motherjones--2020-06-01--Keith Ellison’s Entire Career Has Been Building Toward This Moment

On Sunday evening , as protests continued throughout the Twin Cities , Minnesota Gov .
Tim Walz announced that the state ’ s attorney general , Keith Ellison , would take the lead in any prosecutions related to the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis .
It was a decision Walz said had been reached after consulting Floyd ’ s family .
“ They wanted to believe that there was trust , ” Walz told reporters .
Ellison , a former civil rights activist , now finds himself playing an unfamiliar role in a very familiar crisis .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the then-member of Congress was seeking to become chair of the Democratic National Committee , Ellison first came into his own in the Twin Cities more than 30 years ago as a community organizer and activist protesting against police brutality .
If you want to understand how he ’ ll handle this current crisis , it ’ s worth revisiting what got him into politics .
A native of Detroit , Ellison was exposed early to the realities of police brutality and the militant response to riots .
When he was 4 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Guard troop carriers drove through his neighborhood in 1968 , amid the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. , and came of age during the era of Coleman Young , the city ’ s first black mayor .
Young disbanded the Detroit police department ’ s infamous STRESS Unit ( short for Stop the Robberies , Enjoy Safe Streets ) , which was formed after the riots and was accused of killing 22 people , almost all of whom were African American .
When Bernie Goetz shot four black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ car in 1984 , Ellison , by then a columnist at the Wayne State University student newspaper , feared the worst : “ Remember the days of STRESS…and all the rest ?
Well , those days will be with us again if current trends continue , ” he wrote .
“ Detroit has already agreed to a plan to put more cops back on the streets .
But not just any cops .
Cops with the notion that it ’ s not only OK to blow away young black men , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of society .
And I am not attacking police officers .
Prevailing opinion on this shooting constitutes a mandate from the people.
” It was at law school at the University of Minnesota in 1989 that his exposure to police brutality blossomed into full-on activism .
As I wrote : At the beginning of 1989 , two incidents solidified his growing reputation .
On January 25 , as part of a series of raids on suspected crack storehouses , police tossed a stun grenade through the window of an apartment building in North @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the resulting blaze .
No drugs were found , and none of the men arrested at the building were subsequently charged .
A grand jury declined to indict the offending officers .
Ellison and a few students organized a protest over the lack of prosecutions , but the day before their rally , another incident happened at the downtown Embassy Suites .
The hotel was a hangout spot for college students , and on that night two parties were happening on the same floor .
One was a kegger hosted by a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a birthday party attended by African American students .
It was a low-key gathering ; one woman had brought her toddler .
But when police responded to a noise complaint about the kegger , they busted up the birthday instead .
Partygoers alleged that the cops had called them “ niggers.
” One student at the party , a Daily reporter named Van Hayden , told me an officer had dangled him over the edge of the sixth-floor railing .
He left in handcuffs , with a broken nose and a few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It had a far smaller black population that had far less political power—there was no Coleman Young to step in .
But the protests over the deaths of Lillian Weiss and Lloyd Smalley , the elderly residents killed in the raid , coupled with the fresh anger over the injustice at the Embassy Suites , boiled over into a real movement .
“ It was a mini-Ferguson before anyone had heard of Ferguson , ” Van Hayden , a University of Minnesota student whose nose was broken by police at the party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the vanguard of the movement : There wasn ’ t any .
The officers whose grenades caused the fire that killed Smalley and Weiss did not face charges—they weren ’ t even disciplined .
Then–police chief John Laux said there was no evidence of any sort of discriminatory behavior in his force .
Most of the charges against the Embassy Suites students were dropped , but the officers themselves were exonerated by an internal investigation .
A civilian review board was set up , but it lacked the subpoena power that would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kept the pressure on , helping to form a group that same year called the Coalition for Police Accountability , which published a newsletter called Cop Watch .
The first few issues featured anecdotes of police brutality , based on interviews members of the group had conducted and cases they ’ d been involved in .
“ In the squad car , he continues to complain he can ’ t breathe , ” reads one account .
Another tells the story of a victim who woke up in the hospital with “ bruises @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The organization so riled police that a representative of the city ’ s police union suggested officers join CPA themselves , the better to shut up the “ crybabies and loudmouths ” behind it .
( That same union is now run by Bob Kroll , a Trump-loving cop who allegedly once called Ellison a terrorist . )
This was the activism that led him into politics , though his first run for Congress was a decade-and-a-half away .
I found an old photograph from this time in the Star Tribune ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a colleague are standing at the Minnesota state Capitol demanding the state attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the deaths of Weiss and Smalley—a demand that would be summarily rejected .
But Ellison doesn ’ t have to make those demands anymore .
Now he ’ s in charge .

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
On Sunday evening, as protests continued throughout the Twin Cities, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that the state’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, would take the lead in any prosecutions related to the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It was a decision Walz said had been reached after consulting Floyd’s family. “They wanted to believe that there was trust,” Walz told reporters.
Ellison, a former civil rights activist, now finds himself playing an unfamiliar role in a very familiar crisis. As I reported in 2017, when the then-member of Congress was seeking to become chair of the Democratic National Committee, Ellison first came into his own in the Twin Cities more than 30 years ago as a community organizer and activist protesting against police brutality. If you want to understand how he’ll handle this current crisis, it’s worth revisiting what got him into politics.
A native of Detroit, Ellison was exposed early to the realities of police brutality and the militant response to riots. When he was 4, he hid under his bed when National Guard troop carriers drove through his neighborhood in 1968, amid the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and came of age during the era of Coleman Young, the city’s first black mayor. Young disbanded the Detroit police department’s infamous STRESS Unit (short for Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets), which was formed after the riots and was accused of killing 22 people, almost all of whom were African American. When Bernie Goetz shot four black teenagers in a New York City subway car in 1984, Ellison, by then a columnist at the Wayne State University student newspaper, feared the worst:
“Remember the days of STRESS…and all the rest? Well, those days will be with us again if current trends continue,” he wrote. “Detroit has already agreed to a plan to put more cops back on the streets. But not just any cops. Cops with the notion that it’s not only OK to blow away young black men, but it’s probably in the best interest of society. And I am not attacking police officers. Prevailing opinion on this shooting constitutes a mandate from the people.”
It was at law school at the University of Minnesota in 1989 that his exposure to police brutality blossomed into full-on activism. As I wrote:
At the beginning of 1989, two incidents solidified his growing reputation. On January 25, as part of a series of raids on suspected crack storehouses, police tossed a stun grenade through the window of an apartment building in North Minneapolis. Two elderly black residents died in the resulting blaze. No drugs were found, and none of the men arrested at the building were subsequently charged. A grand jury declined to indict the offending officers. Ellison and a few students organized a protest over the lack of prosecutions, but the day before their rally, another incident happened at the downtown Embassy Suites. The hotel was a hangout spot for college students, and on that night two parties were happening on the same floor. One was a kegger hosted by a group of white students. The other was a birthday party attended by African American students. It was a low-key gathering; one woman had brought her toddler. But when police responded to a noise complaint about the kegger, they busted up the birthday instead. Partygoers alleged that the cops had called them “niggers.” One student at the party, a Daily reporter named Van Hayden, told me an officer had dangled him over the edge of the sixth-floor railing. He left in handcuffs, with a broken nose and a few bruised ribs.
Minneapolis was not Detroit. It had a far smaller black population that had far less political power—there was no Coleman Young to step in. But the protests over the deaths of Lillian Weiss and Lloyd Smalley, the elderly residents killed in the raid, coupled with the fresh anger over the injustice at the Embassy Suites, boiled over into a real movement. “It was a mini-Ferguson before anyone had heard of Ferguson,” Van Hayden, a University of Minnesota student whose nose was broken by police at the party, later told me. Ellison was at the vanguard of the movement:
A few days later, Ellison led about 75 people in a march to City Hall, where they stormed a City Council meeting, forcing officials to yield the floor to Ellison for a 10-minute speech. By then, Ellison was organizing several protests a week and holding press conferences to pressure Minnesota’s attorney general to launch a state investigation into the raid. Ellison demanded “public justice.”
There wasn’t any. The officers whose grenades caused the fire that killed Smalley and Weiss did not face charges—they weren’t even disciplined. Then–police chief John Laux said there was no evidence of any sort of discriminatory behavior in his force. Most of the charges against the Embassy Suites students were dropped, but the officers themselves were exonerated by an internal investigation. A civilian review board was set up, but it lacked the subpoena power that would have given it teeth.
But Ellison kept the pressure on, helping to form a group that same year called the Coalition for Police Accountability, which published a newsletter called Cop Watch. The first few issues featured anecdotes of police brutality, based on interviews members of the group had conducted and cases they’d been involved in.
“In the squad car, he continues to complain he can’t breathe,” reads one account.
Another tells the story of a victim who woke up in the hospital with “bruises on his neck from being choked.”
The organization so riled police that a representative of the city’s police union suggested officers join CPA themselves, the better to shut up the “crybabies and loudmouths” behind it. (That same union is now run by Bob Kroll, a Trump-loving cop who allegedly once called Ellison a terrorist.)
This was the activism that led him into politics, though his first run for Congress was a decade-and-a-half away. I found an old photograph from this time in the Star Tribune’s archives that feels relevant now.
Ellison and a colleague are standing at the Minnesota state Capitol demanding the state attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the deaths of Weiss and Smalley—a demand that would be summarily rejected. But Ellison doesn’t have to make those demands anymore. Now he’s in charge.


