Reader's View: Stauber seems like a third-string representative - Duluth News Tribune

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber seems like a third-string player behind Minnesota’s U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer and Speaker Mike Johnson. They all play for Team Trump and seem afraid of their coach-owner. They don't want to get fired.

Stauber's appeal is being a team player — hockey teams, police force, and Team Trump — and his role today seems to be standing in line in the shadow of national GOP luminaries like Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Emmer, waiting for a chance to sign a performative bill to appease President Donald Trump and earn a fresh endorsement on his socials.

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This is an unacceptable failure of leadership at a critical time for Minnesota, the nation, and humanity. Stauber is on a losing team but still dutifully plays his role of third-string representative.

Team USA is under attack. We are under severe threat from cartels. I am not talking about drug cartels, nor do I think double-tapping distant speedboats is the right use of our military. I’m talking about how political cartels, technology cartels, and news cartels, among others, are threatening American voters, American consumers, American workers, and American dreams.

The current batch of representatives in the U.S. House and Senate seem unprepared for the complex challenges of modern national defense — Stauber among them, despite his years in policing. The might of the U.S. swats South American mosquitoes while wolves devour us in our homes. Innocent people are being killed in our streets by marauders masked with a king’s blessing.

For weaponized justice, unchecked AI and corporate impostors, ubiquitous gambling, and rampant censorship and corruption, Team Trump cheers. I can see Stauber cautiously applauding and then lowering his hands and slinking back to the end of the Republican bench. He must ask, "How long do I keep playing this game?"

Bob Helland

Duluth

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