Minnesota
Trump returning to Minnesota for GOP fundraiser, despite threat to never come back if he lost state in 2020
MINNEAPOLIS — In 2020 President Donald Trump said if he lost Minnesota he would never come back to the state.
“What we’ve done for Minnesota — I lose Minnesota, I’m never coming back,” Trump said. “I don’t care. I’m never coming back.”
Trump did lose, but is coming back for a GOP fundraiser this Friday in St. Paul.
Trump made several campaign visits to Minnesota in 2020, repeatedly saying Minnesota was the state that got away from him in 2016.
That year, despite only one last-minute campaign appearance here, Trump almost pulled off a shocking upset. He lost to Hillary Clinton here by less than 2%.
Minnesota has the longest-running streak of voting for Democrats in the presidential race in the nation. The last time Minnesota voted Republican was 1972 when the state voted for Richard Nixon.
Despite campaigning here several times in 2020, Trump lost by a decisive margin of 7 percentage points to Joe Biden.
Despite saying he would never come back, Trump will be here this Friday night for the Minnesota GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan dinner, one of the party’s biggest fundraisers. Internal party polling reportedly shows Trump and Biden are closer than expected in Minnesota.
The chair of the Minnesota GOP, David Hann, was a guest on WCCO Sunday Morning at 10:30 a.m.
“The Trump campaign believes that Minnesota is a winnable state and they have begun to focus on winning Minnesota for the Republicans, and I think they are right, I think it is winnable,” Hann said.
In the end, this presidential race will likely come down to the Electoral College. Another critical state for both candidates is Wisconsin, which like Minnesota, has 10 electoral college votes. Both Biden and Trump have already campaigned in Wisconsin, something you can expect to see more of in the five-and-a-half months left until the November election.
You can watch WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy and Adam Del Rossso every Sunday at 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
After a press conference earlier today in St. Paul, we continue the conversation on food support across the state. Zach Rodvold with Second Harvest Heartland joins us to talk about growing demand, including estimates that as many as 1 in 5 Minnesota families may be struggling to afford food, and what’s being done to help meet the need.
Minnesota
Minneapolis nonprofit founders push back on lawsuit alleging they misused $2M in charitable assets
A Minnesota couple is accused of misusing nonprofit assets to fund “lavish lifestyles,” according to a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
The lawsuit is filed against Larry and Sharon Cook and their nonprofits, Real Believers Faith Center and Les Jolies Petites School of Dance, based in north Minneapolis.
“[The Cooks] diverted more than $2 million in charitable assets from Les Jolies and Real Believers to fund lavish lifestyles, luxury travel, designer goods, and for-profit ventures masquerading under nearly identical names, while pretending to serve their communities,” the lawsuit reads.
Larry Cook is the senior pastor at Real Believers Faith Center and called the lawsuit a lie.
“It’s an absolute 1,000% fabrication of the facts,” Cook said on Tuesday. “It’s a fiction, and I’m glad we’re here to talk about it, because we do great work in the community.”
The Attorney General’s Office claims that over the course of about six years, more than $1.3 million in funds were misspent from Real Believers and approximately $800,000 from Les Jolies. The lawsuit says some of those funds were spent at Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton, at a hotel in London and to pay the Cooks’ homeowners association for parking fines and late fees.
The lawsuit also accuses the couple of making false statements to the IRS and taking out loans that “served no charitable purpose.”
When the couple sat down with WCCO inside the church, they didn’t dispute the purchases and said they were all made for charitable purposes.
“I do get a salary for what I do at [Les Jolies], so they’re acting like we took everything that was for the nonprofit and spent it on ourselves, which is a total lie,” said Sharon Cook.
As for the travel, the couple said those are ministry trips with church parishioners and each person paid their own way.
“[The Attorney General’s Office is] gonna have to answer when we get to the courtroom, because documents and truth don’t lie,” said Larry Cook.
The couple got some media attention a few years ago when they bought a nearby crime-ridden gas station. The lawsuit says they used nonprofit funds to help cover the gas station bills, while the money made went into a for-profit bank account.
The lawsuit also accuses the Cooks of failing to register with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office as required by law, as well as violating the Minnesota Nonprofit Corporation Act.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office said a temporary restraining order is in place to protect the nonprofit assets from being diverted.
A 19-year-old man is accused of driving a stolen car and crashing into a Minnesota State Patrol squad car in Minneapolis Friday evening, injuring three people, including a trooper.
Officials say the incident started around 10:30 p.m. in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood. The criminal complaint says Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office deputies found a stolen red Hyundai and were following it when the driver of the car started to flee and drive recklessly.
The Hyundai entered Minneapolis and the deputies turned off their lights and stopped pursuing the car, the charges say. The car drove through Aldrich Avenue and 46th Street at approximately 80 mph, blowing through a stop sign before crashing into the side of a state patrol vehicle.
The 19-year-old, who was driving the Hyundai, fled on foot but was apprehended a short time later, the complaint says.
The trooper was hospitalized with a fractured right fibula and a fractured left scapula, court documents say. The two passengers in the Hyundai were also both taken to the hospital; one had a compound neck fracture and brain bleed, while the other had neck pain, the complaint says.
According to the charges, the teenager told police in a post-Miranda statement that it’s fun to drive around in stolen vehicles.
He faces three counts of criminal vehicular operation, one count of receiving stolen property and one count of fleeing a peace officer.
-
News5 minutes agoHave you lost or are worried about losing SNAP benefits? NPR wants to hear your story
-
New York2 hours agoHis DNA Was Taken After His Arrest at an ICE Protest. Now, He’s Suing.
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoDetroit Grand Prix returns downtown: Speed, sound, and racing action set for May 29–31
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoSan Francisco Giants honor Willie Mays with highway designation on what would have been his 95th birthday
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoBattery case against Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale closed
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoMiami woman allegedly lured man to luxury condo via Instagram, then robbed him with 2 accomplices
-
Boston, MA3 hours agoDespite progress, Neely and Sweeney say Bruins have a long way to go
-
Denver, CO3 hours agoDenver leaders pitch city as host for 2028 Democratic National Convention