What this Democrat said about ISIS led to him dropping out of the race in less than 24 hours

by Scott McKay | November 16, 2015 12:38 pm

Don’t ever take Dan Kimmel, of Burnsville, Minnesota, to the horse track.

He’s not very good at forecasting events, something he proved late last week when he issued this statement[1] via social media…

“ISIS isn’t necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though.”

As IJ Review notes[2], all hell shortly broke loose after Kimmel’s ill-advised message, particularly when ISIS-affiliated terrorists massacred over 150 people in seven separate attacks across Paris Friday night.

The post quickly received some online backlash, prompting Kimmel to delete his earlier posts and reply with a new tweet acknowledging that he doesn’t defend ISIS’s acts:

I deplore the evil acts of ISIS. I do not defend their acts.

— Dan Kimmel (@KimmelDan) November 15, 2015[3]

Ken Martin, the leader of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, issued a statement[4] in response to Kimmel’s tweet, saying in part:

“On behalf of the Minnesota DFL, I strongly condemn his comments. I ask Dan Kimmel to apologize to all the families who have been torn apart by the terrorist organization and their senseless violence. In this time of enormous grief, we shouldn’t be making excuses for this barbaric behavior.”

Nonetheless, the damage was done. Kimmel ended up calling it quits[5] on Sunday, apologizing to his supporters and volunteers saying[6]:

“I am very sorry for ‘spreading ick’ on other candidates and the DFL party. I will do everything I can to help resolve the issue: most likely the best thing for me to do is shut up. The tweet was stupid. I’m sorry.”

I close my campaign. https://t.co/5SzWwePyOC[7] via @KimmelD[8]

— Dan Kimmel (@KimmelDan) November 15, 2015[9]

Kimmel’s statement, dumb as it was, reflects a relatively common attitude among leftist Democrats who rush to make the most benign assumptions they can about America’s enemies. Those same people never seem to have very benign assumptions about Americans who disagree with them about policy.

 

Endnotes:
  1. this statement: http://kstp.com/news/stories/s3963808.shtml
  2. As IJ Review notes: http://www.ijreview.com/2015/11/472618-dem-candidates-shocking-message-about-isis-leads-to-a-swift-dropout/
  3. November 15, 2015: https://twitter.com/KimmelDan/status/665752038827933697
  4. statement: https://www.dfl.org/blog/dfl-news/2015/11/statement-from-dfl-chairman-ken-martin-9/
  5. calling it quits: http://www.startribune.com/dfler-abruptly-quits-race-after-saying-isis-isn-t-necessarily-evil/349824001/
  6. saying: http://www.dankimmelstaterep.org/2015/11/evil/#?1#?1#WebrootPlugIn#?1#?1#PhreshPhish#?1#?1#agtpwd
  7. https://t.co/5SzWwePyOC: https://t.co/5SzWwePyOC
  8. @KimmelD: https://twitter.com/kimmeld
  9. November 15, 2015: https://twitter.com/KimmelDan/status/665924056504397826

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