Breaking Down the MN Legislative Madness

After the State Supreme Court ruling on the quorum issue, Iheartradio host Jon Justice breaks down the current controversies. Listen to the weekly radio show on Iheartradio Mon-Fri 6-8a.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Can you dig it? Can you dig it? Bre you digging? Now?
I should really be enjoying my weekend, and for the
most part, I am. That being said, I'm doing this

(00:24):
breaking news bonus podcast on a Saturday because I need
to get off my chest ahead of Monday what has
transpired with the Minnesota State Supreme Court siding with Democrats
and saying that sixty eight House members is a quorum,
because there's a lot of moving parts in this, and
on X today, I've been arguing with alleged smart people

(00:48):
like attorneys who simply do not want to go and
face the truth and the reality of what the situation
is right now. So what I'll do here is and
I'm gonna get into more of this on Monday show.
My name is John Justice. If you're just checking this
out Monday through Friday, six until nine on Twin Cities
News Talk, and of course right here on the iHeartRadio app.

(01:10):
So according to the story from Alpha News, and then
I'll get into the weeds on this. In a blow
to Republicans, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the presence
of sixty eight members of the House of Representatives is
required for the House to conduct its legislative business. Now
there's some nuance in there, and I'll get to this
in just a moment. Last week, the House DFL and

(01:32):
Secretary of State Steve Simon, Democrat, filed a lawsuit with
the Minnesota State Supreme Court against the House GOP, saying
the Democrats alleging the Democrats alleged that the GOP illegally
conducted legislative business when a House quorum was not present.
The sixth zero decision was handed down on Friday afternoon

(01:54):
in favor of the Democrats. All seven of the justices
were appointed by Democrat governors. All right, So we got
here because when the twenty twenty four elections concluded, the
one hundred and thirty four member State House appeared to
be tied sixty seven to sixty seven, and the GOP
and the DFL began working on a power sharing agreement.
Then it was discovered and this was ahead of the

(02:16):
start of the January fourteenth legislative session. Okay. One of
the Democrats was ruled ineligible, Curtis Johnson in District forty B,
to serve before the new legislative session started. Given the
new one seat advantage, Republicans rightfully, so abandoned their power
sharing agreement and said that they could take control of

(02:37):
the House with their organizational majority, and also recognizing that
taking control of the House with their organizational majority, you
can't pass things without a majority of sixty eight, but
sixty seven to sixty six you can. Democrats threatened not
to show up, and they haven't since all this poor out,

(03:01):
and the Democrats were attempting to deny the GOP a quorum,
meaning to deny the GOP the ability to do what
they've done over the past week, and that would be
again the organization of the House, picking Lisa Damoth as
the speaker, and then moving forward to set the agenda

(03:22):
for the committees. Minnesota constitution requires a majority of the
House to be present in order for the Chamber to
conduct any legislative business, and as such, the DFL argued
sixty eight members where needed to be present in order
for the one hundred and thirty four member House to
conduct its business. Republicans had argued sixty seven members was enough.
Turns out, the Minnesota State Supreme Court said they were wrong.

(03:45):
Bias pressure from Walls, who knows they're all dflers not
a huge surprise in this. Okay, So here's where we
are right now. The DFL is still refusing at the
moment to show up for work on money. And the
reason why they are refusing to go and show up
for work on Monday is because they know what I

(04:07):
just said to you. The moment one dfler shows up
for the legislative session in Saint Paul, that gives sixty
seven members of the House and a quorum is achieved,
and because of that, the GOP can move forward and
do everything they've done the past two weeks. Now, what

(04:27):
the DFL is suddenly arguing in all of them, not suddenly,
they've been arguing this all along, is that the GOP
is denying the will of the voters by not accepting
a power sharing agreement. Now that power sharing agreement is
contingent on there being a even sixty seven sixty seven split,

(04:50):
that's not the case right now. That vacant seat in
District forty B, where Curtis Johnson and the DFL cheated,
needs to have a special election. That special election can't
be called until the session has been gabbled into session.
So right now we're kind of stuck, and it's ridiculous

(05:13):
because in the media, like this morning, I saw a
clip and I'll play this on Monday Show where Jamie Long,
the dfller and the post on it on the clip
says that all the Democrats want is one simple thing
for the GOP to agree to a power sharing agreement.

