U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and gospel singing group Mary Mary’s Erica Campbell, who both briefly talked to the MSR last week during their separate appearances at Super Bowl-related events, stressed the importance of this fall’s midterm elections.
“I think at this point we should all focus on changing who’s in office in the Senate and the Congress, making sure we’re focusing on our local government and making changes there,” Campbell said prior to her singing appearance at the Super Bowl Gospel Celebration last Thursday at Bethel University.
“I think 2018 will be a watershed year,” Klobuchar told reporters after a speaking appearance at an NFL-sponsored event at the Pantages Theatre in downtown Minneapolis.
Campbell and sibling Thomasina “Goo Goo” Atkins also briefly talked about the backlash Tina Campbell, the other half of Mary Mary, had after it was reported that she voted for Donald Trump in 2016 based on his Christian views.
“I think it’s pretty plain to see that he [Trump] wasn’t a good choice,” Erica pointed out. “We [as sisters] have talked about it. I think anybody is entitled to their own vote.” She added that she supports her sister and that Tina’s statements were “misconstrued.”
Last fall, during an appearance on The Real, Tina said, “What I said is…I chose based on my faith.”
“People make [their] choice, then get vilified for it,” said Erica.
“We really had two poor choices for U.S. president in 2016,” Atkins commented, “Trump and Hillary Clinton. We weren’t super excited either way.”
Although the sisters aren’t pleased thus far with many of President Trump’s policies, Atkins added they won’t publicly express “buyers’ remorse” when it comes to voting for him. “She [Tina] doesn’t bad-mouth anybody. She is not going to bad-mouth [Trump] or anybody else on the decision she made and the information she had.”
In other news, Klobuchar said last week that she disagreed with the White House decision to declassify and publicly release a GOP memo on the Russia probe, which asserted that FBI misconduct might have taken place during the investigation.
The senior senator from Minnesota told reporters, including the MSR, that it’s wrong to “start politicizing the Justice Department and law enforcement,” adding, “That’s why I supported the FBI in not releasing the memo. I don’t think there are alternative facts. There is one kind of fact, and that is the fact and the truth. There are misleading facts in this memo,” but when asked she declined to elaborate.
Charles Hallman is a contributing reporter and award-winning sports columnist at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.