Trump World Trashes Tom Emmer’s Bid For Speaker

The Messenger reports:

Former President Donald Trump’s allies are circulating a 216-page opposition-research book to damage GOP Rep. Tom Emmer in his bid to become the next speaker of the rudderless House of Representatives.

The dossier – which covers everything from an old DUI arrest and his views on normalizing relations with Cuba to his vote supporting gay marriage – is part of a multi-pronged effort to stop Emmer from becoming speaker by Republican allies of Trump.

Among the Minnesota Republican’s many sins that drew such scrutiny: He has not endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, nor did he vote to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

A JMG reader writes to remind us of this 2010 story:

Republican Tom Emmer’s campaign for governor announced today that it has notified the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board that Emmer’s legislative campaign made a 2008 donation that exceeded the legal limit. Emmer’s Minnesota House campaign reported giving $250 to a group called You Can Run International.

The group’s front man, Bradlee Dean, has been criticized for making controversial statements about gays. Emmer’s connection with the group was first raised by the website Minnesota Independent when it wrote about You Can Run International’s relationship with the GOP.

Bradlee Dean, longtime JMG readers will recall, appeared here multiple times. A key quote from Dean: 

Muslims are calling for the execution of homosexuals in America. They themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible, the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than the American Christians do. Because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination. If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that.

Dean also claimed that Barack Obama planned the Sandy Hook mass shooting and that NYC public schools teach bestiality. In 2012 Dean was ordered to pay Rachel Maddow’s legal fees after he sued her for $50 million, claiming that she had misquoted him.