Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the Trump administration is investigating him for “having a different opinion.”
Frey said, “I never thought in a million years that we would be invaded by our own federal government. Of course, there’s different perspectives when a different party gets sworn into the White House. Of course, there are different ideologies throughout America. That’s part of what makes our country great. But you don’t get investigated for having a different opinion. You don’t have militarized troops deployed to a city for having a different perspective, or because a city happened to vote for the opposite party. That may be what happens in other countries, but it doesn’t happen here. Here. This is America, and we’ve got to be standing up for these American values.”
Host Jake Tapper said, “So you just alluded to the fact that the Justice Department said it’s investigating you and Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota over alleged obstruction of federal law enforcement. Have you received any sort of official notice or subpoena? Are you even aware of what the specific allegations against you might be?”
Frey said, “No, we have not received anything. I’m not aware of specific allegations, but, if it were true, the targeting would be the product of performing one of the most basic responsibilities and obligations that I have as mayor, which is to speak on behalf of our great city, speak on behalf of our constituents, and that the federal government would be going after me because of that speech should be deeply concerning, not just for people in Minneapolis, but for anybody throughout the country. And of course, we’ve seen this before, whether it’s me, Governor Walz, Senator Slotkin or Senator Kelly. This is happening on the regular, and it’s happening because people speak, speak up. The First Amendment speech is not something that we negotiate away in this country. First Amendment speech is something that we stand up for, whether you agree with it or not, whether you find it abhorrent or not. It’s one of the most basic and foundational rights that we have. And thankfully, in Minneapolis, we stand up and value First Amendment, speech that’s just kind of baked into who we are.”
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