Sen. Tina Smith is the latest Minnesota Democrat to be confronted and chased off stage by left-wing “environmentalists.”
Last Thursday Smith spoke at an event hosted by the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University (CSB/SJU), Catholic liberal arts institutions in Collegeville. In the audience were leftist opponents of the recently finished Line 3, a pipeline stretching from Canada to Wisconsin that passes through Minnesota.
A video posted to Twitter shows the senator backstage peeking around a set of curtains after retreating from her lectern. Prior to that, according to videos published by “Resist Line 3,” the protesters were heckling her from the audience.
2/3 The full encounter is here: pic.twitter.com/M4kiDXKQuS
— Resist Line 3 (@ResistLine3) October 18, 2021
CSB/SJU’s Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement addressed the incident in a brief statement the night of the event.
“First and foremost, we would like to thank Senator Tina Smith for visiting our campus. The events that transpired tonight are unfortunate and disappointing, considering the fact that they shut down any sort of constructive dialogue,” the statement reads. “We would like to apologize to all of the students, faculty, staff, and CSB/SJU community members who came tonight.”
This is hardly the first time Democratic politicians from Minnesota have been on the receiving end of “environmentalist” ire. Morning Take reports that these interruptions and hecklings are such a thorn in the side of the Minnesota DFL Party that Gov. Tim Walz decided to hold his reelection kickoff event virtually Tuesday night.
In September, Gov. Walz himself was chased off stage at a fundraising event by so-called “water protectors,” who began heckling him over his refusal to block ongoing Line 3 construction. The governor left the stage less than 10 minutes into his speech.
Then earlier in October, Sens. Smith and Amy Klobuchar were personally confronted by the “water protectors” on separate occasions. Smith was confronted after delivering a speech on climate change, while Klobuchar was cornered in an elevator.
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
