the bill.
- $3.8 million: According to Motherboard, when airports fine Uber drivers, the company takes it out of drivers earnings. According to reporting from Vice, between 2016 and 2019, Los Angeles World Airports charged rideshare drivers $3.8 million in fines.
Where Prince famously performed
Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn released a bill this week that would aid independent music venues impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Minnesota’s concert halls, theatres, and places of entertainment, like First Avenue in Minneapolis, where Prince famously performed, have inspired generations with the best of local music, art, and education,” Klobuchar said. “This legislation would help ensure that small entertainment venues can continue to operate, and serve our communities for generations to come.”
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The president’s men
Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, posted a racist tweet on Wednesday claiming Omar was involved with Al Qaeda in her youth. The photo he used was taken four years before Omar was born.
Omar spoke to the Daily Beast about the photo here, telling Wajahat Ali: “This is not normal. Unfortunately it’s not suprising that someone complicit in the president’s crimes would share such a false, Islamophobic post.”
In other news
- Greta Kaul for MinnPost: What to know about Minnesota’s new statewide mask mandate
- Tiffany Bui for MinnPost: Minnesota leads nation in census response rate, but the outreach isn’t over
- Peter Callaghan for MinnPost: How the bonding bill went bust
Quote of the week
“It was 30 or 35 questions. The first questions are very easy. The last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question. “It’s like you’ll go, ‘Person, woman, man, camera, TV.’ So they say, ‘Could you repeat that?’ So I said, ‘Yeah.’ So it’s, ‘Person, woman, man, camera, TV.’ OK, that’s very good. If you get it in order, you get extra points,” said President Donald Trump, explaining a memory test he recently took.
What I’m reading
Adam Serwer for The Atlantic: How John Lewis Founded the Third American Republic
For The Atlantic, Serwer argues that it was Rep. John Lewis and his contemporaries that finally held the United States to account for the values enshrined in the Constitution.
Noah Lanard for Mother Jones: Whistleblowers Say an ICE Detention Center Used Deceptive Tricks to Conceal COVID Outbreak
An immigration officer was ordered to blast the air conditioner on immigration detainees who had high fevers because they needed to pass a temperature check in order to be deported.
That’s all for this week. Thanks for sticking around. Until next week, feel free to send tips, suggestions and sound advice to: gschneider@minnpost.com. Follow at @gabemschneider. And don’t forget to become a MinnPost member.
Yesterday, Minnpost published an article entitled “Minnesota’s social studies standards are up for review — and BIPOC committee members seek major reforms”
Two excerpts of interest:
“Wong’s frustrations with absent narratives and Eurocentrism embedded in many school curriculums are shared among students, educators and community members across the nation who say education reforms are key in addressing issues of systemic racism and educational inequities.
And
“The current standards, she says, are not only Eurocentric, but they are also very teacher-centered and they lack the level of specificity needed. “Right now, it’s a very limited scope of whom these courses — who these state standards — are benefiting, and whom they reflect,” she said. ‘There needs to be a transformational shift.”
Now, I don’t know what BIPOC is, or their relationship to BLM, but it’s clear they are dedicated to replacing curriculum they see as “Eurocentric”, which is another way to say “Western culture”.
I wouldn’t say their mission equates to a “war”, but it’s not very friendly, either.
I don’t understand Intel’s hissy fit.
“Now, I don’t know what BIPOC is, or their relationship to BLM . . .”
So trying to draw them into this discussion is pretty much irrelevant, isn’t it?
Perhaps Rep. Hagedorn is unaware that Minnesota was the first state to offer troops to fight treason in defense of slavery, and that 22,000 residents of the state – about 1/8 of the state’s population – served. The death toll was around 2,500.
The final resting place of the 215 soldiers of the First Minnesota who died at Gettysburg are just a short drive from Washington. Since he is so bent on dishonoring their memory, it should be no problem for Hagedorn to head up there to piss on their graves.
Of course, Minnesota was a very sparely populated state in 1861, with the great bulk of its citizens having come up the Mississippi and spread out to the west, basically across the southern part of the state–in other words, what is now Hagedorn’s district. The 1st District also boasts the only standing Civil War recruiting building. As is well known (perhaps even by Hagedorn), the 1st Minnesota was almost annihilated at Gettysburg in a suicidal charge to buy some time to prepare a critical Union position, but perhaps the idea is that the ghosts of those men would applaud having statues of the Heroes of the Confederacy adorn the US Capitol. Seems dubious.
