MN-01: Rep. Hagedorn rides the right-wing crazy train on COVID-19
There’s this:
On (April 20), Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-MN) claimed that allowing members of Congress to vote on legislation from their home is a scheme to make it easier for all Americans to vote by mail in November.
In a Facebook post, Hagedorn called remote voting a “very bad idea,” even during the coronavirus pandemic, because it would be a slippery slope toward more Americans being allowed to vote by mail in the November presidential election.
(American Independent)
This (I couldn’t find the original on the Congressman’s Facebook page, this morning):
How Dunning–Krugered do you have to be to be the Congressional representative of Mayo Clinic HQ AND YET you go looking for medical expertise from two rando, private, outpatient clinic-owning docs in California? pic.twitter.com/h8ndQgf06h
— Abe Sauer (@abesauer) April 27, 2020
And, most recently, this:
“I applaud and thank President Trump for his decisive leadership. Reopening our meat packing and food processing plants in a safe and efficient manner is critical to sustaining our pork and livestock industries, protecting the wellbeing of our agricultural workforce, and maintaining America’s food supply, which is a national security issue,” said Hagedorn.
(hagedorn.house.gov)
Which should be read in the light of this:
Meatpacking workers, many of whom are immigrants, perform essential labor. But inadequate protective gear and an inability to properly social distance in plants means they’ve been risking illness to do their jobs. According to an internal estimate from UFCW, 20 unionized workers have died of COVID-19; over 5,000 meatpacking workers total have tested positive for the virus, have been hospitalized, or are otherwise symptomatic, with another 1,500 food-processing workers in similar straits. The union had previously written to Vice-President Mike Pence, Trump’s coronavirus czar, with a series of demands, including improved testing for meatpacking workers, better protective gear, and an end to USDA waivers allowing plants to speed up processing lines despite a high risk of injury and even death for workers. UFCW has also asked for meatpacking workers to be designated temporarily as first responders.
(New York Magazine)
It is of course unspeakable, to suggest that it would do plenty of people no harm to cut back some on beef, pork, etc., at least for a while. I do not except myself.
If Hagedorn was serious about helping people in his district, he’d have been dissing Trump and doing things like encouraging direct shipments from farms to food banks. And vehemently opposing cuts to SNAP, as well as to disastrous Trump farm policy in general.
Like Dan Feehan would be doing. Bear in mind that he lost to Hagedorn by very little in 2018.
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