← Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present
Kids of Murdered Lawmaker Plead with Trump: Take Down That Post
00:17:02
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- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:06]
B
Hey there, folks. It is Monday, January 5th, and the children of a slain lawmaker are pleading with President Trump to please, please take down a social media post saying this might be a necessary step towards decency. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. That's what stood out to me in this whole mess right now is basic decency. Step one is just the basic decency. What do you make of this whole story we're getting into? But just the idea that decency is at the forefront of this story.
- [00:48]
A
Yes. And that you have children who are grieving who just spent the holidays without their parents because of a political assassination. So something that we have been talking about and dealing with, sadly, in the last few months, they're now having to ask it, almost as if they're pleading with the president, please, please take this down. It fans. And it fuels the flames of conspiracy theories and it gets people killed.
- [01:21]
B
And he says the family here saying, Mr. President, you're hurting us, you are hurting this family all over again by what you're doing. Now, as many people know, the president is known to tweet quite a bit. He uses true social. We've had nights where he's absolutely put out a hundred posts overnight. He had a very active night again last night. But something that stood out, Robes. And what we're talking about is Melissa Hortman. A lot of people remember over the summer, there was a man who seemed to be on a tear, at least, going around shooting lawmakers, targeting lawmakers in, in Minnesota. Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed that evening. Their children are the ones now speaking out because ropes the president has put out or reposted, I should say, a video that suggests that the current governor of Minnesota was in some way tied to the deaths of this state lawmaker, which is just preposterous at this point.
- [02:20]
A
It's fantasy. It's preposterous. And this has been going on since the actual gunman was apprehended. There was a letter that they found in his vehicle addressed to FBI Director Cash Patel. Where and you all, everyone who has read this letter said it is delusional. But he said that he committed this assassination, these assassinations and certainly these shootings, because they weren't the only ones who were injured and ultimately killed in this attack. But he claims that Governor Tim Waltz told him to do it, asked him to do it, because he wanted to become a senator. So we asked him to take out other lawmakers. It was pure Fantasy, according to everyone who read this letter.
- [03:03]
B
It was the law enforcement, by the way, correct?
- [03:05]
A
Yes, everyone has debunked this letter. But to take a letter written by someone who now stands facing multiple federal murder charges, to take that and to make it seem as though it were fact or to fuel this conspiracy theory that somehow Tim Waltz was behind these assassinations in Minnesota, in his own state, by members of his own party, is a preposterous notion.
- [03:32]
B
Conspiracy theories are going to be out there online, nonstop. When the President of the United States posts something like this, it elevates it and it moves it to another level. We know as of late, not even as of late, but for a long time, I mean, this guy was the VP candidate, Tim Waltz. He has had problems with Tim Waltz for a long time and has gone after him in every chance he can. The whole issue now with Somalis in that state and the whole child care or daycare fraud investigation is going on. There's legit fraud, I think everybody admits there. But the President has now taken this and targeted the Somali community, targeted Ilhan Omar and targeted Tim Waltz. So he is taking advantage of a situation. This now elevates it. And if there is some decency in there when the children are saying, Mr. President, I mean, is he even going to get this message? But I would imagine this was such an impassioned thing and we can get into their statements now, but the two kids, I mean, how could he not take this down?
- [04:30]
A
This, this is a. And you say impassioned plea to the president that this is not about politics. This is about, as you pointed earlier, babe, human decency. This is recognizing that when you make, or at least you. You put out or you elevate certain conspiracy theories, it isn't just about politics. It isn't just about getting votes and getting people on your side. You are actually hurting people and harming people. Tim Waltz went even further and said, you are potentially getting more innocent people killed by putting this type of thing out there and elevating it on your truth Social post. But Colin Hortman and Sophie Hortman are the children of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. Here is what Colin Hortman said. My father and mother, Mark and Melissa Hortman and their dog Gilbert were killed by a man who believed conspiracy theories and fake news. Words matter. Sharing fake news is dangerous. One part of my grief journey has been understanding the last conversation with my mother. She loved her job and people respected her job and what she did at her job. So he Talks about the vote that a lot of people have pointed to as the reason behind her death, which has been largely debunked. And this is all fueling this conspiracy theory. But at the end of the day, he talks about how all of that is untrue and says, I am asking President Trump to remove the video that he shared and apologize to me and my family for posting this misinformation and for using my mother's own words and to dishonor her memory.
