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I asked the GOP leadership to publicly reject the big lie claiming the election of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, “proudly” certified by former Vice President Mike Pence, was stolen. So far no answer. We can only assume the local GOP leadership wants us to believe the big lie.

I am sure the local GOP leadership watched and listened to the testimony of the four police officers who bravely put their lives on the line to defend democracy on Jan. 6.   

During his testimony, Officer Michael Fanone struck his fist on the table and called out the GOP congressional leadership to be “disgraceful.” Officer Daniel Hodges tells us his firsthand experience recognized “terrorists” attacking the U.S. Capitol.

As long as the local GOP leadership fails to publicly reject the big lie, we can only also assume this same leadership does reject the testimony of the four police officers.

Here is a fact I would like to point out for the GOP leadership to consider. Fifty-seven of the 100 U.S. Senators representing 202,119,286 Americans found Donald Trump to be “guilty” of “Incitement of Insurrection.” That is a super majority of all Americans.

Are we going to see a full size cardboard cutout of Donald Trump at the Freeborn County Fair? If so, we no longer need to assume the local GOP leadership embraces the big lie and rejects the testimony of the four police officers. Then each of these would be a fact.

What exactly does the local GOP leaderships support?  Certainly not Democracy. Certainly not law enforcement.

Ted Hinnenkamp

Albert Lea