Here they are. WCCO reports: “Rep. Ilhan Omar has unveiled new articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump the day after Trump urged supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol to ‘stop the steal.’ … Also, Rep. Betty McCollum has called for Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to immediately remove Trump from office. … Donald Trump remains the single greatest threat to our democracy, Omar said. ‘Every day that he remains in the office of the presidency—overseeing the United States military and nuclear arsenal—is a day the safety of the American people and the world are threatened. The very administration officials who have been complicit in his crimes cannot be relied upon. We must impeach and remove him from office immediately so that he cannot threaten our democracy and the world any longer or hold public office ever again. Congress should reconvene immediately to carry out this constitutional duty.’”
Well, yeah. WCCO reports: “Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar says President Donald Trump is to blame for the violence that erupted at the Capitol Wednesday, when a group of his supporters stormed the building, creating a deadly chaos as lawmakers had gathered to certify the Electoral College vote. … ‘He has incited this specific riot. He literally asked people to march down the mall to the Capitol,’ the Democratic senator said on WCCO This Morning. … She added: ‘What happened yesterday, I just want all Minnesotans to know it was an act of vandalism, it was an act of violence, insurrection. This had been brewing, I had been talking about our need to respect our elections…sometimes referring to what the president wanted as a coup, and sure enough, that’s what these people were literally doing when they marched into the Capitol.’”
How to end the emergency. The Forum’s Dana Ferguson reports: “Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday, Jan. 7, outlined for legislative leaders a framework they should set about enacting in law before he’d consider ending the state’s peacetime emergency for COVID-19 and abandoning his emergency powers. … The move comes as the state Legislature kicks off its 2021 legislative session and as lawmakers in both major political parties have asked for clearer details about how they can take a more active role in guiding the state’s response to the pandemic. … Walz in a letter to Minnesota’s four legislative leaders asked that they set in statute a mask mandate, protections for workers and for consumers, an eviction moratorium, continued flexibility for school districts and safety standards for businesses operating during the pandemic.”
Just flagging this. Sahan Journal’s Becky Z. Dernbach and Joey Peters report: “Four days after Minneapolis police killed Dolal Idd, a 23-year-old Somali American college student, in an apparent exchange of gunfire at a Holiday gas station, nearly a thousand protesters gathered to call for justice and demand answers. Images from the January 3 protests reverberated throughout the country. Many saw a community in mourning, rattled by the first police killing in the city since George Floyd’s death in May. … But some media commentators saw something else: a blue banner with a white star—the Somali flag—flying above the gas station.”
In other news…
Only two Minnesotans to vote this way: “Reps. Fischbach And Hagedorn Among U.S. Lawmakers Who Objected To Confirming Biden’s Win” [WCCO]
Jay Kolls called out:
1/ Last night KSTP’s Jay Kolls – of #pointergate infamy – did a story on the US Capitol invasion. Despite direct links to President Trump & white supremacists, the story named only one group: Antifa. https://t.co/QMW7WqrYkm (Pointergate primer here: https://t.co/oG3BhTZwen)
— David Brauer (@dbrauer) January 7, 2021
Winona LaDuke op-ed on Line 3 in the Nation: “Stopping Trump’s Last Pipeline Will Take All of Us” [The Nation]
Today on MinnPost
- ‘I needed to find a place to shelter’: Minnesota’s congressional delegation describes pro-Trump mob overrunning U.S. Capitol
- From The Conversation: ‘Once you engage in political violence, it becomes easier to do it again’ – an expert on political violence reflects on events at the Capitol
- Artscape: “Icehouse releases live album of music from its first eight years; Film Society presents award-winning film about autism”
- You may have missed it among all the other news, but Gov. Tim Walz rolled back restrictions on bars, restaurants and other places serving the public. Here’s what you need to know about the new rules.
- Community Voices commentary from Gary Friedlieb: “Minnesota’s ever-evolving P-12 school system is no dinosaur”
- Community Voices commentary from former state legislator Pam Neary: “Capitol storming vs. Women’s March: A tale of two very different protests”