motherjones--2020-06-01--A New Right-Wing Conspiracy Theory Claims COVID Contact Tracers Are Stealing Children

Public health officials , governors , and members of Congress all seem to agree that for the country to safely re-open for business and contain the spread of the new coronavirus , states and cities will need to roll out a massive new contact tracing program .
That ’ s the public health strategy designed to identify everyone who ’ s come in contact with someone testing positive for the virus to encourage them to quarantine .
“ [ T ] racing , tracing , tracing ” is one of the keys to opening the economy , House Speaker Nancy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ briefing in early May .
But lots of Americans have a very different view of contact tracing .
“ This is the next generation of brownshirts , ” declared Jack Robertson , on his far-right radio show Radio Free Redoubt , which he broadcasts from Spokane , Washington , under the pseudonym John Jacob Schmidt .
The program would be so invasive , Robertson assured his listeners , all restaurant patrons will have to provide their contact information as a condition of getting served in order to be tracked down later if someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just going to have to give up going to restaurants , ” he lamented .
Robertson is not alone in his view that contact tracing is a vast government conspiracy to infringe on people ’ s rights , rather than a standard public health intervention that ’ s been used to mitigate infectious diseases from tuberculosis to STDs to Ebola .
Anti-vaccine activists , the John Birch Society , and many of those participating in “ re-open ” protests over the past month have declared their intention to resist any attempts to force @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Reopen Virginia Facebook group recently posted a job announcement from the state public health department looking for 1,300 new contact tracers , with the caption , “ Evidently the Gestapo is hiring.
” Just in the past two weeks activists in Texas have formed a new group , Texans Against Contact Tracing , to oppose a new $ 295 million contract the state recently issued to hire hundreds of public health sleuths .
They rallied for a protest at the state capital on May 24 .
Even as Congress considers H.R .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Act sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush ( D-Il . )
, which would devote $ 100 billion to helping states hire contact tracers , activists in the right-wing fever swamp have launched petitions and worked the phones to fight any expansion of this public health initiative .
As Virginia state senator and GOP gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase posted on Facebook recently , “ I will not be MASKED , TESTED , TRACKED , or CHIPPED to support this LIBERAL agenda.
” Failed California congressional candidate and Trump supporter DeAnna Lorraine Tesoriero warned in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ scare the crap out of everyone , ” adding , “ President Trump , if you ’ re watching , you need to put a stop to this immediately.
” A “ dating , relationship and attraction coach ” and author of Making Love Great Again , she is so suspicious of the ulterior motives of contact tracing that she says she ’ s going to get a job as one and go undercover and get to the bottom of things .
“ What kind of soulless , pathetic person would take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sell out their fellow Americans ?
” she asked in a livestream May 19 .
“ Who would do that ?
But then I realized , well , Antifa has been out of work for a while and so has MS-13 , so maybe someone like them.
” If Tesoriero really wants to know how it all works , there ’ s no need to go undercover .
She could just take one of the online classes now available to help train the armies of contact tracers being hired by states to help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s free !
The best-known one was created by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and has now trained more than 268,000 people .
I signed on for five hours of video instruction from Hopkins epidemiologist Emily Gurley , whose soothing voice walked me through the origins of the SARS Covid-2 virus and all its clinical manifestations and transmission patterns .
She covered the ethics of contact tracing and balancing individual rights with public health .
She laid out the nuts and bolts of how to make a tracing call @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on her math skills before she signs up—contact tracing involves more arithmetic than I had expected .
It ’ s not hard , but it can be confusing .
Tracers need to use exposure windows and infectious periods to work out how long someone needs to isolate themselves .
( I scored an embarrassing 75 percent on my first try at the quiz on calculating isolation times . )
About half the class is devoted to building trust and rapport with people so they ’ ll be more inclined to cooperate .
( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offer personal opinions , ” which may pose a special challenge for a MAGA relationship coach . )
Much of the work involves educating sick people and their contacts about why it ’ s so important to isolate themselves .
Far from the image spread by right-wing conspiracy theorists , contact tracers are a lot more like social workers than cops .
According to my class , a contact tracer must “ offer resources ” to people trying to self-quarantine , like referrals for medical care , or grocery deliveries , or housing—all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stay inside until they can ’ t infect anyone .
Overall , there ’ s nothing in the class that would qualify as a state secret , though perhaps it should have devoted some time to dealing with folks like Tesoriero , who won ’ t be too happy to receive a call from a contact tracer working for the health department .
Of course , even the Hopkins class would not dissuade those who already are inclined to believe that contact tracing is a form of tyranny and a massive violation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ posting on Vimeo as FreedomLover1977 took the class and then made a 23-minute video about it entitled , “ Contact Tracing Scarier than You Imagined.
” It had been viewed more than 100,000 times by May 28 .
Opening with an ominous slide that reads , “ Contact tracing : they will find you , ” she promises , “ You ’ re going to be freaked out by the end of this video.
” Warning that law enforcement can access testing information and other data collected through contact tracing , she also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the power to force sick people to quarantine .
This is , of course , true and has been since the days of Typhoid Mary , but in the real world it virtually never happens .
What people like FreedomLover1977 don ’ t realize is that the problem with contact tracing isn ’ t that it might lead the government to send people into a quarantine facility , but that the government can ’ t send people into a quarantine facility , because such places don ’ t really exist in this country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking the Hopkins class , I imagined calling someone who lived packed like a sardine into substandard housing and trying to explain that they really need to quarantine somewhere with a separate bedroom and a private bathroom if they don ’ t want to kill Grandma .
In most parts of the country , a contact tracer would have absolutely nothing to offer such people except a sympathetic , “ I hear you , ” as outlined in Gurley ’ s “ Tips for Effective Communication ” class module .
Even if the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hotel rooms for people to hunker down in until their infections passed , the health department is still unlikely to force anyone identified by a contact tracer to use them .
“ Local health authorities do have the authority to mandate isolation or quarantine , but they rarely use it because they know it will really discourage people from going to the doctor or getting tested , ” says Maria Courogen , branch director for disease containment at the Washington State public health department , who is overseeing that state ’ s contact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ practice of that would result in negative consequences that won ’ t help us combat the disease.
” Nonetheless , fear-mongering and conspiracy theories around contact tracing have been given still more momentum by the news that Massachusetts and other states are working with the Boston-based nonprofit health care organization Partners in Health to staff up their contact tracing programs .
Co-founded in 1987 by Paul Farmer , PIH is best known for its work in Haiti combatting HIV and AIDS .
But recently , as it has gotten involved in contact tracing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become far more sinister for many conservatives and conspiracy theorists .
Why ?
Because the Clinton Foundation and George Soros have funded it .
Fort Russ News , the pro-Russian media arm of the Belgrade-based Center for Syncretic Studies , published one of the weirder pieces of misinformation about PIH and its contact tracing work in Massachusetts .
Its story entitled , “ Revealed : Massachusetts Contact Tracing NGO Part Of Clinton Pedophile Ring In Haiti , ” claimed PIH is “ connected to child abduction and pedophilia trafficking in Haiti via the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state as a Contact Tracing organization.
” This one doesn ’ t seem to have really have gone viral with the same intensity as the pizzagate conspiracy did years ago , but variations on it have bubbled up to the mainstream .
On May 21 , a local TV reporter asked Ohio Gov .
Mike DeWine ( R ) why the state was contracting with PIH , not because of its connections to the Clintons , but because its website says its vision is “ to rectify ‘ structural violence of capitalism.
’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of a larger social agenda for Partners In Health , ” Jack Windsor , a reporter with WMFD TV in Mansfield told the governor .
“ Can you tell us why you chose to partner with an organization that demonizes capitalism and seems to be rooted in liberation theology based on Marxist ideals ?
” DeWine explained patiently that ideology in this case didn ’ t matter .
“ What I ’ m interested in is getting things done , ” he said , pointing out that PIH has “ done this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States , but around the world .
They ’ re pretty darn good at it.
” Gurley , the Hopkins epidemiologist who taught my class , is baffled by all of the political resistance to contact tracing and the conspiracy theories about it .
“ Conspiracies usually have a goal , ” she said in an interview with Mother Jones .
“ I ’ m not quite sure what the goal of the conspiracy is.
” If you spend some time on the “ reopen ” protest Facebook groups , it becomes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe one goal of contact-tracing is to take people ’ s children away .
For instance , a woman in the Reopen Maryland group , which boasts nearly 27,000 members , recently posted that her daughter is a nurse who works with COVID-19 patients and recently caught the virus herself .
The woman was caring for her grandchildren while her daughter was quarantined .
But , she wrote , “ [ T ] he fu..ing health department keeps calling me for my home address I refuse to give it to them in no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ information I ’ m sure they will find it out but I ’ m sick of all this bullshit that the government thinks they can put us through anyone else been through this we need to get open and back to normal this shot pisses me off invasion of privacy.
” “ Don ’ t give them shit they will come take the kids .
I wouldn ’ t even tell the doctor I thought I had it unless I was about to die and needed to go to the hospital , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she ’ d fire a warning shot with her Smith & Wesson at anyone who comes on her property and won ’ t leave .
She writes , “ DEFY all contact tracing efforts .
Not only will they track you , they will track any and every person you come into contact with for 10 minutes or more .
Turn off automatic updates , as they can download the tracing app WITHOUT your consent or knowledge .
This is complete over reach [ sic ] and it must be STOPPED AND THWARTED @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the Hopkins contact tracing class , the first thing the health department case workers are supposed to do is confirm the address of the individual they ’ re calling—for good reason .
They don ’ t want to inadvertently give out confidential medical information to the wrong person .
Nonetheless , the post set off a firestorm in the group , generating more than 200 comments from people urging the woman to take the kids on the run , or at the very least to put some privacy settings on her Facebook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of some representative responses : “ I have no doubt they would show up at the house and demand to test everyone , and if any adult tested positive they would put the kids into the social services system , ” wrote one woman , to which someone else responded , “ That is EXACTLY the plan !
!
!
DO NOT GIVE ANY INFO !
!
!
!
!
!
” The Massachusetts health department did not respond to questions from Mother Jones about whether its contact tracing program is tied to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in eastern Washington and Idaho about quarantine camps have been so rampant that the leaders of the Washington State public health department had to put out an official statement on May 15 debunking them .
“ We believe any facilities included in local health plans are most likely to be used by people who are willing to voluntarily isolate or quarantine but don ’ t have a safe place available to do so , ” they said .
So far , the conspiracy theories don ’ t seem to be affecting the contact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ department ’ s Maria Courogen .
“ People are generally interested in protecting their families , ” she says .
“ They tend to be cooperative.
” Like Gurley , she doesn ’ t see what all the fuss is about .
After all , complying with any part of contact tracing is entirely voluntary .
“ We give people the option of not answering the questions , ” she says .
“ Nothing happens if they decide to hang up on us .
”