(05:34):
Why would the GOP do that they have the majority
right now. What is it about the DFL and their
refusal to allow the GOP even what may be a
very short period of time, the power to set the
speakership and the organization of the House once fordb and

(05:57):
that election occurs, assuming the DFL wins, but you never
know what's going to happen, given the controversies around what
has transpired, even though Curtis Johnson won by some thirty points,
has anybody even heard of David Gottfried beyond my mentioning
it on the show. Paul Wickstrom is going to run
a campaign for whenever that race is going to occur,

(06:19):
and anything is possible at this point in time. But
let's just say, for the sake of DFL ridiculous, juvenile
argument that the DFL ends up winning forty b and
there's an even split. Do you think for a second
that if this was reversed with the GOP having run

(06:41):
an individual who was ineligible and the DFL having the
majority for even a short period of time, that they
would go and relinquish the power that they had to
organize the House for the next two years and have
their own speaker. Of course, they wouldn't, so let me
again lay out the details here. Sixty eight is needed

(07:04):
for the quorum. That is, for the House to officially
conduct its business with a majority, not sixty eight, just
a majority, which right now the GOP has. The GOP
has the lawful ability to go and organize the House,
pick a speaker, set the committees, and they get that

(07:26):
for two years, they cannot pass any bills without a
sixty eight majority. So you would need to have the
DFL there or a dfler one way or the other.
A DFL or a GOP would have to cross against
their party to go and move things through in order
to pass bills and do what's required of the of

(07:47):
the session this time around. But the organizational aspect of
it doesn't require sixty eight majority. It just requires a majority,
and that's proven in the fact that the DFL won't
go and show up for work, because if it was
needed to have sixty eight to organize the House, then
there's no fear for the DFL to go and actually

(08:10):
do their job because the GOP wouldn't have the majority
as it relates to organizing the House. They only have
sixty seven, so we would be stuck. It is pure
and utter arrogance for the DFL Melissa Hortman, Jamie Long

(08:31):
and the rest of them to hold the state hostage
because that's what they're doing simply because they refuse to
give the GOP the proper lawful majority power that they
have right now to organize the House. What they've done
over the course of the past two weeks. I concede
the Minnesota Supreme Court spoke, the legislative session has not begun.

(08:55):
Steve Simon correctly went and gabbled out saying there was
no turns out. He was right. But if you have
one dffella that shows up on Monday, sixty eight is achieved.
GOP has the majority. They can pick Lisa Dame, they
can vote for Lisa Damuth again, they can vote for
the officers again, just like they did the past two weeks.

(09:16):
And if I were wrong, the DFL would show up
for work on Monday. What's so mind numbingly frustrating? Are
just how willing those on the left are to simply
ignore the truth in all of this. So, John Lesh,

(09:36):
never heard of this guy before. I just wanted to
share this with you. Never heard of this guy before.
Apparently he's an attorney a former state legislature He posted
in response to one of my postings. He said, neither
party has a majority. The Supreme Court has given the
GOP TASCIT permission to save face and start working on

(09:57):
a power sharing agreement. That's simply not true right now,
if both parties, as I've mentioned, went to work in
Saint Paul, it's sixty seven sixty six in favor of
the GOP. This is the reason why the Minnesota DFL
in the House are boycotting doing their job, childishly refusing

(10:19):
to lawfully allow the GOP to have the majority ahead
of the special election in forty b So this John
Lesh character asks me, So, would you recommend that the
when the sixty seventh the DFL member is seated, that
the GOP give up their conditional control. Are you suggesting

(10:39):
the GOP has exclusive control for the Chamber for the
next two years despite their lack of the necessary sixty
eight votes to pass everything. Listen, it's not a recommendation,
it's the rules in the law. And again, do you
really think the DFL, if they were in a similar circumstance,
would go and relinquish their power. If DFL reps show
up to work, sixty eight is the quorum and the

(11:01):
GOP has sixty seven, which is the majority. If the
DFL wins forty b then the power is shared from
that moment, and yes, the GOP would get to go
and keep their speaker and chamber control. Let's look at
it another way. If the DFL had a majority sixty

