SAINT PAUL, Minn. – State Rep. Jen Schultz (DFL – Duluth) issued the following statement following Wednesday’s insurrection at the United State Capitol:
“Yesterday we all saw something that we never imagined we would see. At the behest of the President of the United States, a mob waving Confederate and White Supremacist flags invaded the United States Capitol building, interrupted Congress in session, chased Senators and Congresspeople from their chambers and offices, and took over the building. Our building. Our nation’s building.
“The President and members of his party have been playing games with the safety and integrity of our democracy. Lying with impunity, they have attacked not just their opponents, but the very function of our democracy. Elected public servants who clearly know better have joined in, apparently frightened of their own supporters and the man who leads them, or to seek a future electoral advantage.
“We have already seen armed men and women on the grounds of state capitols, including our own. We have seen armed men and women on our streets, some of whom have attacked and killed people who were demonstrating for ideas they disagreed with. It is, unfortunately, no longer unimaginable that these forces will erupt, armed and dangerous, into the street, into our capitol, into the homes of political opponents.
“It has been a fairly ordinary election, with a modest but clear victory by President-Elect Biden, and with a democratic transfer of power to the party that was in opposition. This has happened many times in our past; it will, if we can preserve our democracy, happen many times in the future. It is now the responsibility of members of the President’s party to tell their supporters in public, clear, truthful, and certain terms that the election was honest and fair, and that sometimes, in democracy, you lose. It is up to those politicians to prevent additional and worse tragedies, tragedies that go beyond the embarrassment of our country in the world’s eyes and pain in the heart of all true Americans who believe in our constitutional government.”