Democratic Rep. John Thompson called out the leaders of his party for their silence on Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson’s recent DWI conviction.
“There is not one job on this earth where you can be driving a company vehicle and do as much damage as you done to that company vehicle and that job don’t fire you,” Thompson said in a recent Facebook livestream.
Rep. John Thompson recently went to Facebook Live criticizing Governor Tim Walz, Minnesota DFL leaders, and the local media’s double standard in failing to call for @HennepinSheriff Dave Hutchinson’s resignation after he wrecked a squad car while drunk driving. pic.twitter.com/dzB5I8hps8
— Rebecca Brannon (@RebsBrannon) December 21, 2021
Thompson is a freshman state representative who encouraged a mob of BLM protesters to burn down the town of Hugo and was asked by the leaders of his party, including Gov. Tim Walz, to resign over years of abuse allegations. He didn’t resign but was expelled from the House DFL Caucus.
Hutchinson is the top law enforcement officer of Minnesota’s most populous county — an elected position. He totaled his county-owned vehicle Dec. 8 while driving with a blood alcohol content that was nearly twice the legal limit.
The Democratic sheriff was elected in November 2018 and received the endorsements of Gov. Walz, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and the Minnesota DFL, led by Chairman Ken Martin. None of these officials have commented on the incident.
“Elected officials are held to a higher standard. That’s what I heard the entire summer,” Thompson said. “Just last week, an elected official flips over the doggone county car, admitted to driving drunk — the sheriff of Hennepin County admitted to driving drunk. He issues an apology and now everybody’s just so happy that he’s well and hope that he works on his sobriety. But we look forward to him getting back to doing his job as our … county sheriff?”
Thompson called it “convenient” that Hutchinson’s charge for carrying a pistol under the influence of alcohol was “continued for dismissal,” meaning it will be dropped if he has no probation violations.
“How can you actually lock anybody up for DUI? How can you walk prisoners back and forth to their cells when you’re a criminal yourself?” he asked the sheriff. “You hear crickets from the people who asked me to resign.”
On the media and @MinnesotaDFL “You showed the world who you are… I’m looking at you right now – You’re not holding no press conference for your DFL colleague, your DFL endorsed @HennepinSheriff " pic.twitter.com/qugkt3rbev
— Rebecca Brannon (@RebsBrannon) December 21, 2021
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
