At 3.30am on 14 June this year, Mark Hortman – husband of Minnesota’s House Speaker Melissa Hortman – answered his door to a man dressed as a police officer. Moments later, both Hortmans and their beloved golden retriever Gilbert were dead.

Earlier in the night, another Democrat in the state, John Hoffman, had been shot nine times, and his wife, Yvette, eight – miraculously, though, both survived.

The man accused of all of the shootings, Vance Boelter, was found with a list of other prominent Democratic politicians alongside abortion advocates. It was a senseless and horrifying act of political violence that shocked the state – but the national reaction was muted. Donald Trump did not even call Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz , who himself appeared on Boelter’s list. “I could be nice a

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