Minnesota Dem Quits Race After Bizarre Tweet About Islamic State

The Minnesota Senate begins debate of the health insurance exchange bill, Thursday, March 7, 2013 at the Statehouse in St. Paul, Minn. The Senate is working to implement a health insurance exchange, the online mar... The Minnesota Senate begins debate of the health insurance exchange bill, Thursday, March 7, 2013 at the Statehouse in St. Paul, Minn. The Senate is working to implement a health insurance exchange, the online marketplace for the uninsured to shop for coverage plans. (AP Photo/The Star Tribune, Glen Stubbe) MORE LESS
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A Democrat dropped out of his race for the Minnesota legislature on Sunday after he tweeted that the Islamic State terror group is “made up of people doing what they think is best for their community.”

Dan Kimmel, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, posted the tweet on Saturday, the same day the French government blamed the terror groups for attacks that killed more than 100 people in Paris.

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

Kimmel’s Twitter account has since been deleted, but the Star Tribune newspaper captured a screenshot of it beforehand:

By Sunday morning, Kimmel apologized for the tweet, and put a statement titled “Evil” on his campaign website. It said he was “folding up my campaign tent” and taking down his Facebook page and campaign site.

“I am very sorry for ‘spreading ick’ on other candidates and the DFL party,” according to the post. “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.”

Read his full response.

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for mantan mantan says:

    the best thing for me to do is shut up. The tweet was stupid. I’m sorry.

    Famous first words…

  2. Based on what we’ve seen from Republican politicians, I would have told you it is impossible to destroy your political career with a single tweet. 144 characters just didn’t seem to be enough room to display the kind of compounding ignorance and simple tactical stupidity it takes to blow up a political career in one or two brief sentences.

    But if it was possible, I would never have thought it would be a Democrat who accomplished that seemingly impossible task.

    Was wrong on both counts.

  3. Worst campaign slogan ever.

  4. Politicians need to stop tweeting.

  5. Hoo boy. True cases of political correctness are whooping-crane rare but I’d say that’s what we’ve got on our hands here.

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