D.C. Memo: Emmer, Stauber join chorus of Republicans dismissing Trump verdict

WASHINGTON – The biggest thing to happen in politics this week was not here in D.C., but in New York where a jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to help him win the 2016 election.

This historic verdict will make him the first convicted felon to run for the White House and its impact on the presidential race is unknown.

A MinnPost/Embold Research poll taken late last year showed that Republican voters were less likely to vote for Trump if he were convicted of a crime. But the so-called “hush money” case  has been considered less serious than federal charges  Trump faces, including inciting the Jan. 6 rioters and hiding classified documents in his Mar-A-Lago residence. 

It’s clear Trump plans to use his conviction to try to bolster his support. Just minutes after the verdict was announced, the Trump campaign sent out a fund-raising email in which Trump said, in all capital letters, “I am a political prisoner!” 

The case against Trump, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, centered on efforts to hide a payment to former adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Under New York law, falsifying business records is a felony only if the records were falsified in the commission of another crime. Prosecutors convinced the jury that by falsifying business records, Trump violated a state law against meddling in an election. 

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan set the date for sentencing on July 11, just a few days before the Republican National Convention kicks off in Milwaukee on July 15.

A visibly shaken Trump continued to proclaim that the trial was “rigged” and Merchan is “corrupt and conflicted” and that it was an attempt by  President Biden to destroy a political opponent. He even attacked the jury as politically motivated in their unanimous verdict, saying New York city, where his business was located, only gave him “five or six”  percentage points of support in his elections. 

Trump’s supporters in Congress echoed the former president’s allegations that the trial was politically motivated.

“Democrats just pulled off the biggest sham in U.S. history,” Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, posted on X. “The American people won’t forget this corrupt, two-tiered system of justice and will issue the real verdict at the ballot box in November.”

Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th District, also posted on X in Trump’s defense.

“This is a sad day in our nation’s history. This trial was rigged from the start in a desperate attempt to keep Donald Trump off the campaign trail and out of the White House,” Stauber said. “The American people see right through this sham conviction and I am confident this election will be decided in the voting booth – not the courtroom.”

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, however, was of a different opinion.

“Today our system of justice worked, and former President Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts by a jury of American citizens. No person is above the law,” McCollum said in a statement. 

Walz: Biden-Trump race in Minnesota will be close  

Prior to the verdict, Gov. Tim Walz this week said President Biden’s chances of winning Minnesota in November’s elections is “not a given.”

In an interview with The Washington Post, Walz said the Democratic president would prevail in what he characterized as a close race. He said  the state’s history of voting for Democratic candidates for president and the efforts of the Biden campaign would continue to make Minnesota part of a Great Lakes “blue wall,” that includes Michigan, Illinois and, Democrats hope, Wisconsin.

“I think that Democrats are concerned just because the stakes are so high, but I think what I would tell those pundits … if you’re really freaking out it’s because you’re not on the ground doing the work,” Walz told the Post. “You’re not witnessing the 18 field offices opening up in Minnesota. The Biden-Harris campaign is not taking Minnesota for granted. It’s going to be close out here. We’re not a given.”

While Biden’s campaign is already spending resources in Minnesota, Walz said there is no Trump field office in the state and the last time the Minnesota Republican Party filed financial returns it reported only $52 in the bank. However, the party’s finances are likely to have improved following a fundraiser hosted by Trump at the party’s recent Lincoln Reagan dinner.

As far as polls that show the Biden-Trump rematch will be close in the state, Walz said “the binary choice has not come to voters yet.”

As the head of the Democratic Governors Association, Walz was also asked about the two biggest gubernatorial battlegrounds this year – New Hampshire and North Carolina – predicting that abortion rights would help the Democratic candidates in those states.  He was also asked whether he’s interested in running for president in 2028.

He said governors bring “a different perspective” to the Oval Office but considers the job of president to be “a bit overwhelming.”

“I’ll see the way I can serve,” Walz said of his future plans. “We’ll see how it plays out.”

Emmer attacks Omar, again

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, continued to target Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-5th District, with the new dispute centered on Memorial Day.

Emmer criticized Omar, and fellow “Squad” member Rep. Cori Bush, D-Missouri, because the progressive lawmakers took note of the holiday by honoring veterans. Omar, for instance, had a meet-and-greet with veterans at a VFW hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday.

But Emmer, in an interview with conservative Twin Cities News Talk, was really incensed that Omar tweeted “something about health care and all that stuff” over the Memorial Day weekend.

Emmer said Memorial Day is a holiday to exclusively honor “the fallen men and women, our soldiers, who have made the ultimate sacrifice.”

“We celebrate them and we celebrate their families … and what is she doing? She thinks it’s Veterans Day.”

Emmer said Omar took down the offensive post. Her office did not return calls seeking confirmation.

Emmer, who has blasted Omar for her calls for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestine war in Gaza and for greater humanitarian aid to Palestinians under bombardment, said “it’s interesting that she and her colleague Ms. Bush don’t understand what Memorial Day is all about.”  The Republican lawmaker said this made Omar “an embarrassment to our state and to our Congress.”

There is a great deal of confusion about the origins of Memorial Day, with many cities and towns claiming they initiated the tradition. But most historians agree the notion of honoring the fallen on a special day was born in the Confederacy during the Civil War.

According to the U.S. Library of Congress, Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War ended and there are records that show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day.

Your questions and comments

A reader weighed in on a story about Supreme Court Samuel Alito and the flying of flags adopted by the Jan. 6 rioters outside his Virginia and New Jersey homes. Alito said this week he would not recuse himself from two cases before the Supreme Court related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol and blamed the flying of the controversial flags on his wife.

“At some point, possibly not in my lifetime, and possibly not until it’s far too late, the powers-that-be in Washington will decide that term limits for SCOTUS justices are not such a bad idea after all,” the reader said. “I’m fine with appointed, rather than elected, justices, but I bristle at Samuel Alito’s lifetime appointment allowing him to do what he can to undermine the Republic, and do so with impunity.”

Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at [email protected].

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