Star Tribune
President Joe Biden visits Minnesota farm as he starts ‘barnstorming’ tour of rural America
NORTHFIELD — President Joe Biden kicked off a tour of rural America at a hog farm just north of Northfield on Wednesday, seeking support for his agenda in parts of the country where his party has increasingly struggled for votes.
“When rural America does well, when Indian country does well, we all do well,” Biden said, speaking in a chilly machine shed in front of a large American flag at Dutch Creek Farms in rural Dakota County.
Biden, making his fourth trip as president to Minnesota, spoke to an audience near the college town as war rages in the Middle East, and his visit drew attention from protesters both at the site and in Minneapolis.
A group of protesters holding up “Ceasefire” placards, invoking the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, stood a short distance from the farm on a gravel road. Biden immediately addressed the conflict in Gaza, acknowledging the safe passage of some wounded Palestinians and foreign nationals, including Americans, from Gaza into Egypt.
“This is the result of intense and urgent American diplomacy with our partners in the region,” Biden said. “We’ve all seen the devastating images from Gaza [of] Palestinian children crying out for lost parents.”
He also reiterated Israel’s “responsibility to defend its citizens.”
The billed reason for Wednesday’s trip was to spotlight farmers who are leaning on $5 billion in recent federal spending to improve sustainability and offer producers a competitive leg up in new markets.
“The money is there to help farmers and ranchers tackle the climate crisis through climate smart agriculture and cover crops,” Biden said.
The president also referenced the economic plight in rural America, noting shuttered factories and towns hollowed out after jobs were moved overseas.
“Over the past few decades, these communities lost more than jobs,” Biden said. “They lost their sense of dignity, opportunity, pride. My plan is about investing in rural America.”
‘Farmers need some kind of incentive’
Prior to Biden’s address, farmers, ag industry leaders and rural development officials mingled in the shed, discussing the federal spending that ranges from broadband expansion to increasing the number of small and medium-sized meat-processing plants to so-called “green” farming practices, such as no-till and cover-cropping.
Kathy Zeman, a certified organic livestock farmer from Nerstrand, Minn., said many nearby farmers are tilling their fields after this fall’s harvest.
Farmers in her area are dealing with “severe soil erosion,” Zeman said, so the money should help “those farmers who need some kind of an incentive.”
In his appeal to expand marketing opportunities for livestock producers, Biden invoked the plight of the Kluvers, the family farmers who hosted him. During the early days of the pandemic, when large slaughterhouses closed temporarily, the family was forced to sell hogs to avoid euthanizing the animals.
“It happened to Brad [Kluver] when processing plants shut down during the pandemic, and he had to rely on social media to sell his hogs,” Biden said.
Phillips subplot
Biden’s visit to Minnesota came a few days after Minnesota U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, 54, announced a longshot primary challenge against the president anchored by concerns about Biden’s age and poll numbers.
Biden, 80, is running for a second White House term, and leading Democrats in Minnesota have continued to support the president in the face of Phillips’ challenge.
Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Dave Hann framed Biden’s visit as a reaction to Phillips’ primary challenge.
“It is becoming increasingly more obvious that both Democrats and Republicans know that if the election were held today, Biden would lose,” Hann said in a statement.
A farm bill needed
Pertinent to farmers and ranchers, Congress missed a September deadline to reauthorize the highly influential farm bill, a Great Depression-era omnibus that undergirds everything from crop insurance to food stamps. Observers hope Congress greenlights the massive bill before year’s end.
“I appreciate that he’s recognizing that rural America needs help with funding to either create or maintain revenue streams or livelihood,” said Dan Glessing, a Waverly farmer and president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau. “We need options.”
“After the harvest comes in,” Gov. Tim Walz said at the event, “you have one job in rural America: Get us a farm bill.”
‘Abandon Biden’
Following his speech, Biden boarded Marine One, which departed from a neighboring field back to the Twin Cities.
But many leaving the farm by car drove past the rally gathered about a mile west of the property.
Earlier in the day, a group of Muslim leaders from the Twin Cities launched an “Abandon Biden” campaign, saying they have given up on the president due to his handling of the situation in Gaza.
The leaders say they will encourage Muslim Americans to vote for other presidential candidates because Biden did not call for a cease-fire by a Tuesday deadline set by the group.
Also speaking in front of the federal courthouse in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine said he lost family members this week in Israel’s airstrikes in northern Gaza.
“Our message is very clear: No cease-fire, no vote in 2024,” he said.
Later in the afternoon, more than 600 people attended a second protest outside the federal courthouse. The protesters marched through downtown Minneapolis, blocking streets as they chanted. Marchers were met by dozens of police officers blocking the 3rd Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River.
Rural voters shift right
While farmers once formed the backbone of Democratic politics in rural Minnesota, they’ve increasingly voted with the GOP, particularly as party lines have hardened along geographic boundaries between rural and urban communities.
In a fundraising email sent out Tuesday, GOP U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, a southern Minnesota farmer, lambasted Biden over inflation and environmental programs, saying the Biden administration has pursued a “war on production agriculture.”
Dutch Creek Farms resides in DFL Rep. Angie Craig’s congressional district, but Craig did not attend Wednesday’s visit, as she was casting votes in Washington.
According to a White House pool report, reporters traveling with the president switched aircraft at the airport following a bang and the smell of smoke. An administration official relayed that an “electrical issue” on one of the helicopters triggered preventive alarms and an automatic “fire suppressant,” but there was never a safety issue on the aircraft.
After the Northfield visit, the president attended a campaign reception at Minneapolis Event Centers. There, he exchanged words with a protester later identified as Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and its Rabbinical Council.
“As a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now,” Rosenberg said.
“I think we need a pause,” Biden responded. “A pause means give time to get the prisoners out.”
Staff writers Hunter Woodall, Matt McKinney and Louis Krauss contributed to this report.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
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