Funeral held for Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and husband after fatal home shooting
Slain Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were laid to rest Saturday — weeks after they were killed in what authorities allege was a politically motivated shooting spree.
The private ceremony took place at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis and drew hundreds of mourners, including former President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Tim Walz and dozens of state lawmakers. More than 1,900 people tuned in to the livestream.
'Melissa Hortman will be remembered as the most consequential Speaker in Minnesota history,' Walz said during his eulogy. 'Millions of Minnesotans get to live their lives better because she and Mark chose public service and politics.'
4 Hortman, 54, and her husband were gunned down June 10 inside their Brooklyn Park home by Vance Boelter, who allegedly targeted the Hortmans as part of a planned series of attacks on Democratic officials, prosecutors said.
Melissa Hortman/Facebook
Hortman, 54, and her husband were gunned down June 10 inside their Brooklyn Park home by Vance Boelter, who was a political appointee of Walz, and allegedly targeted the Hortmans as part of a planned series of attacks on Democratic officials, prosecutors said. The couple's golden retriever, Gilbert, was also shot and later euthanized.
The couple's closed caskets sat side by side at the front of the church, draped in blankets. Every pew was filled. Soft music played as family, friends and colleagues prayed and wiped away tears.
The service began around 11:30 a.m. and included scripture readings, prayers and emotional tributes to the couple's public service and devotion to their family.
4 The private ceremony took place at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis and drew hundreds of mourners, including former President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Tim Walz and dozens of state lawmakers.
AP
During the blessing, the priest called Minnesota 'a ground zero place for political violence and extremism,' referencing both the killing of George Floyd and the recent attacks on state officials.
'This can be a ground zero for restoration and justice and healing, but we must work together,' he said.
Roughly 90 minutes before the double murder, Boelter allegedly opened fire on state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their Champlin home just miles away. Both survived despite sustaining multiple gunshot wounds.
4 The couple's closed caskets sat side by side at the front of the church, draped in blankets. Every pew was filled. Soft music played as family, friends and colleagues prayed and wiped away tears.
via REUTERS
Boelter, 57, was arrested after a 36-hour manhunt — the largest in state history — and appeared in federal court Friday on two counts of murder, two counts of stalking and two weapons charges. Prosecutors say he could face the death penalty. A separate state trial could result in life without parole.
He remains in federal custody.
His wife, Jenny, issued a statement Thursday offering condolences to the victims' families and calling the killings 'a betrayal of everything we hold true.'
4 During the blessing, the priest called Minnesota 'a ground zero place for political violence and extremism,' referencing both the killing of George Floyd and the recent attacks on state officials.
via REUTERS
Hortman was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2004 and served as Speaker for three terms. Her district included Brooklyn Park, Coon Rapids and Champlin.
She is among the highest-ranking elected officials to be killed in recent years — part of a troubling rise in political violence nationwide. The couple is survived by two adult children, Sophie, 28 and Colin, 30.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Elon Musk renews his criticism of Trump's big bill as it faces a key Senate vote
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk on Saturday doubled down on his distaste for President Donald Trump's sprawling tax and spending cuts bill, arguing the legislation that Republican senators are scrambling to pass would kill jobs and bog down burgeoning industries. 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,' Musk wrote on X on Saturday as the Senate was scheduled to call a vote to open debate on the nearly 1,000-page bill. 'It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.' The Tesla and SpaceX CEO, whose birthday is also Saturday, later posted that the bill would be 'political suicide for the Republican Party.' The criticisms reopen a recent fiery conflict between the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency and the administration he recently left. They also represent yet another headache for Republican Senate leaders who have spent the weekend working overtime to get the legislation through their chamber so it can pass by Trump's Fourth of July deadline. Musk has previously made his opinions about Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' clear. Days after he left the federal government last month with a laudatory celebration in the Oval Office, he blasted the bill as 'pork-filled' and a 'disgusting abomination." 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,' he wrote on X earlier this month. In another post, the wealthy GOP donor who had recently forecasted that he'd step back from political donations threatened to fire lawmakers who 'betrayed the American people.' When Trump clapped back to say he was disappointed with Musk, back-and-forth fighting erupted and quickly escalated. Musk suggested without evidence that Trump, who spent the first part of the year as one of his closest allies, was mentioned in files related to sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. Musk ultimately tried to make nice with the administration, saying he regretted some of his posts that 'went too far.' Trump responded in kind in an interview with The New York Post, saying, 'Things like that happen. I don't blame him for anything.' It's unclear how Musk's latest broadsides will influence the fragile peace he and the president had enjoyed in recent weeks. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk has spent recent weeks focused on his businesses, and his political influence has waned since he left the administration. Still, the wealthy businessman poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump's campaign in 2024, demonstrating the impact his money can have if he's passionate enough about an issue or candidate to restart his political spending.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Senate Republicans ready vote on tax bill, still awaiting its final cost
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Republican Senator John Kennedy spoke with reporters after departing a Senate Republicans luncheon on Friday. There is still no final fiscal breakdown, known as a score, from either the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office or the Joint Committee on Taxation on the latest version of Trump's spending package. Kent Nishimura/NYT Advertisement Many of the changes reflect deals cut with individual Republicans who were at risk of voting against the bill and other, more mechanical rewrites to their cuts on Medicaid, energy tax credits and food stamps. Those updates will allow Republicans to try to advance the bill using a fast-track budget process in the Senate without any Democratic support. The revisions, taken together, could add or subtract to the overall costs of the package, but Republicans may not know precisely by how much when they hold their first vote this weekend. There is still no final fiscal breakdown, known as a score, from either the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office or the Joint Committee on Taxation, which advises lawmakers on the budget implication of their legislative agenda. Advertisement Only the joint committee has rendered a partial verdict, having studied just the tax components in the Senate's earlier, unrevised proposal. Computed in the traditional way, analysts found it would cost $4.2 trillion over the next decade. Otherwise, the two congressional budget watchdogs have not been able to offer more comprehensive projections about the sprawling bill, or the effects of their proposal on the broader economy. Studying the House version of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed in late May, they determined it would add more than $3 trillion to the debt within the next decade, even after accounting for potential economic growth. Economists across the political spectrum have come to similar conclusions about the package and its price, drawing sharp rebukes from Trump and his aides. The White House continues to insist that the bill will supercharge economic growth, and when combined with the president's other policies, generate as much as $11 trillion in deficit reduction. Senator Josh Hawley talked to reporters at the Capitol on Saturday. After releasing a 940-page version of their sprawling domestic policy bill overnight, Senate Republicans were trying to find enough votes to pass it. TIERNEY L. CROSS/NYT Nor have congressional analysts determined the ways in which the Senate's new vision would affect families' finances across different income brackets. Earlier reports about the House tax legislation projected that the bill would fall hardest on the poor, who would see cuts to federal aid, while reserving the greatest financial benefits for the rich. For now, the best estimates for the Senate legislation are either outdated or preliminary, though they suggest the version winding through the chamber may carry a similar fiscal burden or turn out to be even more expensive. In one analysis, released earlier this week, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projected that the Senate proposal could add as much as $4.2 trillion to the debt by 2034, after accounting for expected changes to the bill. Marc Goldwein, the senior vice president of the deficit-reduction group, acknowledged the true cost was unclear because 'we don't have a score.' Advertisement The cost could rise because of the specific changes Republicans made overnight, some experts said. The revised measure now provisions $25 billion for rural hospitals affected by Republicans' proposed cuts to Medicaid, for example, as well as an increase in the cap on the state and local tax deduction demanded by lawmakers in the House. Senate majority leader John Thune with reporters as he returned to his office from the floor of the Senate on Friday. Kent Nishimura/NYT Martha Gimbel, a founder of the Budget Lab at Yale, pointed to those additions as she predicted that 'everything is moving in a more expensive direction.' But that, she added, is the problem. 'None of us have had time to sit down and figure this out,' she said. On Saturday, with some fiscal hawks in the Senate refusing to vote to open debate on the domestic policy bill until they receive an official tally of its costs, and Democrats signaling they plan to force a line-by-line reading of all 940 pages to protest it, it looked unlikely the Senate would begin voting on the substance of the legislation until Sunday at the earliest. This article originally appeared in .
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Senate nailbiter
Senate Republicans stepped up their attacks on U.S. solar and wind energy projects by quietly adding a provision to their megabill that would penalize future developments with a new tax. That new tax measure was tucked into the more than 900-page document released late Friday that also would sharply cut the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act for solar and wind projects. Those cuts to the IRA credits were added after a late-stage push by President Donald Trump to crack down further on the incentives by requiring generation projects be placed in service by the end of 2027 to qualify. The new excise tax is another blow to the fastest-growing sources of power production in the United States, and would be a massive setback to the wind and solar energy industries since it would apply even to projects not receiving any credits. 'It's a kill shot. This new excise tax on wind and solar is designed to fully kill the industry,' said Adrian Deveny, founder and president of policy advisory firm Climate Vision, who helped craft the climate law as a former policy director for Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer. Analysts at the Rhodium Group said in an email the new tax would push up the costs of wind and solar projects by 10 to 20 percent — on top of the cost increases from losing the credits. 'Combined with the likely onerous administrative reporting burden this provision puts in place, these cost increases will lead to even lower wind and solar installations. The impacts of this tax would also flow through to consumers in the form of higher electricity rates,' Rhodium said. The provision as written appears to add an additional tax for any wind and solar project placed into service after 2027 — when its eligibility for the investment and production tax credits ends — if a certain percentage of the value of the project's components are sourced from prohibited foreign entities, like China. It would apply to all projects that began construction after June 16 of this year. The language would require wind and solar projects, even those not receiving credits, to navigate complex and potentially unworkable requirements that prohibit sourcing from foreign entities of concern — a move designed to promote domestic production and crack down on Chinese materials. In keeping with GOP support for the fossil fuel industry, the updated bill creates a new production tax credit for metallurgical coal, which is used in steelmaking.
