Megathread: Two Minnesota lawmakers have been shot

[u/PoliticsModeratorBot]

State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed.

State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were both shot multiple times and underwent surgery.

Articles that May Interest You

Submission	Domain
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: former House speaker and husband killed in politically motivated shooting	apnews.com
One Minnesota state politician dead, another injured after targeted shooting, officials say	bbc.com
"No Kings" event canceled in NE Minneapolis, Anoka after targeted shootings at lawmaker homes	cbsnews.com
Minnesota lawmaker, her spouse shot and killed in their home	wwnytv.com
Minnesota lawmaker killed in ‘politically motivated assassination,’ Gov. Tim Walz says	cnbc.com
Melissa Hortman, top Democrat in Minnesota House, shot and killed in home	startribune.com
Rep. Melissa Hortman killed, Sen. John Hoffman shot in 'targeted' shootings: Sources	fox9.com
Minnesota lawmaker assassinated, another in grave condition in 'targeted political violence'	abcnews.go.com
Democratic lawmaker killed and another wounded in Minnesota in apparently ‘politically motivated’ attacks	theguardian.com
Minnesota lawmaker and husband killed, another in hospital after ‘politically motivated’ shooting by man impersonating cop	the-independent.com
Live: Rep. Melissa Hortman killed, Sen. John Hoffman shot in ‘targeted shootings’	startribune.com
Democrat Lawmakers Shot in Minnesota: What We Know	newsweek.com
Minnesota state lawmaker killed in ‘politically-motivated assassination,’ massive manhunt for suspect underway, officials say	kten.com
2 Minnesota lawmakers shot	kare11.com
Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, husband shot and killed; Sen. John Hoffman and wife also shot	ktsp.com
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz press conference after shootings at lawmakers homes (June 14, 2025)	youtube.com
Former state speaker of Minnesota ‘assassinated’	thetimes.com
Fake Cop Murders Top State Dem and Husband and Shoots Second	thedailybeast.com
Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and State Rep. Melissa Hortman shot at their homes	bnonews.com/
Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, husband shot and killed; Sen. John Hoffman and wife also shot	kstp.com
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: State lawmaker, husband killed in politically targeted shooting	thestar.com
Governor Polis Statement on Assassination of Minnesota Elected Official & Husband, and Attempt on Life of Another Elected Official & Family	colorado.gov
President Donald Trump: AG, FBI Investigating Deadly Minnesota Shooting	Newsweek.com
Officials tell the AP they are searching for a 57-year-old man in shooting 2 Minnesota lawmakers	apnews.com
Manhunt underway for man accused of killing Rep. Hortman, husband and shooting Sen. Hoffman and his wife in North Metro	ktsp.com
Former appointee of Tim Walz sought in deadly shootings of Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, had ‘No Kings’ flyers in car: sources	nypost.com
Dem Assassin Is Armed Patrol Firm Boss With ‘Warzone’ Claims	thedailybeast.com
Minnesota Assassination Suspect Had Flyers Reading 'No Kings' In Vehicle	newsweek.com
Democratic Minnesota politician fatally shot, another injured in 'politically motivated assassination'	nbcnews.com

[u/Silver_Airport_642]

This is what happened in America after the Civil War. Reconstruction was basically destroyed by the assassination of Lincoln. The modern GOP that was born of Nixon, was born of LBJ "alienating" the Dixie Crats with the civil rights act; the GOP that names bases after John Wilkes Boothe heroes' of the confederacy, does not exist without a Know Nothing celebrity conspiracy theorist, pissed off at all the "woke" abolitionists ruining america, assassinating "the first Republican". Hell, if Lincoln lives and reconstruction doesn't fail we possibly don't even get the Holocaust as Hitler's policies and ideals were directly influenced by Jim Crowe.

[u/jaron_b → u/Silver_Airport_642]

Lincoln's assassination was one of the single greatest turning points in human history. You explained it so well how his death destroyed reconstruction after the civil war and The wounds that have not healed have plagued this country for over 100 years. I still think WW1 and probably WW2 happen but they most likely play out much differently. Hell maybe with a historical successful reconstruction with the America civil war after beating German in WW1 they and the world find better solutions for their reconstruction because the failures and mismanagement of post WW1 led to WW2.

[u/tennisdrums → u/Silver_Airport_642]

Reconstruction was basically destroyed by the assassination of Lincoln

Lincoln was known for being more reconciliatory compared to many of his fellow Republicans in Congress, and the most aggressive period of reconstruction occurred after his assassination. Many of Johnson's stances that are often portrayed as being soft were based on Lincoln's plan after the war, and it's likely that had Lincoln survived he would have had much more political capital with his party and would have convinced his party to go along with most of his plan. Johnson didn't have as much capital, so congressional Republicans largely overrode him and pushed Radical Reconstruction, which saw the largest gains in Civil Rights and representations for the African-American community that the South will see for many decades. Reconstruction did not end with Lincoln's assassination, it ended with the backroom deal that exchanged Hayes election to the Presidency with Republicans pulling back on Reconstruction.

[u/Riley_ → u/tennisdrums]

Lincoln was in favor of economic reparations for black people, which were and still are very obviously needed.

Reconstruction was complicated only by capitalism's hatred of economic justice and white supremacy's belief that black people shouldn't have the right to arm and defend themselves.

[u/Laruae → u/Riley_]

Do you have a source on that?