(11:21):
eight to the GOP's sixty six, and something happened vacated
to DFL seats, which is completely possible given the DFL's
propensity to cheat, and the chamber was split with the
DFL suddenly relinquished their power and remove their speaker. Of
course they wouldn't. Now. John Lesh responds with this doesn't

(11:44):
address any of my factual comments that I made before,
and says this is exactly why the DFL did their walkout,
because the GOP thinks that they can operate as a
majority without a legal majority. The Supreme Court has signaled
that everyone should put their big boy pants on and
work it out. Now is their chain ants? How is
it not legal? Now? You can argue that what the

(12:05):
GOP has done over the course of the past few
weeks only having sixty seven members in the legislature based
off of the Minnesota Supreme Court ruling that says you
need sixty eight to conduct a business. All the Supreme
Court said was as sixty eight as the quorum. And
I'll keep repeating for everybody that's waiting the back and
not understanding. If one Minnesota DFL House member shows up

(12:28):
for work on Monday, a quorum is achieved and the
GOP has the majority to organize the house. John responded
to me on this one and says, this is one
of the problems with modern politics. Too many activists making
the mistake of thinking that's saying it louder or more
frequently makes it true. What have I said that isn't
factual here? And who's the one acting like an activist

(12:50):
when he simply wants to ignore the truth. The question
is why won't the DFL give the GOP the majority
to organize the House? What are they so fearful of
knowing or believing as they are, that eventually, once forty
b's special election occurs, it'll be split. And because it's split,

(13:11):
it'll probably be a stalemate unless somebody on either side
decides to go and vote against their party. I mean, listen,
could it be that the DFL is that afraid that
the GOP is going to investigate the fraud taking place
and begin to overturn the rocks to see what's really
going on in the state. And I know it's an

(13:35):
exercise in futility to go and argue with somebody on
the left, because if you're on the left, you can
be as irrational and hypocritical as you want to be.
But this attorney, and unbelievably so, former state Representative John
Lesh responds again to me, saying, the only thing that
has changed just since opening day is that you lost

(13:56):
a case at the Minister at the Supreme Court which
you thought you could win. That means it's time to
own your mistakes and prove you're worthy of the leadership
that you claim. It only means that the GOP and
what they did the last two weeks is no longer relevant. Again,
if one DFL in the House shows up on Monday.

(14:17):
The GOP has a majority power to organize the House,
just as they did before. But isn't it rich for
somebody on the left to talk about the GOP owning
up to their mistakes worthy of the leadership they claim?
It's the DFL that cheated. None of this would be
happening if they hadn't willingly ran run Curtis Johnson in

(14:39):
District forty B. And it's hysterical too, because not once
has the Minnesota House DFL this moron bothered to dispute
any of the claims of what I have said this
morning online. And let me address one another thing in
all of this. And I know that that you might

(15:00):
disagree with me, but I just want to lay this
out and again I'll be talking more about this on
Monday's show. But when forty B and the special election
takes place, assuming that the DFL candidate wins, and the
legislature is evenly split sixty seven sixty seven, the GOP

(15:24):
does not need to relinquish any of the power that
they achieved in organizing the House with the speaker and otherwise,
just because suddenly now it's split sixty seven sixty seven,
and that point is proven because the DFL is not
even arguing as such, which is why they want a
power sharing agreement, because they know that right now GOP

(15:47):
has the majority. They can organize the House, but can't
pass bills, and when and if it is split sixty
seven sixty seven, they don't need to and aren't required
to by law to relinquish any of that power. Many
individuals on the right have said, then the GOP should

(16:08):
simply not bother to show up based off of the
Minnesota Supreme Court ruling saying you need sixty eight for
a quorum, meaning that once the election takes place the
next legislative day, when the members are supposed to go
to work, then the GOP should just boycott. No, they shouldn't,

(16:30):
And here's the reason why. To what end? There's nothing
to be gained by doing that. The GOP has been
following the rules all along, and now the rules have
changed because of the Minnesota Supreme Court and their ruling.
Agree or disagree. I disagree with the ruling, but I'll
respect it. Nothing you can do about it. And so