- [06:12]
B
You know, I think it's a stretch to get him to take it down. I think it's beyond a stretch to expect him to apologize. I think that's probably fair. But this is worrying. Robes, we talk about political assassinations. We have actually seen them in this country as of late. And he's putting a target on you. Actually, the president is promoting the possibility of a sitting governor being a criminal to the point of having someone else killed. In some people's twisted minds, in some circles, that means Tim Waltz is a criminal and he is a target to be taken out justifiably.
- [06:52]
A
That is worrying, babe. I went onto Twitter.
- [06:54]
B
That's worrying.
- [06:55]
A
Or X and I saw to what you're. What you're saying. I saw this original post and other. Lots of people have reposted it, not just the president. When you read the comments, and it is scary. People are absolutely 100% believing this, saying, why hasn't Tim Waltz been arrested? Why is he still allowed to be governor? What is it going to take for people to understand that Tim Waltz was behind these murder? I mean, really, it's scary. One comment after another. So, yes, this does matter. And we didn't just hear from Colin. We heard from Sophie as well. And I wanted to read a little bit of her statement as well. The video being shared by the president is another hurdle our family must overcome. In grieving the loss of my parents, Mark and Melissa, and their beloved dog, Gilbert, I ask President Trump to please consider the pain and sadness we have faced and to honor the spirit of the holidays we have just spent without our parents. By taking down the post on Truth Social. We must create a society in which we do not harbor hatred and. And violence toward our political opponents. And this video promotes a false narrative which fuels the flames of political division. Well done.
- [08:11]
B
They could have been. I mean, they. Again, I say impassioned. But that was well done. It was well said. I think it was even mentioning the holidays, like, that was a plea. Like, if nothing else. Dude, we just came through. That was. This is tough. I don't expect, I don't think anybody expects anything to come of this. I would love for it to do to, to be the case. I would love for the president to reach out. I would love for a nice moment because the president had. There's a good bone in that body. There is. There absolutely is. For whatever issues people have with him. And this was an appeal to, like children. I didn't catch the ages of the kids here, but. And you wrote, I think you have spent more time studying the statements this morning than I have. But is there anything in it that reeked of politics or even necessarily anger? Maybe they're upset, but it didn't seem like they're. They were directing anger towards the President.
- [09:05]
A
No. And that was actually what was so beautiful about it. It really came off as a plea. Please understand the pain you're causing and the harm you could actually be inciting by your words there. I, it felt like they were almost begging the president please. Out of the word you used, decency, please take it down. But also out of concern that this could actually continue this cycle of violence we are seeing, politically speaking, even, you know, in this rampage, the, the man who ended up actually committing all of this violence, we mentioned, obviously he killed the Hortman's parents, but also shot at other members of state legislature, the Hoffmans. And so the state senator, John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, who were shot and wounded, I guess 90 minutes before the Hortmans were killed. They put out statement saying they stand with Sophie and Colin Hortman. They say, we asked President Trump to take down the post spreading conspiracy claims about their parents deaths. Those claims reflect the same hateful falsehoods that motivated violence and caused more harm. This moment calls for responsibility and compassion. Removing the post would be a necessary step towards your word, babe. Decency. And so that is what we heard from the Hoffmans. And that certainly has been the sentiment by many folks in Minnesota who have stepped up and condemned what the president reposted. But we have not heard anything from the White House. And we were actually thinking as we were reading all of these impassioned statements asking the president for a lot of reasons, to take the post down. You said, have we even checked to see if he took it down? We had to go through a lot of his truth social posts and it is still up. And that's not that surprising. It's not as if we expected him to take it down. But certainly there has been no response officially from the White House based on the reaction from the Hormans and the Hoffman.
