Delegates to the Minnesota state Republican Party’s weekend convention observed a “moment of silence” for convicted murderer Derek Chauvin – that in reality lasted only about 10 seconds but was approved in an overwhelming voice vote – with the vast majority of the 2,000 delegates present having affirmed their mourning for the still-living federal inmate, the Minnesota Reformer reports.
“I apologize because I know you asked me not to do this. I’d like to suspend the rules for a moment of reflection for Derek Chauvin,” said delegate Christopher Rocco to the gathering. Rocco, who told the Reformer he prefers to be called just Rocco or “Mr Rocco,” added that he called for Chauvin to be pardoned and/or granted a retrial for the murder of George Floyd over a fake $20 bill, even though Chauvin pleaded guilty at the federal level and is scheduled to be released circa 2038 after the completion of his concurrent double state/federal sentence of 21 years. For Chauvin to be released early would require Republican candidates for governor and attorney general to defeat Dem Senator Amy Klobuchar and incumbent AG Keith Ellison, respectively, in this November’s election, for those candidates to appoint pro-Chauvin members to the state clemency review and pardon boards, for those appointees to accept an application from Chauvin, and THEN for convicted felon President Trump to pardon and/or commute Chauvin’s federal sentence. A fed pardon alone just sends Chauvin being sent back to Minnesota to serve roughly the same amount of remaining time.
Chauvin was transferred to a federal prison in Texas after being stabbed 22 times by another inmate in November 2023. Worth asking how his carceral living situation is currently given the widely-reported creature comforts afforded to another politically-favored current federal inmate in Texas.
Anyway, Kendall Qualls, a Black Republican who at that very same convention won the state party’s endorsement in the gubernatorial primary, struggled to address the obviously incongruous support for Chauvin and himself from a plainly white supremacist crowd at the event when asked about it:
Jump ahead to about 6:45 to hear KCCO host Chad Hartman ask Qualls for his take. He stutters for a bit before landing on “I do have my own concerns about the trial itself and the condition of Derek Chauvin, how he was treated.” Real profile in courage from the guy more viable than Mike Lindell.
State Representaive Danny Nadeau, who chaired the convention, was a little more resolute on the guilt of a racist sociopath who killed a man in cold blood over a fucking fake $20 bill, telling the Reformer he doesn’t “question even remotely whether” Chauvin “was rightfully convicted,” while a little more flexible on whether he should have been actually honored by a body Nadeau was overseeing. Nadeau told the Reformer that Rocco had approached him prior to the assembly giving him the heads up, to which Nadeau said he told Rocco that “it’s not the time or the place.”
“It’s a very divisive issue,” Nadeau continued. Obviously it wasn’t that divisive given the overwhelming ayes during the voice vote that Nadeau had immediately allowed anyway.
Least troubled of all by the incident was “Mr” Rocco himself, who in a Monday YouTube video explained why he called for the moment of silence. “Not because [Chauvin] died, but because the moment you were silent on injustice is the moment that you are complicit in injustice.”
Ummm… Guess he was referring to the vote rather than the moment of silence itself.