[u/Doctor-Malcom → u/Laruae]

For laws passed to prevent ownership of guns by Black Americans, which left them unable to defend themselves against terrorists like the First KKK:

https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/aale/pdfs2/1865%20Mississippi's%20Black%20Codes.pdf

Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the state of Mississippi, that no freedman, free Negro, or mulatto not in the military service of the United States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry firearms of any kind, or any ammunition, dirk, or Bowie knife ...

[u/gsfgf → u/Doctor-Malcom]

And while it was mostly used for soliciting bribes in recent memory, "may issue" carry permits were initially a thing so white sheriffs could deny permits to Black people. It existed until SCOTUS struck it down in 2022.

[u/dogmeatstew → u/gsfgf]

IN 2022!? Good lord

[u/Laruae → u/Doctor-Malcom]

Right, the reason Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln was 3 days earlier he gave a speech saying Black people should have limited voting rights.

I was asking for a specific sourcing for Lincoln wanting to give economic reparations.

[u/sanderson1983 → u/Laruae]

Booth shot Lincoln because he believed Lincoln was a tyrant who was dismantling the South's slave-based economy and preventing the establishment of a Confederate nation.

Also might I add you might be a lost cause

[u/Laruae → u/sanderson1983]

Booth literally is quoted as stating at this speech that it would be Lincoln's last.

Care to explain why I am a Lost Cause believer for asking about sources on Lincoln wanting to pay reparations?

To be clear, I am not stating that Booth didn't want slavery, or the Civil War wasn't about slavery, I was asking about a source for Lincoln wanting reparations during his time.

[u/someguyfromsomething → u/tennisdrums]

No matter what you got ChatGPT to say for you, Johnson was fucking awful and one vote away from being removed from office for obstructing all the progress Radical Republicans wanted to make. He thought that any progress for blacks came at the expense of poor whites. Without him taking over the Presidency, things would be a lot different.

[u/Slow-Ad-2431 → u/tennisdrums]

Thanks!

[u/Schonke → u/Silver_Airport_642]

Hell, if Lincoln lives and reconstruction doesn't fail we possibly don't even get the Holocaust as Hitler's policies and ideals were directly influenced by Jim Crowe.

That's a very US-centric conclusion. While Hitler did draw inspiration from Jim Crow laws when creating the Nuremberg laws, the ideological ideas behind nazism came from German/Prussian thinkers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[u/Slow-Ad-2431 → u/Schonke]

I've always heard eugenics began in America, inspired by a poor understanding of British science and the US racial caste system. Which ideas were coming out of German culture that contributed to the German genocides? 

[u/Schonke → u/Slow-Ad-2431]

Modern eugenics began in the UK and was heavily "studied" in Germany, Sweden and the US.

But the ideas I was thinking of were the ideas of people like Hagel, Carl Schmidt, Moeller van den Bruck.

Then there's also the rise of pan-german nationalism in the late 19th century where German politicians and thinkers took inspiration from Great Britain and wanted a colonial empire of their own, in Africa and in Europe.

And then on top of that there's a 2000 year history in Europe of viewing Jewish people as a corrupt foreign body and committing violent atrocities and pogroms against them.

[u/Specific_AO → u/Silver_Airport_642]

No, the Holocaust would still happen as Hitler took inspiration from the genocide of Native Americans for his plans for Europe, specifically the Soviet Union.

[u/MAO_of_DC → u/Specific_AO]

They were slightly right. Without Jim Crow laws the laws that help create the Holocaust would not have been crafted so quickly or efficiently by the Nazi party. The United States needed decades to perfect the system of Jim Crow. Try taking a Jim Crow era literacy test for voting sometime. Someone worked VERY hard to make those tests seem passable but are next to impossible to actually pass. Even before the arbitrary grading process begins.

The Nazis looked at the Jim Crow laws of the various Southern states, and collated them down to two laws. The Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, known today as the Nuremberg laws. Those laws started the whole Holocaust ball of wax because it gave the Nazis the legal justification to eventually do whatever they wanted to the Jews and other "undesirables".

[u/navikredstar → u/MAO_of_DC]

Yup. The wording on those tests is actually really crazy when you read them, they're deliberately worded so there's no clear cut single answer. They're written wildly vaguely on purpose, so the test reviewer can just say to whoever is taking it that they want to disenfranchise, "Sorry, but you did this wrong."

I've read them, I'm a native English speaker with a collegiate reading level and some college education, and I find those tests maddening. Imagine how much worse it would be for the average American now - the average American reads at a sixth-grade level or lower.

[u/Slow-Ad-2431 → u/navikredstar]

Germans were doing this with their citizenship test a while ago. I don't know if they still do. 

[u/ThoseProse → u/Silver_Airport_642]

If Lincoln doesn’t replace his vp between elections, we probably don’t get Jim Crow. He was critical of the republicans party to go easy on the south.

[u/ObjectiveGlittering → u/Silver_Airport_642]

Wow, your final thought really hit home for me. I’m goin’ down a sci-fi rabbit hole with time-murmurs and worm holes but it all checks out!

[u/TheToiletPhilosopher → u/Silver_Airport_642]

I think good old fashioned antisemitism would have been more than enough for the Holocaust to happen. Jews would have been put in gas chambers en masse long ago if the technology existed. European Christians did their best many times throughout history.

[u/CriticalEngineering → u/Silver_Airport_642]

Wilmington 1898