It was a historic weekend with Trump’s military parade and millions turning out across the country for “No Kings” rallies.
But before that, we awoke on Saturday, June 14 to the news that two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers and their spouses had been shot in what appear to be politically motivated crimes. Former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband are dead, while Senator John Hoffman and his wife are still hospitalized after being shot 17 times.
On Sunday night, police announced they had caught the suspected killer, had a list of other lawmakers in Minnesota and other states, as well as abortion advocates.
J. Patrick Coolican is the Editor of the Minnesota Reformer, which has been covering the assassinations and the No Kings protest. He joined Lincoln Square Executive Editor Susan J. Demas to update us on the latest news from the Twin Cities.
Patrick last saw former Speaker Hortman on Thursday and described her as being in the mold of the late Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, who is considered the godfather of the modern progressive movement.
“Melissa Hortman, I think will go down in Minnesota history as one of the more consequential speakers we've ever had and one of the more consequential progressive leaders,” Patrick told Lincoln Square. “I honestly think I'd put her up there with someone like Paul Wellstone.”
Although the suspect was reportedly a Christian nationalist and Trump supporter, right-wing influencers quickly ginned up a disinformation campaign on social media painting him as a Democrat or “Marxist” as Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah falsely claimed. So Patrick wrote a powerful column on Saturday to correct the record.
“It made me angry, and that's what I wound up writing a column about this,” he said. “It's one of the most despicable things that I've ever witnessed.”
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