Press Release

Every Republican Representative from Minnesota voted against holding Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress

 

Today, Republican Representatives Jim Hagedorn, Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, and Pete Stauber voted against holding Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing a Congressional subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6th insurrection.

Prior to January 6th, Bannon spoke with Donald Trump and used his podcast to promote the protests that ultimately descended into the assault on the Capitol. On January 5th, Bannon predicted that “all hell is going to break loose” the next day.

Ahead of the contempt vote, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney said that “Mr. Bannon’s own public statements make clear he knew what was going to happen before it did, and thus he must have been aware of — and may well have been involved in — the planning of everything that played out on that day.”

While other subpoenaed witnesses tried negotiating with the committee, Bannon was alone in completely refusing to comply with the summons from Congress. Minnesota’s Republican Representatives had previously voted against the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the assault on the Capitol.

DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement: 

“It is disgraceful that Representatives Hagedorn, Emmer, Fischbach, and Stauber continue trying to block efforts to investigate the assault on the United States Capitol. It is abundantly clear these Republican Representatives don’t want to know whether the January 6th insurrection was pre-planned and who was involved in that planning because they are scared of the answer.

“By voting against holding Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing a subpoena, these Republican Representatives are abdicating the responsibilities of their office and trying to take the teeth out of Congress’ ability to investigate criminal behavior.

“This is one of the most shameless displays of partisanship I have seen from any elected official. Minnesota deserves better than Representatives like Hagedorn, Emmer, Fischbach, and Stauber who would sell out our democracy to protect their political party.”