Public health officials, governors, and members of Congress all seem to agree that for the country to safely re-open for business and contain the spread of the new coronavirus, states and cities will need to roll out a massive new contact tracing program. That’s the public health strategy designed to identify everyone who’s come in contact with someone testing positive for the virus to encourage them to quarantine. “[T]racing, tracing, tracing” is one of the keys to opening the economy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a briefing in early May.
But lots of Americans have a very different view of contact tracing. “This is the next generation of brownshirts,” declared Jack Robertson, on his far-right radio show Radio Free Redoubt, which he broadcasts from Spokane, Washington, under the pseudonym John Jacob Schmidt. The program would be so invasive, Robertson assured his listeners, all restaurant patrons will have to provide their contact information as a condition of getting served in order to be tracked down later if someone gets sick. “You’re just going to have to give up going to restaurants,” he lamented.
Robertson is not alone in his view that contact tracing is a vast government conspiracy to infringe on people’s rights, rather than a standard public health intervention that’s been used to mitigate infectious diseases from tuberculosis to STDs to Ebola. Anti-vaccine activists, the John Birch Society, and many of those participating in “re-open” protests over the past month have declared their intention to resist any attempts to force them to participate. One member of the Reopen Virginia Facebook group recently posted a job announcement from the state public health department looking for 1,300 new contact tracers, with the caption, “Evidently the Gestapo is hiring.” Just in the past two weeks activists in Texas have formed a new group, Texans Against Contact Tracing, to oppose a new $295 million contract the state recently issued to hire hundreds of public health sleuths. They rallied for a protest at the state capital on May 24.
Texans Rally At State Capitol In Protest Of Contact Tracing https://t.co/Y1JILkxY2a — America Rising (@AmericaRising7) May 23, 2020
Even as Congress considers H.R. 6666, the unfortunately numbered COVID-19 TRACE Act sponsored by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Il.), which would devote $100 billion to helping states hire contact tracers, activists in the right-wing fever swamp have launched petitions and worked the phones to fight any expansion of this public health initiative. As Virginia state senator and GOP gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase posted on Facebook recently, “I will not be MASKED, TESTED, TRACKED, or CHIPPED to support this LIBERAL agenda.”
Failed California congressional candidate and Trump supporter DeAnna Lorraine Tesoriero warned in a livestreamed video that contact tracers should “scare the crap out of everyone,” adding, “President Trump, if you’re watching, you need to put a stop to this immediately.” A “dating, relationship and attraction coach” and author of Making Love Great Again, she is so suspicious of the ulterior motives of contact tracing that she says she’s going to get a job as one and go undercover and get to the bottom of things. “What kind of soulless, pathetic person would take a job as a contact tracer and sell out their fellow Americans?” she asked in a livestream May 19. “Who would do that? But then I realized, well, Antifa has been out of work for a while and so has MS-13, so maybe someone like them.”
“What kind of soulless, pathetic person would take a job as a contact tracer and sell out their fellow Americans?”
If Tesoriero really wants to know how it all works, there’s no need to go undercover. She could just take one of the online classes now available to help train the armies of contact tracers being hired by states to help quell the pandemic. I did—it’s free! The best-known one was created by the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and has now trained more than 268,000 people.
I signed on for five hours of video instruction from Hopkins epidemiologist Emily Gurley, whose soothing voice walked me through the origins of the SARS Covid-2 virus and all its clinical manifestations and transmission patterns. She covered the ethics of contact tracing and balancing individual rights with public health. She laid out the nuts and bolts of how to make a tracing call. Tesoriero may want to brush up on her math skills before she signs up—contact tracing involves more arithmetic than I had expected. It’s not hard, but it can be confusing. Tracers need to use exposure windows and infectious periods to work out how long someone needs to isolate themselves. (I scored an embarrassing 75 percent on my first try at the quiz on calculating isolation times.)
About half the class is devoted to building trust and rapport with people so they’ll be more inclined to cooperate. (Rule number one: “Do not offer personal opinions,” which may pose a special challenge for a MAGA relationship coach.) Much of the work involves educating sick people and their contacts about why it’s so important to isolate themselves. Far from the image spread by right-wing conspiracy theorists, contact tracers are a lot more like social workers than cops. According to my class, a contact tracer must “offer resources” to people trying to self-quarantine, like referrals for medical care, or grocery deliveries, or housing—all the things that would allow them to stay inside until they can’t infect anyone. Overall, there’s nothing in the class that would qualify as a state secret, though perhaps it should have devoted some time to dealing with folks like Tesoriero, who won’t be too happy to receive a call from a contact tracer working for the health department.
Of course, even the Hopkins class would not dissuade those who already are inclined to believe that contact tracing is a form of tyranny and a massive violation of Constitutional rights. A woman in California posting on Vimeo as FreedomLover1977 took the class and then made a 23-minute video about it entitled, “Contact Tracing Scarier than You Imagined.” It had been viewed more than 100,000 times by May 28. Opening with an ominous slide that reads, “Contact tracing: they will find you,” she promises, “You’re going to be freaked out by the end of this video.” Warning that law enforcement can access testing information and other data collected through contact tracing, she also notes darkly that public health authorities have the power to force sick people to quarantine. This is, of course, true and has been since the days of Typhoid Mary, but in the real world it virtually never happens.
I imagined calling someone who lived packed like a sardine into substandard housing and trying to explain that they really need to quarantine somewhere with a separate bedroom and a private bathroom if they don’t want to kill Grandma.