- [11:00]
B
I don't know if we'll necessarily get one from the White House, but I with President Trump, if you go through his social media posts, a lot of them aren't his own words. We end up reading a lot of them. But he does spend a lot, a lot of time reposting things. This was one I don't know how he has time to do it. This took take a, takes a little bit of a deep dive. It takes a little bit of time to find all these things. I don't know if they're coming to him, if somebody's pointing them out or if he does spend a lot of time scrolling. It seems like he wouldn't have that kind of time. You know, lots been going on around the world to our south military.
- [11:42]
A
He's been a little busy this weekend.
- [11:44]
B
It's in it's bizarre that he would have time for this and why and why now. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The only theory we can come up with, we've hit on a little bit, but we'll hit on it a little more when we come back. Stay here. All right, folks, we continue here on Amy and TJ A busy weekend certainly with a lot of news. Folks saw about what was happening in Venezuela, the fact that we got Nicholas Mar Maduro, the he was chilling in a fortress in his home presidential palace a couple nights ago and he is literally sleeping across the bridge from us at the mdc, the same jail where Diddy was. All of that's been going on with the president had time to repost something over the weekend that quite frankly set off the family of Melissa Hortman, who was killed, shot and killed state lawmaker in Minnesota all remember that over the summer robes. I don't imagine we are going to get a retraction of any kind, an apology of any kind or even a takedown. I don't remember any other time that the president has gone my bad about anything on his social media.
- [13:01]
A
I was just going to ask you, can you recall because I cannot a moment in which he acknowledged he overstepped or he needed to take something down or he reacted too strongly. I've never heard him walk back a statement he's made or a post he's put up. I can't recall one.
- [13:22]
B
And there's a reason we shouldn't probably expect him to do so this time. We mentioned earlier when things aren't necessarily going well for the president when we see his polling numbers, his polling numbers on the economy, when he seems to be, I guess, politically losing some fight. He finds one like he finds one that can really fire up his people. And a lot of his people right now are even pissed about what happened in Venezuela. Like, this isn't what we were supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be America first, less of this stuff around the world. But he's found an issue here lately in Minnesota with Tim Waltz and with these daycare fraud investigations and with Somalis. And those seem to be at least issues that his base are going to follow him on. So what we're seeing now in this post, it doesn't bode well for him backing off, if you will.
- [14:21]
A
Correct. I think if you go through his truth social, it's either about Venezuela or it's about Minnesota. And between those two things, that pretty much has taken up most of his truth social posts over the weekend and they have been plentiful, as you pointed out. And I mentioned a little bit about Tim Waltz's response, but I actually wanted to read his full statement just because it is interesting and I think he should be able to have a fair shake in terms of obviously all the fingers pointing towards him in this truth Social post. But Tim Waltz officially said this. It is dangerous, depraved behavior from the sitting president of the United States in covering for an actual serial killer. He is going to get more innocent people killed. America is better than this.
- [15:04]
B
We thought so. Right? We thought so. But we keep taking it. We keep tolerating. This doesn't even outrage anybody, that that's where we are and that's the truth of the matter. And all of us can say if any other president posted this, called a woman a pig to her face, if any other president did so much of this stuff, we would lose it. And this is just another Monday.
- [15:32]
A
This is just another Monday. And there is going to potentially be, we're going to be hearing from Tim Waltz actually speaking of Monday later on this morning. He is called a presser at 11am Some people are saying he actually is going to be dropping out of the race for Minnesota governor. He had been seeking or is currently seeking a third term there in Minnesota. But certainly all of the scandals and this fraud probe that certainly has left what more than 70 people have been charged so far. So it's a legitimate concern and a legitimate potential misuse of tax dollars, significant amounts. So it's all an important news story. But to politicize it further and to deliberately propagate or promote known conspiracy theories is alarming at any level in the government, but certainly coming at it from the top office in our government is deeply concerning.
- [16:30]
B
Well, keep an eye on Trump's truth social today. Between this issue and I'm sure if Tim Waltz starts Speaking at 11, Trump will be posting by 1101, I'm sure am today. All right. Well, folks, we're keeping a close eye on everything. Also. Keep an eye out. We'll have the morning run up for you here in a little bit. We just want to hop on and give you some overnight developments. But with that, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm TJ Holmes. On behalf of my dear Amy Robach, we will talk to you.
- [17:06]
A
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.