Bulwark Takes - Tim Reacts To Horrific Shooting of Two Minnesota Lawmakers

Episode Date: June 14, 2025

Tim Miller returns from the No Kings protests in New Orleans to deliver heartbreaking and shocking news from Minnesota: what appears to be a politically motivated assassination of Democratic leaders.�� Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed, while State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette remain hospitalized after surviving multiple gunshots. The attacks occurred in separate incidents at their homes, reportedly carried out by individuals impersonating police officers. One suspect remains at large.

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Just back from the No Kings protests in New Orleans and we have some really tragic news overnight that I want to talk to you guys about coming out of Minnesota. We have what appears very, like almost certainly to be targeted political assassination, targeting Democratic politicians in Minnesota. Two different politicians, a Democratic House Speaker, Emerita Melissa Hortman, and Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and their respective spouses were shot in separate incidents at their home overnight in Minnesota. What happened essentially is that the suspects, it appears at this point there are multiple

suspects showed up to the homes dressed as police officers in a police car and then went on to shoot multiple times each of these Democratic politicians and their spouses. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed. So we send all our love to their family at this horrible time. Governor Tim Walz said that he's optimistic that Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, will survive. I want to play a little bit from Tim Walz's press conference on this just a little bit ago and then get back with you guys on the other side of it.

...here today because an unspeakable tragedy has unfolded in Minnesota. My good friend and colleague, Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, were shot and killed early this morning in what appears to be a politically motivated assassination. Our state lost a great leader, and I lost a dearest of friends. Speaker Hortman was someone who served the people of Minnesota with grace, compassion, humor, and a sense of service. She was a formidable public servant, a fixture, and a giant in Minnesota. She woke up every day determined to make this state a better place. She is irreplaceable and we've

been missed by so many. Minnesota's thoughts and prayers are with her family, her loved ones, her children, and her parents. My prayers also go out to State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, who were each shot multiple times. The Hoffmans are out of surgery at this time and receiving care, and we are cautiously optimistic they will survive this assassination attempt. This was an act of targeted political violence. Peaceful discourse is the foundation of our democracy. We don't settle our differences with violence or at gunpoint. Obviously Governor Walz is really emotionally affected by this. I mean, it's not only scary, but these are folks that he knows personally. And it is really, it's tough to think that this is the kind of country that we're living in, where the rhetoric, the political rhetoric

is so heated, where this is so intense, where there's so much hatred being spewed by politicians. Could be related to that, could not. A lot of times it's easy to immediately go to the rhetoric. One thing we certainly know is just easy access to firearms in this country. These types of things are a lot harder to execute in other countries because of just the nature of just how well armed this country is. It's hard not to, obviously there's a specific element of this about Minnesota.

I guess let me just focus on that first. This is truly unimaginable and the sum of all fears if you're an elected official. Obviously, everybody knows that they're putting themselves at risk if they speak out, if they're somebody that puts themselves out there to try to represent their state, somebody that is critical of the entrenched power structure of the Republicans in DC. Obviously, there's always a little bit of that in the back of your mind, that there's a little bit of risk along with this. I don't know that anybody thinks about a situation like this, though, where you have somebody impersonating a police officer coming into your home.

police officer coming into your home, it is an absolutely brutal scene. And I do think it's even beyond the imagination of people who know that at some level, they're doing a job that comes with these sorts of risks, unfortunately. It's just the nature of the game here in America. You have this going all the way back to Gabby Giffords. Obviously, you have assassination attempts on President Trump last year. So that is dark. In Minnesota today, Tim Walz announced just a little bit ago that they are canceling the no-kings protests, which is also sad.

You want to be able to gather and speak out in a moment like this, but one of the suspects is still at large. And I guess in the cars, there were flyers that said no kings on it, in addition to that list of other democratic politicians, including Senator Tina Smith and others that they were planning to target. So just out of safety and caution, they've decided not to do this. I hope and expect there'll be a massive gathering of both protests and resistance in Minnesota once these suspects are found and brought to justice, and also an outpouring of love and support for Speaker Emerita Hortman and her husband. Just broadening this out a little bit, Edward Isaac DeVore, who's a good reporter over at CNN, put out this post on social media that I think struck me

as I was kind of taking in all the different reactions as I was coming home from the protest here today. And his was one that really stood out. He wrote this, in the last week, Marines were deployed in an American city. The president has called for a governor to be arrested and the speaker of the house is called for that same governor to be tarred and feathered. A senator has been pinned and handcuffed and two state legislators have been shot in their home. It's just, he's just stating the facts there.

But when you pull that all together, when you look at that list of kind of what we've seen here in the past week, you do see a country where there's an element of unraveling and there is an increased element of political violence. And obviously we've gone through these phases in this country before. We're not really at a moment of where you were in the 60s, maybe, around the King and both Kennedy assassinations and some of the domestic terror that we saw at that moment.

We haven't quite reached that level of fever pitch, which some of the viewers of this YouTube can remember remember certainly So, you know, it's not it's a long time ago, but it's not ancient history But it feels like we're heading that way and it feels like we're heading that way with a Administration that is inciting it That is perpetrating a lot of the violence here domestically. And that part of it is the element that's new.

I mean, well, that totally new, obviously, particularly black folks could say that, you know, state violence is not exactly new in this country. Um, but this element of having it be from the top down, um, where, you know, this is a, the president himself has in the past, hanged on violence at his rallies. And now, you know, I mean, it's hard to kind of get to the word wants, but, you know, if you look at those posts that he's putting out on social media, seems to very much revel in the aggressive militarization that we're seeing in the streets and the associated violence and the associated issues with that. So it's a dark time. There's no doubt about it. We obviously will continue to monitor the story for you guys. Our just every best

wish for Speaker Mayor to Hortman and her family and hoping that Senator John Hoffman and his wife pull through as Governor Wallace said he expects. If anything else happens on this today, we will be here. I do expect that maybe not me, but some of my colleagues will have a reaction to the military parade that's happening. I guess it's worth one final comment that at the time of this taping, Donald Trump and JD Vance haven't posted anything about this target assassination attempt. I did see one conservative media outlet that maybe has talked to President Trump because

I saw a quote from that, but we're not, you know, it doesn't feel like there is a, at least at this moment, overwhelming outcry and response either emotionally or just with the resources at their disposal from the White House. They are, I guess, busy preparing for the birthday boy parade that might get rained on later today. And I think that tells you a lot about where we're at, that what they're focused on is this stupid military parade, this fascistic military parade today at a moment where we have an escalating war in the Middle East and where we have targeted assassinations at home. So I'll leave it there for now.

We'll be back later today as news develops. So subscribe to the feed. We appreciate you guys. We'll see you soon.