What people like FreedomLover1977 don’t realize is that the problem with contact tracing isn’t that it might lead the government to send people into a quarantine facility, but that the government can’t send people into a quarantine facility, because such places don’t really exist in this country. In fact, while I was taking the Hopkins class, I imagined calling someone who lived packed like a sardine into substandard housing and trying to explain that they really need to quarantine somewhere with a separate bedroom and a private bathroom if they don’t want to kill Grandma. In most parts of the country, a contact tracer would have absolutely nothing to offer such people except a sympathetic, “I hear you,” as outlined in Gurley’s “Tips for Effective Communication” class module.
Even if the US suddenly invested in huge numbers of hotel rooms for people to hunker down in until their infections passed, the health department is still unlikely to force anyone identified by a contact tracer to use them. “Local health authorities do have the authority to mandate isolation or quarantine, but they rarely use it because they know it will really discourage people from going to the doctor or getting tested,” says Maria Courogen, branch director for disease containment at the Washington State public health department, who is overseeing that state’s contact tracing efforts. “We know the practice of that would result in negative consequences that won’t help us combat the disease.”
Nonetheless, fear-mongering and conspiracy theories around contact tracing have been given still more momentum by the news that Massachusetts and other states are working with the Boston-based nonprofit health care organization Partners in Health to staff up their contact tracing programs. Co-founded in 1987 by Paul Farmer, PIH is best known for its work in Haiti combatting HIV and AIDS. But recently, as it has gotten involved in contact tracing during the coronavirus pandemic, PIH has become far more sinister for many conservatives and conspiracy theorists. Why? Because the Clinton Foundation and George Soros have funded it.
Fort Russ News, the pro-Russian media arm of the Belgrade-based Center for Syncretic Studies, published one of the weirder pieces of misinformation about PIH and its contact tracing work in Massachusetts. Its story entitled, “Revealed: Massachusetts Contact Tracing NGO Part Of Clinton Pedophile Ring In Haiti,” claimed PIH is “connected to child abduction and pedophilia trafficking in Haiti via the Clinton Foundation, to operate in the state as a Contact Tracing organization.” This one doesn’t seem to have really have gone viral with the same intensity as the pizzagate conspiracy did years ago, but variations on it have bubbled up to the mainstream.
On May 21, a local TV reporter asked Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) why the state was contracting with PIH, not because of its connections to the Clintons, but because its website says its vision is “to rectify ‘structural violence of capitalism.’”
“Contact tracing seems to be part of a larger social agenda for Partners In Health,” Jack Windsor, a reporter with WMFD TV in Mansfield told the governor. “Can you tell us why you chose to partner with an organization that demonizes capitalism and seems to be rooted in liberation theology based on Marxist ideals?” DeWine explained patiently that ideology in this case didn’t matter. “What I’m interested in is getting things done,” he said, pointing out that PIH has “done this type of work not only in the United States, but around the world. They’re pretty darn good at it.”
Gurley, the Hopkins epidemiologist who taught my class, is baffled by all of the political resistance to contact tracing and the conspiracy theories about it. “Conspiracies usually have a goal,” she said in an interview with Mother Jones. “I’m not quite sure what the goal of the conspiracy is.”
If you spend some time on the “reopen” protest Facebook groups, it becomes clear that a fair number of people believe one goal of contact-tracing is to take people’s children away. For instance, a woman in the Reopen Maryland group, which boasts nearly 27,000 members, recently posted that her daughter is a nurse who works with COVID-19 patients and recently caught the virus herself. The woman was caring for her grandchildren while her daughter was quarantined. But, she wrote, “[T]he fu..ing health department keeps calling me for my home address I refuse to give it to them in no way do they need to know this information I’m sure they will find it out but I’m sick of all this bullshit that the government thinks they can put us through anyone else been through this we need to get open and back to normal this shot pisses me off invasion of privacy.”
“Don’t give them shit they will come take the kids. I wouldn’t even tell the doctor I thought I had it unless I was about to die and needed to go to the hospital.”
“Don’t give them shit they will come take the kids. I wouldn’t even tell the doctor I thought I had it unless I was about to die and needed to go to the hospital,” counsels one poster. Another woman says she’d fire a warning shot with her Smith & Wesson at anyone who comes on her property and won’t leave. She writes, “DEFY all contact tracing efforts. Not only will they track you, they will track any and every person you come into contact with for 10 minutes or more. Turn off automatic updates, as they can download the tracing app WITHOUT your consent or knowledge. This is complete over reach [sic] and it must be STOPPED AND THWARTED!!!”
As I learned from the Hopkins contact tracing class, the first thing the health department case workers are supposed to do is confirm the address of the individual they’re calling—for good reason. They don’t want to inadvertently give out confidential medical information to the wrong person. Nonetheless, the post set off a firestorm in the group, generating more than 200 comments from people urging the woman to take the kids on the run, or at the very least to put some privacy settings on her Facebook page. Here’s a sampling of some representative responses: “I have no doubt they would show up at the house and demand to test everyone, and if any adult tested positive they would put the kids into the social services system,” wrote one woman, to which someone else responded, “That is EXACTLY the plan!!! DO NOT GIVE ANY INFO!!!!!!”
The Massachusetts health department did not respond to questions from Mother Jones about whether its contact tracing program is tied to a Clinton pedophile ring. But rumors in eastern Washington and Idaho about quarantine camps have been so rampant that the leaders of the Washington State public health department had to put out an official statement on May 15 debunking them. “We believe any facilities included in local health plans are most likely to be used by people who are willing to voluntarily isolate or quarantine but don’t have a safe place available to do so,” they said.
So far, the conspiracy theories don’t seem to be affecting the contact tracing work, says the Washington health department’s Maria Courogen. “People are generally interested in protecting their families,” she says. “They tend to be cooperative.” Like Gurley, she doesn’t see what all the fuss is about. After all, complying with any part of contact tracing is entirely voluntary. “We give people the option of not answering the questions,” she says. “Nothing happens if they decide to hang up on us.”


