Daily Digest: Partisan split on racism resolution

Good Wednesday morning. Let the Digest take your mind off the heat wave.

1. Minnesota delegation splits along party lines on resolution condemning Trump remarks. Minnesotans in the U.S. House split along party lines in the vote denouncing President Donald Trump over tweets and comments widely seen as racist that singled out U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and three congressional representatives who are women of color. Omar, a freshman lawmaker from Minneapolis, has found herself at the center of an escalating skirmish between the Republican White House and House Democrats. It grew from a series of tweets by Trump over the weekend, in which he said the four liberal congresswomen, who have dubbed themselves “the Squad,” should go back to their ancestral countries “and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Democrats quickly introduced a resolution condemning the president, which led to a tumultuous afternoon debate Tuesday. All three Republicans in Minnesota’s delegation — Tom Emmer, Pete Stauber and Jim Hagedorn — opposed the resolution. (Star Tribune)

2. Hagedorn bans liberal group from his office. First District Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn says his Minnesota office staffs will no longer meet in-person with members of the local chapter of the liberal group Indivisible. In a letter addressed to the St. Peter and Greater Mankato Indivisible group, Hagedorn said the organization was taking too much of his staff's time and that a member of the group admitted in a recent meeting that it was an intentional tactic. A Hagedorn spokesperson declined an interview but said in an email the policy applies to all Indivisible groups in any district office. Yurie Hong is a leader for the St. Peter and Greater Mankato Indivisible group. She said a handful of Indivisible members have met with Hagedorn's staff weekly to discuss issues briefly, and that those meetings have been occurring since the office opened after Hagedorn won the seat in the 2018 election. "He and his staff do not view constituents as important and worth listening to," she said. “They do not want to hear from people they don't already agree with." (MPR News)

3. Walz says no scandal behind Lourey departure. Gov. Tim Walz states "there is no drama here" after Tony Lourey announced his resignation Monday as commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. "There is no scandal. There is nothing remiss other than I have expectations of where these agencies will go," said Walz. The governor received the the commissioner's resignation on Monday. "(Lourey) just felt, and I appreciate his self-reflectiveness in this case, it is his final act of leadership over there saying 'I'm not the right person to fix this,'" Walz said. ( St. Cloud Times)

4. New DHS head comes with plenty of government expertise. In picking Pam Wheelock to temporarily lead Minnesota’s largest state agency, Gov. Tim Walz landed a proven leader with vast experience in state government, academia, private business and philanthropy. Walz announced Monday the appointment of Wheelock, of St. Paul, as acting commissioner of the Department of Human Services after Tony Lourey resigned as commissioner. She has been one of the governor’s closest outside advisers.“We obviously have people that we contact and I trust to get advice, and Pam Wheelock is one of those people who has as deep a knowledge of government as anyone,” Walz said at a Capitol news conference. Heading DHS is one of the few top jobs the 60-year-old Wheelock hasn’t done. (Pioneer Press)