The Minnesota Republican Party has hit out at protesters picketing their state headquarters in Edina on Monday to accuse it of inflaming political violence and hatred with irresponsible rhetoric.
The demonstration came just over a week after Democratic House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were shot dead inside their own home by a masked gunman, who went on to wound state Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette before sparking a massive two-day manhunt that ended with the arrest of suspect Vance Boelter.
Against that disturbing backdrop, Donna Bergstrom, Deputy Director of the Minnesota GOP, called the protesters “reckless” and called on the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Governor Tim Walz to “take responsibility for the climate their allies are creating.”
“I think it’s just really disrespectful to be doing this at a time that comes so close to such horrific political violence,” Bergstrom said, appearing to blame the activists for the same toxic atmosphere they accuse her party of fostering.
She further warned that their conduct risked making the GOP a target, claiming that someone had recently slashed the tires of her car.
“In recent weeks, the Minnesota GOP office has experienced vandalism and an alarming rise in online threats. Even interns have faced harassment from individuals physically showing up at the office,” a spokesperson told CBS News.
Bergstrom acknowledged that the protesters had a First Amendment right to express their views, but suggested it was too soon after the slaying of the Hortmans for their current action and said it was wrong to picket a building in which local Republicans were not the only occupants.
“This just really is not the time and place for this to happen, and that people can certainly exercise their First Amendment rights, but really be respectful of other people and their rights also,” she said.
Making the counter-argument, Drew Harmon of the political organization MN 50501 said of the shootings of which Boelter stands accused: “What happened that day was not shocking because it’s the culmination of decades of violent rhetoric finally being turned into action by somebody.”
Dieu Do of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee agreed that the GOP had questions to answer over the tragedy: “The background that we have on Vance and the alleged shooter of these incidents, it’s very clear that his political views were Republican leaning and he was very anti-choice.”
Right-wing news outlets and social media influencers were quick to allege that the suspect in the Hortman and Hoffman shootings was a liberal, despite his targeting Democrats, because a flyer for a nearby “No Kings” protest against Donald Trump was found in his car and because he had been appointed to a non-partisan Workforce Development Board by both Walz and his predecessor, Mark Dayton.
However, Boelter’s roommate, David Carlson, told the press, “He’s not a Democrat. He would be offended if people called him a Democrat. He was a Trump supporter, he voted for Trump.”
Do rejected Bergstrom’s criticism of Monday’s demonstrations, responding: “If they think that our group of protesters, who are completely peaceful, are fanning the violence, then I would ask them what their party is doing.”
