Former Rep. Jason Lewis, the Republican Senate candidate for Minnesota, said that the explosion of riots and civil unrest “widens the silent majority” and could very well put Minnesota in President Trump’s victory column in November on Tuesday’s edition of Breitbart News Tonight with host Washington Political Editor Matthew Boyle
Lewis, who is challenging Democrat incumbent Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) in the Gopher State, said that the riots, coupled with Democrat leadership’s refusal to condemn the lawlessness, essentially widens the silent majority.
“I think it widens the silent majority. So remember the silent majority from the Nixon era we were talking about, but now you really expand that because the riots are trying to intimidate people, right? Trying to get everybody to conform, which is the goal of the cancel culture and everything else,” he said.
“But all that does is drive people underground. So these polls you mentioned are probably under accounting Trump supporters, Lewis supporters, by a wide margin,” he said, noting that suburban parents do not like seeing the unrest come to their own communities.
“The moment that Minnesota Democrats — from the mayor to the governor to the senator — said we’re not going to enforce the law — third precinct? You want it? You can have it. We’ll stand down. The cat was out of the bag right?” he continued. “I mean, it was gone then. At that point, the word went out. They’re going to back down and riots and protests started all over the country. And unfortunately, that was on us, well not us, on Minnesota Democrats.”
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Lewis added that his opponent, Smith, took to the Senate floor and said “we have to have a discussion about the dangerous role police play in society.”
“LA cops are being ambushed. You’ve got people undercutting the blue everywhere. Look you don’t compound one injustice with a million more,” he added.
The riots, Lewis continued, added “insult to injury” to the economic lockdowns spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.
Boyle noted Smith’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and Lewis said if voters want to stick it to China this election, neither Biden nor Smith are the way to do that.
“This is classic swamp stuff. If you’ve got $1.5 billion in offshore tax havens, if you’re selling your stock while the president is battling COVID instead of looking out for Americans in Minnesota, you’re going to have a problem,” Lewis said.
“Nowhere is this more a microcosm than Minnesota,” he said, listing two projects, including the Enbridge Pipeline coming through north-central Minnesota.
“North Dakota signed off on it. Wisconsin and Superior, they signed off on it. Guess what state’s holding it up thanks to the governor and thanks to Tina Smith? Minnesota,” Lewis said. “You’re talking 8,600 jobs there. $2 billion worth of private investment for a dilapidated pipeline built in the 60s … and they won’t let us rebuild it.”
“Those would create literally thousands of great, high-paying manufacturing jobs — if you will, Minnesota jobs. And she’s stalling. Why?” he asked, concluding that radical Democrats are “beholden” to the Green New Deal, Sierra Club, and a “radical trust fund environmentalist movement that doesn’t have to worry about putting food on the table.”
“That’s the difference between Tina Smith and Jason Lewis. I’m going to get those jobs in Minnesota and she’s going to block them,” he said.
Lewis continually expressed optimism that the president can take Minnesota in November, explaining that what occurred in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan in 2016 has since been “amplified” in Minnesota.
“The Democrats keep doubling down on extremism and it’s just not playing well,” he said.
Lewis also highlighted the enthusiasm gap on Biden’s side in the state, telling listeners that there are “literally no Biden signs in greater Minnesota.”
“No Tina Smith signs. Only Trump-Pence and Lewis,” he said.
“You’ve got a governor who called greater Minnesota the land of rocks and cows and then proceeds to shut them down while he doesn’t enforce the law against looters and criminals. That set the stage. Now you’ve got the riots that added insult to injury to the economic lockdowns, the suspension of the Bill of Rights, if you will, and you’re set for a real — I wouldn’t even call it an upset, Matt,” he said.
“Look, people think of Minnesota like New York and California, and it never was,” he added, noting that Ronald Reagan only lost Minnesota to Walter Mondale in 1984 by “about a quarter of a percent.”
President Trump lost Minnesota in 2016 by less than 45,000 votes. If he were to win the state in 2020, it would be historic — the first time a Republican presidential candidate will have taken the state since the presidential election of 1972.
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern.