Listen to the moment of silence held by delegates at the state GOP convention here.
Kendall Qualls, fresh off the endorsement of Republican state delegates this weekend, was forced to brush off questions Monday about one of the first events at the convention Saturday: A moment of silence for Derek Chauvin, the convicted murderer of George Floyd.
In an interview with Chad Hartman of WCCO, Qualls deflected a question about whether he would have OK’d a moment of silence: “I don’t know. That was probably not the venue to do that, or the timing to do that.” Qualls added, “I do have my own concerns about the trial itself and the condition of Derek Chauvin, how he was treated.”
During a press call Monday, Qualls didn’t address a Reformer question about whether he’d vote to pardon Chauvin. (Minnesota’s governor, attorney general and chief justice of the Supreme Court sit on a pardon board.)
Qualls, an Army veteran and former health care executive, prevailed Saturday after 10 rounds of delegate voting and an interruption from malfunctioning voting devices. MyPillow guy Mike Lindell has filed to run in the Aug. 11 primary, while House Speaker Lisa Demuth has not declared whether she’ll drop out or continue her campaign.
The convention day began in the morning with a prayer from Father Richard Kunst of Duluth that the adopted platform of the party “promotes true, good, conservative values, fiscally and socially,” followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.
Christopher Rocco, one of the over 2,000 delegates, then called for a 30-second moment of silence for Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020 after kneeling on Floyd’s neck and back for over 9 minutes in an arrest over a suspected $20 counterfeit bill. Chauvin is still alive and in prison.
“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 Rocco, who emphasized to the Reformer that he’s known as Rocco or Mr. Rocco.
He said that Chauvin should get a retrial and a federal pardon for his related civil rights conviction.
State Rep. Danny Nadeau, R-Rogers, who chaired the convention, corrected him and called for a vote: “I said I preferred — I’ll tell you what. I’m gonna put it to the body. I’m gonna let the body vote. If you would like to have a short 30 seconds stand in silence for Derek Chauvin, all say aye” — a loud aye from the crowd. “Opposed?” — quieter nays.
Nadeau then led the crowd in a moment of silence that ended up being 10 seconds, not 30. He told the Reformer on Monday that the brevity was intentional: “I wanted it to be short. I wanted to move on, to get back to business.”
Rocco had come to Nadeau earlier to ask about the moment of silence for Chauvin. Nadeau said he asked Rocco to not make the motion.
“He asked why. I said that it’s not the time or the place. It’s a very divisive issue,” Nadeau said. Nadeau said that, as convention chair, he is careful not to opine from the dais, but personally “would never offer such a motion.”
“I don’t question even remotely whether he was rightfully convicted,” Nadeau said.
Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted Chauvin, released a statement about the moment of silence: “To honor the man convicted of murdering George Floyd — days after the very anniversary of that terrible day — is an act of profound cruelty to the Floyd family and to every Minnesotan who believes in accountability under law.” May 25 was the sixth anniversary of the murder of Floyd.
Rocco made a YouTube video Monday on his channel “Rocco’s Had Enough” explaining why he called for the moment of silence: “Not because he died, but because the moment you were silent on injustice is the moment that you are complicit in injustice.” Rocco referenced a debunked claim that an “original” autopsy of Floyd’s body said that he died of a drug overdose, not of asphyxiation.
Rocco said in a call with the Reformer that, after Saturday, people in his district, which encompasses parts of St. Paul and West St. Paul, encouraged him to run for Minnesota Senate. He said he plans to file for candidacy Tuesday. He’ll almost certainly lose: Kamala Harris defeated President Donald Trump in the district by more than 50 percentage points. Rocco declined to say who he supported in the endorsement; a photo in the Pioneer Press shows Rocco giving Qualls a hug after Qualls won.
“It’s my thing that I did — I didn’t do it on behalf of anyone else.”
–Alyssa Chen, Minnesota Reformer
Leave a Reply