(16:52):
we've been asking the GOP has been asking to simply
follow the rules the DFL in the House should go
to work, and when they do again, I'll keep repeating,
a quorum is achieved. Sixty eight just requires one member
of the DFL to show up with the GOP sixty seven,
and with the majority before the special election, it's sixty
seven sixty six. GOP goes and gets to go and

(17:15):
organize the House speaker and otherwise when it's split sixty
seven sixty seven. There's nothing to be gained by the
GOP not showing up then, to simply make a point.
It's not like they can gain any power, it's not
like they can accomplish anything. So to go in boycott

(17:39):
serves no greater purpose. And for me, I want to
be able to know that as a party, you're doing
the right thing, that you're not willing to go and
stoop to the level of the opposition. Yes, it means
that sometimes you lose when you are faced with an
enemy that refuses to go and follow the rules, But

(18:00):
it doesn't mean that you suddenly are justified in breaking
the rules yourself and not doing what is required of you.
The voters elected these individuals into office, they expect them
to go to work when they're required to do so,
the GOP has been doing that, the DFL hasn't. The
moment the GOP decides that they want a boycott with
nothing to gain, then you end up losing that argument.

(18:22):
And yet I know people will say, we gotta fight,
you know, we gotta fight fire with fire. Well, I'm
not willing to go and compromise personally, you know, my
own values, morals and accountability, just to make a broader
point that ultimately is going to fall on its face

(18:43):
because it doesn't accomplish anything. Once the House is split,
it's all gonna be stuck anyways. Because what the DFL
has done now and digging their heels in ridiculously on
this issue is basically set a precedent, And what the
GOP can do is say, we're not going to agree
with you on anything. We'll have a power sharing agreement
in the way that the House is conducted, but we're

(19:05):
not going to cross over when it comes to bills
that we don't like. The DFL seems to believe that
they are always in the majority and the Republicans should
never ever ever have power, and they're showing and proving
just how juvenile that they are right now and for
as much as they want to try to argue their
points online, they fail miserably. I had the Minnesota House

(19:27):
DFL X account responding to me the same way that
moron John Lesh was responding to me, and guess what,
they weren't even arguing the points that I was making
because they knew I was right. The DFL just simply
doesn't like the dynamic right now and do not want
to allow the GOP to organize the House. That is

(19:47):
again the question we should be asking, why are they
afraid of what is going to be exposed if the
GOP actually is able to go and move forward on
investigating all the fraud. Is what ak Kamara said on
the show Friday, that all the fraud taking place is
just the DFL intentionally going and redistributing the wealth here
in the state. I've said many times, I fully expect

(20:10):
that once the paid family sick leave is fully implemented
and we've got some time and distance from when it started,
along with the free meals for kids in schools, that
both of those programs are going to be found to
be rampant with fraud, just like almost all the other
DFL programs that have been passed over the course of
the past two years with the DFL trifecta. If the

(20:33):
people of Minnesota were fully informed of what was actually
going and taking place, the GOP could actually make some
ground here in the state, not just stopping trifectas, but
actually grabbing majorities beyond what we're seeing right now in
the breaking of the trifecta that has occurred in this

(20:54):
most recent election last year. But that's not how things
work here in the state, And for as much as
I wish it were so, not everybody listens to bonus
podcasts like this or my show Monday through Friday on
Twin Cities News Talk six until nine Central Time, but boy,
I really wish that they did listen. Follow me on

(21:16):
x at John Joen Justice Again, I'm gonna probably pitch
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(25:21):
looking at the Minnesota House DFL caucuses post Democrats are
asking Republicans for something very simple to honor the will
of the voters. Yeah, and Republicans are asking Democrats for
something so very simple to go to work doing that
would actually be honoring the will of the voters. What
a crazy, crazy time that we're dealing with right now.

(25:44):
All at the DFL's doing. All right, I'll have a
lot more to say coming up on Monday. Enjoy the
rest of your day whenever you are listening to this,
And I'm back on the air Monday, starting at six
am again Monday through Friday six until nine am. All right,
I'm gonna go play some video games. I'll talk to
you on Monday Bay