motherjones--2020-06-01--Inside the Bizarre Misinformation Campaign About a Hoax Blackout in DC

In the late hours of Sunday and early Monday morning , as Washington , DC , was in the throes of massive protests and police used teargas , rubber bullets , and what appeared to be flashbangs on demonstrators drawn out by the death of George Floyd , something confusing started happening online : the hashtag # DCBlackout started going viral on Twitter , accompanied by similar posts on Facebook and Reddit , claiming that sometime at around 1 am , internet service had gone down throughout the district , blocking people from using the internet or posting what was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost no evidence that suggests that this actually happened .
Mother Jones reporters in DC who were using the internet at the time didn ’ t notice outages , and no media outlets noticed or confirmed this either .
Regardless , the claim spread .
Just as quickly as # DCBlackout was catching on , another wave of accounts started to push back .
Except instead of being good samaritan accounts trying to push back on disinformation , they appeared to be apart of a coordinated network of accounts working at once to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yeah…… as someone seeing # dcblackout trending , who lives and works in the DC metro area , and who has friends telecommuting into DC rn….. this hashtag looks like misinformation .
‘ No social media from DC ’ because we were asleep .
Stop scaring people .
# dcsafe , ” dozens of accounts posted .
As he was watching all of this play out , Darius Kazemi , an independent researcher and programmer with years of experience researching social media and bots , knew he was seeing something weird .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confusion by stoking the fire on both sides , ” Kazemi , a former fellow at the Mozilla Foundation , explained on the phone .
While Kazemi caveated that there was still a lot he wasn ’ t sure of and that he didn ’ t have proof for any of his suspicions about motivations , he observed that many of the accounts , both those pushing # DCBlackout and refuting it , were engaged in what seemed to be coordinated behavior by all posting the same thing .
“ Whether it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or trolls ( individuals or groups of individuals organizing to create chaos ) , I can ’ t tell because the situation is rapidly evolving , ” Kazemi wrote in a tweet thread .
“ Also it ’ s very hard to tell what ‘ side ’ these accounts are on , as floating around I ’ ve seen claims , counterclaims , counter-counterclaims , and even counter-counter-counterclaims.
” He noted that some of the accounts appeared to have been potentially hacked , because they either posted the # dcblackout hashtag but quickly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying that they didn ’ t mean to post about the supposed blackout and that they weren ’ t sure how they had .
Kazemi also said that many participating accounts appeared to have been created very recently—within the last month or so .
Besides the fact there was almost certainly no telecommunications or internet blackout last night , it ’ s unclear exactly what happened and who was pushing the disinformation .
However , Twitter confirmed that at least some of Kazemi ’ s suspicions were correct .
A company spokesperson told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been sustained with scam accounts , and that it is “ taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue ” and is “ actively investigating the hashtag # dcblackout and during that process have already suspended hundreds of spammy accounts that Tweeted using the hashtag .
”

