Joe Biden and Kamala Harris attend funeral of slain Minnesota lawmaker | Minnesota
The former Democratic president of Minnesota State House, Melissa Hortman, was honored for her legislative achievements and her humanity during a burial on Saturday which was assisted by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
The former president and vice-president was joined by more than 1,000 other people in mourning.
Hortman was shot down during a pair of attacks two weeks earlier by a man pretending to be a police officer. The main federal prosecutor of Minnesota described the murder of assassination. The shots also left her husband, Mark, dead and a state senator and his seriously injured wife.
“Melissa Hortman will remain memories as the most consecutive speaker in the history of Minnesota. I remember her as a close friend, a mentor and the most talented legislator I have ever known,” said Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in her praise.
Walz, who was Harris’ package in the White House elections in 2024 won by Donald Trump, added: “For seven years, I had the privilege of signing his program.
Neither Biden nor Harris were talking, but they sat in the front row with Walz. Biden was also one of the more than 7,500 people who paid tribute on Friday while Hortman, her husband and their Golden Retriever, Gilbert, were in a state of the Minnesota Capitol rotunda in St Paul. Gilbert was seriously injured in the attack and had to be euthanized. Biden also visited the Senator injured in a hospital.
Dozens of current and former state legislators of the two parties and other elected officials who worked with Hortman also participated.
As a speaker of the Chamber, Hortman has helped adopt a vast program of liberal initiatives such as free lunches for pupils of public schools as well as reinforced protections for abortion and trans rights during a capital legislative session in 2023. The Chamber divided 67-67 between Democrats and Republicans this year, gave the hammer Executive of a power sharing agreement, took the title of Emerita title and helped to break a budgetary dead end which threatened to close the government of the State.
Walz said Hortman – who was elected for the first time in 2004 – saw his mission as “to do as many good people as possible”. And he said that his accent on people was what made her so effective.
“She certainly knew how to get her way – without a doubt,” said Walz. “But she never made anyone feel that they had been rolled at a negotiating table.
The governor said the best way to honor Hortmans would be to follow their example.
“This is perhaps this moment when each of us can examine the way we work together, the way we are talking about each other, the way we fight for the things that are interested in,” said Walz. “A moment when each of us can re -enter into politics and life as Mark and Melissa have done – fiercely, with enthusiasm, warmly, but without ever losing sight of our common humanity.”
A private burial for Hortmans will take place on a later date.
The Hortmans were proud of their adult children, Sophie and Colin Hortman, and the legislator often talked about it.
In a suffocated voice of emotion, Colin said that his parents embodied the “golden rule”, and he read the prayer of Saint-François, which his mother always kept in his wallet. He said it captures his essence. It starts: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
After the service, Walz presented the children with the flags and flags of Minnesota who flew over the state capitol on the day of their parents’ death.
The man accused of having killed the Hortmans at their home in the suburbs of Minneapolis in Brooklyn Park on June 14, and injured the senator from the Democratic State John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their home in Champlin nearby, went near his home on the night of June 15.
Vance Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, remains imprisoned and did not plead the charges that could bear the federal death.
