D.C. Memo: Emmer calls Trump trial ‘a sham’

WASHINGTON — Hours of sordid testimony in the third week of testimony in Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan transfixed the political class in Washington D.C. this week.

The star witness was adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who recounted in lurid detail her encounter with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel room.

The relationship between Trump and Daniels has resulted in the former president being charged with 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up a payment of “hush money” to Daniels.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6^th District, defended Trump, saying the former president faces “trumped up” charges in the hush money trial. Emmer also boasted that, since the judge in the case allowed Trump to skip court to attend his son Barron’s graduation, Trump would attend the annual Minnesota GOP’s Lincoln Reagan dinner on the same day.

“A sham trial on trumped up charges won’t stop @realDonaldTrump from visiting Minnesota on May 17. It’s time to turn MN red,” Emmer said.

Tickets for the Lincoln Reagan dinner range from $100,000 to buy into the Presidential Host Table to $500 per person for the “general reception.” Big money donors will also have the opportunity to have their photos taken with Trump, who was invited to headline the dinner by Emmer.   

Trump’s campaign has assured donors that the former president could win Minnesota, which hasn’t voted for a Republican president since 1972.

To persuade the donors to back the effort, it presented them with an internal poll by Laughlin & Associates that showed Trump would beat President Biden, head-to-head, 49%-46% in Minnesota.

As part of a ramped-up effort to display loyalty to Trump, Emmer also accused special counsel Jack Smith and the Justice Department of prosecuting Trump to help Biden win re-election. Smith is prosecuting Trump for taking classified documents to Mar-a-Lago and trying to conceal them and for attempting to derail the transfer of power.

“In case you were wondering why Biden had @realDonaldTrump arrested, a new poll just came out. Shows Trump + Biden TIED in Minnesota. Minnesota hasn’t gone red since 1972. Biden knows he can’t beat Trump fair and square so he is using the Justice Department to take him out,” Emmer posted on X.

Phillips: Greene a ‘stain’ on nation

After threatening to do so for weeks, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene finally dropped legislation that forced a vote on whether Rep. Mike Johnson would remain House Speaker and was quickly slapped down with the help of Minnesota’s lawmakers.

Every Minnesota Republican and Reps. Dean Phillips, D-3^rd District; Angie Craig, D-2^nd District; and Betty McCollum, D-4^th District; joined most House Democrats and most House Republicans to table, or set aside, Greene’s “motion to vacate the chair.”

The vote on tabling the motion was 359-42, with Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-5^th District, and 10 other Democrats, mostly fellow progressives, voting “present.”

Greene provoked bipartisan condemnation for her attempt to oust Johnson, which came about six months after a similar motion succeeded in removing former Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s chair. That was followed by weeks of chaos.

“Marjorie Taylor-Greene is incompetent, unserious, and a stain on our country and Congress. I’ll be voting to table her Motion to Vacate the Speaker of the House,” Phillips posted on X shortly before Wednesday’s vote. “It is she who should be removed.”

After the vote, Omar explained why she voted “present.”

“Today’s vote demonstrates the dysfunction within the House GOP Conference,” Omar said in a statement to MinnPost. “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate is a vanity campaign to gain more clout within the MAGA extremist base. I voted ‘present’ because I could not in good conscience vote to waste more time and energy to elect a new Speaker of the House.”

Greene filed the motion to vacate because she is furious Johnson negotiated with Democrats to win approval of key legislation. She, or another lawmaker, could try to oust Johnson again. And there is no guarantee Democrats would once again come to the speaker’s aid.

After the vote, Donald Trump indicated Johnson is on shaky ground.

“With a Majority of One, shortly growing to three or four, we’re not in a position of voting on a Motion to Vacate. At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Another statue of the Happy Warrior

On Thursday, the Minnesota House voted 98-25 to replace the statue of Henry Mower Rice, one of Minnesota’s first representatives to Congress, with one of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey at the U.S. Capitol.

Every state has two statues in the U.S. Capitol, usually in Statuary Hall but also scattered in other areas of the domed building.

Besides the statue of Rice, Minnesota is represented by a statue of Maria Sanford, one of the nation’s first female professors who taught at the University of Minnesota and a champion of women’s rights and education for Black Americans. She also pioneered the concept of adult education, and became a founder of parent-teacher organizations.

Rice is also a key figure in Minnesota history. He lobbied for the bill to establish Minnesota Territory and then served as its delegate to the U.S. Congress from 1853 to 1857.

While in Congress, Rice’s work on the Minnesota Enabling Act during those years facilitated Minnesota’s statehood. But that act, and treaties with Minnesota tribes that Rice helped negotiate, led to the transfer of hundreds of thousands of acres from the tribes to the federal government.

Rice had invested in the lumber industry and stood to profit from logging on what was once Ojibwe land. 

House Majority Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, the sponsor of the bill to replace Rice with Humphrey in Statuary Hall, told MinnPost he was unaware of Rice’s role in the transfer of Native American lands when he proposed his bill to switch out the statues.

“I didn’t know the history when I introduced the bill, but I have since learned about it,” Long said. “I understand why the tribes would have a big concern about him.”

To Long, Rice was a historical figure he knew little about, while Humphrey represents more recent Minnesota history and state accomplishments.

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Humphrey helped create the DFL Party.

He was the mayor of Minneapolis in the 1940s, fought against racism and antisemitism in the city and became a strong supporter of civil rights.

Humphrey served three terms in the Senate, sponsoring the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and helping win approval of other key civil right legislation, including the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act.

Humphrey served as vice president from 1965-1969 under President Lyndon Johnson, but failed in his bid to win the White House himself.  He died in 1978.

Humphrey’s statue in the U.S. Capitol would be an exact duplicate of the one on the state Capitol mall. The cost of casting the new statue, transferring it to the U.S. Capitol and removing Rice’s statue is estimated to be about $300,000.

Humphrey is already honored in the U.S. Capitol, which has a bust of the former vice president displayed prominently on the second floor, near Statuary Hall. In fact, every vice president has a bust in the Capitol somewhere.

Where Rice’s statue would be taken is unknown. Long said the Minnesota Historical Society would probably make that determination. But he also said “the most appropriate place is Rice County,” which was named after Rice.

Before the statues can be switched, the Minnesota Senate must approve a bill allowing the state to do so.

“Hopefully (the Senate) will take it up shortly,” Long said.

Campus protests unify GOP, split Dems

A majority of Americans are concerned that demonstrations at the nation’s college campuses and the police response will end in violence, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll.

The poll found that two-thirds of voters (67%) fear violent confrontations. It also determined that the demonstrations are dividing Democrats and unifying Republicans.

According to poll results, Biden voters are split: 30% support the protests, 39% agree with their demands but oppose their tactics, and 20% oppose them.

Meanwhile, the poll showed that Trump voters are united with 78% opposing the protesters. Just 5% support them and 9% support their demands but oppose their tactics.

Younger voters, those under 35, were found to be most supportive of the protests: 35% support them and another 27% support their demands but oppose their tactics.

Your questions and comments

Several readers reacted forcefully to a story that said the Trump campaign has targeted Minnesota and that Rep. Tom Emmer has told Donald Trump he can win the state.

“Bold assertion from House Whip Emmer whose job is literally to count votes and has failed miserably at that for the GOP,” one reader said.Another simply wrote, “Not happening.”

Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the location of former Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s statue, which is on the grounds of the state Capitol mall.