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
In the late hours of Sunday and early Monday morning, as Washington, DC, was in the throes of massive protests and police used teargas, rubber bullets, and what appeared to be flashbangs on demonstrators drawn out by the death of George Floyd, something confusing started happening online: the hashtag #DCBlackout started going viral on Twitter, accompanied by similar posts on Facebook and Reddit, claiming that sometime at around 1 am, internet service had gone down throughout the district, blocking people from using the internet or posting what was happening on social media.
There is almost no evidence that suggests that this actually happened. Mother Jones reporters in DC who were using the internet at the time didn’t notice outages, and no media outlets noticed or confirmed this either.
A lot of people are asking me about a possible #dcblackout. I’ve been out near the White House since 4 am and haven’t experienced any outage. My friend and colleague @ABC7HeatherGraf was covering the DC protests last night and was posting multiple updates. pic.twitter.com/ag1cuY3MOD — Victoria Sanchez (@VictoriaSanchez) June 1, 2020
I was texting during the supposed #dcblackout pic.twitter.com/HByb1aytE2 — Hunter Walker (@hunterw) June 1, 2020
Regardless, the claim spread. Just as quickly as #DCBlackout was catching on, another wave of accounts started to push back. Except instead of being good samaritan accounts trying to push back on disinformation, they appeared to be apart of a coordinated network of accounts working at once to spread the exact same message:
“Yeah…… as someone seeing #dcblackout trending, who lives and works in the DC metro area, and who has friends telecommuting into DC rn….. this hashtag looks like misinformation. ‘No social media from DC’ because we were asleep. Stop scaring people. #dcsafe,” dozens of accounts posted.
As he was watching all of this play out, Darius Kazemi, an independent researcher and programmer with years of experience researching social media and bots, knew he was seeing something weird.
“It seems like an operation to sow confusion by stoking the fire on both sides,” Kazemi, a former fellow at the Mozilla Foundation, explained on the phone. While Kazemi caveated that there was still a lot he wasn’t sure of and that he didn’t have proof for any of his suspicions about motivations, he observed that many of the accounts, both those pushing #DCBlackout and refuting it, were engaged in what seemed to be coordinated behavior by all posting the same thing.
“Whether it’s bots (meaning automated software) or trolls (individuals or groups of individuals organizing to create chaos), I can’t tell because the situation is rapidly evolving,” Kazemi wrote in a tweet thread. “Also it’s very hard to tell what ‘side’ these accounts are on, as floating around I’ve seen claims, counterclaims, counter-counterclaims, and even counter-counter-counterclaims.”
He noted that some of the accounts appeared to have been potentially hacked, because they either posted the #dcblackout hashtag but quickly deleted it, or posted accompanying messages saying that they didn’t mean to post about the supposed blackout and that they weren’t sure how they had. Kazemi also said that many participating accounts appeared to have been created very recently—within the last month or so.
Besides the fact there was almost certainly no telecommunications or internet blackout last night, it’s unclear exactly what happened and who was pushing the disinformation.
However, Twitter confirmed that at least some of Kazemi’s suspicions were correct. A company spokesperson told Mother Jones over email that the campaign had been sustained with scam accounts, and that it is “taking action proactively on any coordinated attempts to disrupt the public conversation around this issue” and is “actively investigating the hashtag #dcblackout and during that process have already suspended hundreds of spammy accounts that Tweeted using the hashtag.”


motherjones--2020-06-02--Republicans Won’t Even Criticize Trump for Gassing Protestors for a Photo Op

On Tuesday , federal law enforcement officials gassed peaceful protestors so President Donald Trump could have a photo op .
The crackdown in Washington ’ s Lafeyette Park earned widespread condemnation , including from former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen and from the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington , but the bizarre photo op which followed , during which the president wielded someone else ’ s Bible as a prop ( “ Is that your Bible ?
” “ It ’ s a Bible.
” ) made some Christians happy as clams .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part , they either loved the whole show , or have never heard of Donald Trump but would like everyone to know that The Left Is Bad .
“ I didn ’ t watch it closely enough to know , ” said Sen. Mitt Romney ( R-Utah ) .
Sen. Ted Cruz ( R-Texas ) thinks the only abuse of power came from the protesters ( who were exercising their First Amendment rights to free assembly ) .
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused , as usual , to critique the president .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ up , “ Violence is scary.
” Sen. Lisa Murkowski ( R-Alaska ) issued a lukewarm condemnation , saying last night ’ s events were “ not the America that I know.
” Sen. Chuck Grassley ( R-Iowa ) defended the president ’ s actions , telling CNN that it would be “ okay ” to use force against the protesters if police expected even five percent of them to be violent .
In a tweet , Sen. Marco Rubio ( R-Fla. ) called protesters “ professional agitators ” who intentionally stayed out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” So far , Sen. Ben Sasse ( R-Neb . )
has called it as he saw it : “ To Trump , the Bible and the church are not symbols of faith , The Atlantic ’ s McKay Coppins wrote of the incident .
“ They are weapons of culture war.
” Tear gas is also one of those weapons .
And Senate Republicans apparently wouldn ’ t have it any other way .

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
On Tuesday, federal law enforcement officials gassed peaceful protesters so President Donald Trump could have a photo op. The crackdown in Washington’s Lafeyette Park earned widespread condemnation, including from former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen and from the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, but the bizarre photo op which followed, during which the president wielded someone else’s Bible as a prop (“Is that your Bible?” “It’s a Bible.”) made some Christians happy as clams.
I don’t know about you but I’ll take a president with a Bible in his hand in front of a church over far left violent radicals setting a church on fire any day of the week. @POTUS @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse #StJohnsChurch pic.twitter.com/84uZf6GAme — David Brody (@DavidBrodyCBN) June 2, 2020
And Republicans? Well, for the most part, they either loved the whole show, or have never heard of Donald Trump but would like everyone to know that The Left Is Bad.
“I didn’t watch it closely enough to know,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) thinks the only abuse of power came from the protesters (who were exercising their First Amendment rights to free assembly). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused, as usual, to critique the president. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) mustered up, “Violence is scary.”
I asked Sen. McConnell if President Trump’s leadership was right for this moment. “I’m not going to critique other people’s performances,” he said. — Kasie Hunt (@kasie) June 2, 2020
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) issued a lukewarm condemnation, saying last night’s events were “not the America that I know.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) defended the president’s actions, telling CNN that it would be “okay” to use force against the protesters if police expected even five percent of them to be violent. In a tweet, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called protesters “professional agitators” who intentionally stayed out past curfew to “trigger police action.”
So far, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) has called it as he saw it:
GOP Sen. @BenSasse: “I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop” — Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) June 2, 2020
“To Trump, the Bible and the church are not symbols of faith, The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins wrote of the incident. “They are weapons of culture war.”
Tear gas is also one of those weapons. And Senate Republicans apparently wouldn’t have it any other way.


motherjones--2020-06-02--Top General Defends His Actions After Appearing in Trump Photo Op