This is what comes, of course, of Northern “conservatives” like Hagedorn allying themselves with what is essentially a Southern white political party. You must Sing the Blues for the Lost Confederate Heroes, go along to get along in that party.
Indeed, it is starting to appear as though the rural areas of the (Old Union) North have transformed themselves (largely) into a population of sympathizers with the Old Confederacy. Perhaps the lonesome cry of “States Rights!” attracts them as 21st Century reactionaries, but one has to say that all this Confederate Nostalgia coming to a head in the era of BLM is rather suspicious. Are we really (150 years on) to continue to privilege the national memorialization of Confederate Slavers over the memory of the slaves themselves?
What’s basically going on now is the “Southification of the North”, to steal the term of someone else. What this means is that the rural areas of the North are now exhibiting the same disastrous white identity voting patterns of the South, with upwards of 80+ now voting for “conservative” (i.e. white) Repubs. This is a terrible new development for the future of the country, but it’s not a surprise that someone like Hagedorn, who seems to harbor some white nationalist sympathies, would be wholly on board with it, in a way that his more suburban Repub colleagues are not.
It would seem a close call for Hagedorn (given he won by 2%), but he’s throwin’ in his lot with the Rebs of the Confederacy, singing The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down as the lights go out in Congress. So much for the right side of history….
I often visit the Minnesota memorial at the Shiloh National Battlefield. That fight was April, 1861 and I get the sense of ghosts every time I go. It was warm there, April in West Tennessee, and it must have been difficult for everyone, but those gopher state soldiers just came out of a Minnesota winter, wool uniforms and all. I bet Rep. Hagedorn would have had bone spurs that winter.
No, “Eurocentric” is not a synonym for “Western culture” — whatever that is supposed to mean; it’s a term meant to indicate that a history or other course, usually in secondary or university level institutions, leaves out completely, or greatly minimizes, the interconnections with, and influences on and from, other nations and areas than what is traditionally taught as “the West.”
For example, beginning a discussion of China with the travels of the explorer Marco Polo, ignoraiing several throusand years of pripr history, or discussing Africa solely with respect to explorations by Westerners of the interior beginning in the late 15th century C.E., , the Atlantic Slave Trade, and Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt, all the while lauding the progress in the sciences made in Europe and the United States, with the further dimension that almost all of the assigned reading material is “as viewed from a European or American perspective,” written by Europeans or Americans, etc.
I can speak from personal experience when I inform you that my course in Buddhist China taught by Prof. Romeyn Taylor at the U. of M-Twin Cities was very different, in terms of the role of China and Chinese thinkers, from a poli sci class in United States Foreign Policy which also dealt with China, as you would expect.
Now just transpose that vast difference in approach over and over again, in hundreds of thousands, indeed millions and tens of millions, of contexts, and you might have a better idea why there has been criticism for many decades about “eurocentric” teaching in our schools.
“The last thing a fish would notice is water.”
The material available online and elsewhere that one can read by searching “the First Minnesota at Gettysburg” is inspiring. I am afraid people like Hagedorn have no feeling for it, though.
I don’t know what Hagedorn is but I do know he’s no Minnesotan.
The First Minnesota was ordered to attack a force 5 times their size, to sacrifice themselves to gain five minutes, enough time for re-reinforcements to get in place:
“Every man realized in an instant what that order meant; death or wounds to us all, the sacrifice of the regiment, to gain a few minutes’ time and save the position and probably the battlefield,” wrote Lt. William Lochren of the First Minnesota.
The First Minnesota was virtually destroyed within minutes. Only 47 soldiers made their way back to the ridge. Colvill was seriously wounded, one of 215 casualties.
No one calling themselves a Minnesotan would support keeping monuments built to glorify the traitors these brave men died fighting.
I many ways Washington DC is a Southern city. And it is also the city where Jim Hagedorn was raised and has lived in much of his adult life.
“Col. Jim’s” reaction here is consistent with his white Southern sensibilities…
Very insightful point. So essentially, Hagedorn is a 21st Century carpetbagger!