General Mark Milley , the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , faced heavy criticism after being photographed in his military uniform during President Donald Trump ’ s needless photo op last night—an event that involved protesters being tear-gassed to clear the path for Trump ’ s entourage .
Now the Pentagon is defending Milley ’ s actions , claiming he was unaware of the plan to drive out protesters .
The stunt , which culminated in Trump holding a Bible in front of St. John ’ s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square , was widely derided by Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bishop who oversees the church .
Michael Hayden , a retired Air Force general who led the CIA and NSA under three presidents , tweeted that he was “ appalled ” to see Milley in “ battle dress ” and retweeted several posts criticizing Milley , including one that called for him to resign or be removed .
After Trump ’ s speech , Milley was spotted walking around DC after curfew to observe National Guard personnel .
Asked what his message was for Guard units when dealing with protesters , Milley @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , freedom of speech .
That ’ s perfectly fine.
” Rep. Adam Smith ( D-Wash. ) , who chairs the House Armed Services Committee , told reporters during a conference call on Tuesday that Milley “ may have misread slightly ” the situation .
The two spoke briefly on Monday night , and Smith said that he trusts Milley ’ s word that the Joint Chiefs chairman was only with Trump to ensure National Guard members stationed in Lafayette Park “ acted appropriately.
” An unnamed Pentagon official similarly told reporters that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not planned to participate in Trump ’ s photo op .
“ They were not aware that the Park Police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square , ” the official said .
“ And once they had begun to walk off the White House grounds with the president , they continued with him.
” A spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs did not respond to a request for comment .
Smith said he plans to formally invite Milley and Esper to address committee members at a public hearing next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the response to the protests .
“ I ’ m concerned about what I ’ ve seen , ” he said .
Other members of Congress indicated that they too plan to turn up the pressure on Milley .
Rep. Ruben Gallego ( D-Ariz. ) , a Marine Corps veteran who serves on the Armed Services Committee , tweeted that he wants to know whether Milley will “ obey illegal orders from the President.
” Trump has repeatedly suggested that active-duty members of the military could be more involved in cracking down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are barred from performing a law enforcement function domestically , but before heading to the church , Trump threatened to invoke an 1807 law that would allow him to deploy soldiers “ in cases of insurrections.
” These troops would supplement more than 17,000 members of the National Guard who have already been deployed across 23 states and Washington , DC .

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, faced heavy criticism after being photographed in his military uniform during President Donald Trump’s needless photo op last night—an event that involved protesters being tear-gassed to clear the path for Trump’s entourage. Now the Pentagon is defending Milley’s actions, claiming he was unaware of the plan to drive out protesters.
.@realDonaldTrump walks from the White House to the Historic St. John’s Church that was damaged during a night of unrest. pic.twitter.com/TWUckesbnE — Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) June 2, 2020
The stunt, which culminated in Trump holding a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square, was widely derided by Trump critics, some Republicans, and even the bishop who oversees the church. Michael Hayden, a retired Air Force general who led the CIA and NSA under three presidents, tweeted that he was “appalled” to see Milley in “battle dress” and retweeted several posts criticizing Milley, including one that called for him to resign or be removed.
After Trump’s speech, Milley was spotted walking around DC after curfew to observe National Guard personnel. Asked what his message was for Guard units when dealing with protesters, Milley said, “Allow freedom to assemble, freedom of speech. That’s perfectly fine.”
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters during a conference call on Tuesday that Milley “may have misread slightly” the situation. The two spoke briefly on Monday night, and Smith said that he trusts Milley’s word that the Joint Chiefs chairman was only with Trump to ensure National Guard members stationed in Lafayette Park “acted appropriately.”
“The optics sent a different message,” Smith noted.
An unnamed Pentagon official similarly told reporters that Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper had not planned to participate in Trump’s photo op. “They were not aware that the Park Police and law enforcement had made a decision to clear the square,” the official said. “And once they had begun to walk off the White House grounds with the president, they continued with him.”
A spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs did not respond to a request for comment.
Smith said he plans to formally invite Milley and Esper to address committee members at a public hearing next week on the military’s role in the response to the protests. “I’m concerned about what I’ve seen,” he said. Other members of Congress indicated that they too plan to turn up the pressure on Milley. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a Marine Corps veteran who serves on the Armed Services Committee, tweeted that he wants to know whether Milley will “obey illegal orders from the President.”
Trump has repeatedly suggested that active-duty members of the military could be more involved in cracking down on protesters. Normally, US troops are barred from performing a law enforcement function domestically, but before heading to the church, Trump threatened to invoke an 1807 law that would allow him to deploy soldiers “in cases of insurrections.” These troops would supplement more than 17,000 members of the National Guard who have already been deployed across 23 states and Washington, DC.


motherjones--2020-06-02--America’s Most Racist Member of Congress Might Finally Lose His Job

Last April , a few months after Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King was stripped of his committee assignments for defending white nationalism in a newspaper interview , the Washington Post asked a provocative question : “ What the heck does Steve King do all day ?
” The answer , it turns out , was not very much .
As the judiciary committee he once served on became the focal point of the impeachment hearings , as the agriculture committee he served on became a battleground in Trump ’ s trade war , King has had about as much sway @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any other private citizen with an internet connection .
He filmed short videos for Facebook Live .
He seemed to spend a lot of time talking about the conservative YouTube personalities Diamond & Silk .
He took a 30-minute meeting with a distant relative “ trying to remember all of my aunts and uncles and my brother and where they fit in , ” the relative told the Post .
Fourteen months have passed since that story , and the only significant adjustment to that status quo is this : Soon , King @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not show up to .
On Tuesday , the nine-term Congress member faces the toughest primary challenge of his career , against state Sen. Randy Feenstra .
The race is a toss-up , according to the polls .
Feenstra has lapped King in fundraising and endorsements .
King ’ s racist and rambling tenure on the Hill might finally be coming to an end .
By now , King ’ s rap sheet speaks for itself .
I would suggest you just google it .
There ’ s Business Insider ’ s “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people left on Earth without ‘ rape and incest.
’ Here are his most disturbing comments.
” Or try this website ’ s “ Steve King Was Saying Insanely Racist Things Long Before Republicans Decided Enough Was Enough.
” Even the New York Times once published “ A Timeline of Steve King ’ s Racist Remarks and Divisive Actions.
” Many of the comments that have gotten him this kind of national press are about Mexicans and Muslims .
Some of them are about abortion or Barack Obama .
He used to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comment , per se , but it did speak volumes .
But his tough reelection fight isn ’ t really about those things .
His opponent , Feenstra , is anti-immigration , pro-Trump , and anti-abortion—he boasts of being the lead sponsor of the state ’ s “ heartbeat bill , ” which banned abortion after a heartbeat is detected .
Feenstra ’ s closing ad features a shot of the border fence , and a promise to finish the job .
That should sound familiar to voters in the district .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s most loyal defender .
King used to bring little models of a border wall onto the floor of the House .
He was pushing Trump ’ s immigration policies long before Trump entered the picture .
( This was actually the premise of that Times piece in which King defended white supremacy . )
King co-sponsored the congressional version of the Heartbeat Bill .
Feenstra is not running against King so much as he has running to continue the work that King , his days blissfully free of committee responsibilities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do : I ’ d show you King ’ s closing ad , but true to form , he doesn ’ t have one .
In the race of his life , his campaign office is as bereft of activity as his congressional one .
He raised practically no money , and much of that went to either fundraising efforts or family members who work on his campaign .
Many of his biggest donors , in agriculture and ethanol , jumped ship once their Congress member lost the ability to actually work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The state ’ s most prominent social conservative activist , Bob Vander Plaats , jumped to Feenstra .
So did the state ’ s biggest Republican funder , billionaire Bruce Rastetter .
With few resources , King mostly seems to just post tons of memes to his Facebook page—often from the young conservative group Turning Point USA—appended with a bit of commentary so simple a third grader might understand .
Some clapping hands ( in response to a Trump tweet about designating antifa as a terrorist organization ) .
A smiley face and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a quote from the actor James Woods bashing liberals ) .
And so on .
King used to be a troll who also sat on the agriculture committee .
Now he ’ s just a troll .
A January fundraising solicitation told the story of the race : King posted a video of a smiling baby next to the text “ FUND OUR MEMES !
!
!
” The baby ’ s mother demanded he take it down .
There is something fitting about the career of a racist Congress member perhaps crashing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against racism .
( King ’ s contribution to the protest discourse is , predictably , a lot of memes . )
But if King loses his job , it won ’ t be because of what he believes .
If Republicans in Iowa and elsewhere had a problem with King ’ s racism before , they mostly kept it to themselves—Feenstra himself once told King ’ s son ( who is also King ’ s campaign manager ) that he would never think of running against the Congress member .
As someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ else in the first-in-the-nation caucus state , King was someone ambitious politicians had to suck up to , to praise on the stump or go duck hunting with .
Ted Cruz made King his presidential campaign ’ s national co-chair .
They put up with his little replicas of the fence , his comments about immigrant kids with “ calves the size of cantaloupes , ” his complaints about multiculturalism and replacement theory , his fraternizing with European bigots .
First he came for the Mexicans , and then Chuck Grassley endorsed him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job , it won ’ t be because of how he did it , but because he literally no longer could .
The party never came close to abandoning him until it looked not only like he might lose a solidly red district , but that Democrats would pick up so many seats in the House that his district would be irrelevant .
Even then , enough leading lights rallied to his support so he could beat Democrat J.D .
Scholten in 2018 by a few thousand votes .
King ’ s interview @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Times , in which he offered variations of the same things he ’ d been saying for years , was not the breaking point or a departure from his normal rhetoric ; it was just an excuse at an opportune moment .
Keeping the seat again with a legislator who can ’ t legislate might be harder against Scholten this fall than simply finding another super-conservative pro-life , pro-wall , pro-Trump candidate to take over instead .
After all these years , Steve King is finally expendable .

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
Last April, a few months after Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King was stripped of his committee assignments for defending white nationalism in a newspaper interview, the Washington Post asked a provocative question: “What the heck does Steve King do all day?”
The answer, it turns out, was not very much. As the judiciary committee he once served on became the focal point of the impeachment hearings, as the agriculture committee he served on became a battleground in Trump’s trade war, King has had about as much sway in Washington during the 116th Congress as any other private citizen with an internet connection. He filmed short videos for Facebook Live. He seemed to spend a lot of time talking about the conservative YouTube personalities Diamond & Silk. He took a 30-minute meeting with a distant relative “trying to remember all of my aunts and uncles and my brother and where they fit in,” the relative told the Post.
Fourteen months have passed since that story, and the only significant adjustment to that status quo is this: Soon, King might not even have a job to not show up to. On Tuesday, the nine-term Congress member faces the toughest primary challenge of his career, against state Sen. Randy Feenstra. The race is a toss-up, according to the polls. Feenstra has lapped King in fundraising and endorsements. King’s racist and rambling tenure on the Hill might finally be coming to an end.
By now, King’s rap sheet speaks for itself. I would suggest you just google it. There’s Business Insider’s “Steve King questioned if there would be people left on Earth without ‘rape and incest.’ Here are his most disturbing comments.” Or try this website’s “Steve King Was Saying Insanely Racist Things Long Before Republicans Decided Enough Was Enough.” Even the New York Times once published “A Timeline of Steve King’s Racist Remarks and Divisive Actions.” Many of the comments that have gotten him this kind of national press are about Mexicans and Muslims. Some of them are about abortion or Barack Obama. He used to keep a Confederate flag on his desk—not a comment, per se, but it did speak volumes.
But his tough reelection fight isn’t really about those things. His opponent, Feenstra, is anti-immigration, pro-Trump, and anti-abortion—he boasts of being the lead sponsor of the state’s “heartbeat bill,” which banned abortion after a heartbeat is detected. Feenstra’s closing ad features a shot of the border fence, and a promise to finish the job. That should sound familiar to voters in the district. The incumbent, King, views himself as Trump’s most loyal defender. King used to bring little models of a border wall onto the floor of the House. He was pushing Trump’s immigration policies long before Trump entered the picture. (This was actually the premise of that Times piece in which King defended white supremacy.) King co-sponsored the congressional version of the Heartbeat Bill.
Feenstra is not running against King so much as he has running to continue the work that King, his days blissfully free of committee responsibilities, is no longer in a position to do:
I’d show you King’s closing ad, but true to form, he doesn’t have one. In the race of his life, his campaign office is as bereft of activity as his congressional one. He raised practically no money, and much of that went to either fundraising efforts or family members who work on his campaign. Many of his biggest donors, in agriculture and ethanol, jumped ship once their Congress member lost the ability to actually work on the issues they care about. The state’s most prominent social conservative activist, Bob Vander Plaats, jumped to Feenstra. So did the state’s biggest Republican funder, billionaire Bruce Rastetter.
With few resources, King mostly seems to just post tons of memes to his Facebook page—often from the young conservative group Turning Point USA—appended with a bit of commentary so simple a third grader might understand. Some clapping hands (in response to a Trump tweet about designating antifa as a terrorist organization). A smiley face and an American flag (in response to a quote from the actor James Woods bashing liberals). And so on. King used to be a troll who also sat on the agriculture committee. Now he’s just a troll. A January fundraising solicitation told the story of the race: King posted a video of a smiling baby next to the text “FUND OUR MEMES!!!” The baby’s mother demanded he take it down.
There is something fitting about the career of a racist Congress member perhaps crashing to a halt amid a national protest against racism. (King’s contribution to the protest discourse is, predictably, a lot of memes.) But if King loses his job, it won’t be because of what he believes. If Republicans in Iowa and elsewhere had a problem with King’s racism before, they mostly kept it to themselves—Feenstra himself once told King’s son (who is also King’s campaign manager) that he would never think of running against the Congress member. As someone who represented more Republican voters than anyone else in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, King was someone ambitious politicians had to suck up to, to praise on the stump or go duck hunting with. Ted Cruz made King his presidential campaign’s national co-chair. They put up with his little replicas of the fence, his comments about immigrant kids with “calves the size of cantaloupes,” his complaints about multiculturalism and replacement theory, his fraternizing with European bigots. First he came for the Mexicans, and then Chuck Grassley endorsed him.
No, if he loses his job, it won’t be because of how he did it, but because he literally no longer could. The party never came close to abandoning him until it looked not only like he might lose a solidly red district, but that Democrats would pick up so many seats in the House that his district would be irrelevant. Even then, enough leading lights rallied to his support so he could beat Democrat J.D. Scholten in 2018 by a few thousand votes.
King’s interview after the election in the New York Times, in which he offered variations of the same things he’d been saying for years, was not the breaking point or a departure from his normal rhetoric; it was just an excuse at an opportune moment. Keeping the seat again with a legislator who can’t legislate might be harder against Scholten this fall than simply finding another super-conservative pro-life, pro-wall, pro-Trump candidate to take over instead. After all these years, Steve King is finally expendable.