He served from January 3. The work on these practical matters is pressing in on us even now. Our Technical Director is Bryson Barnes. You will experience the difference in the way this body and the broader General Assembly takes on and talks about issues. To Senators Pelton (Byron and Rod), Baisley, Rich, Roberts, Exum, Cutter, Marchman, Mullica, and Sullivan, I extend a warm welcome to the state senate. Material created by or approved by the Hitler government in Berlin, provided to viciously anti-Semitic groups, linked to both street violence against American Jews and also violent armed plots against the U.S. government; Viereck using kernels of disturbance here in American life to drive us apart from one another, to drive us apart from our allies, to destabilize life here at home, to scare us, to make fascism seem like it was on the march, and on its way here, and maybe we should welcome it. box 4, folder 4-5. Holman, who served on the Senate Military Affairs Committee with Lundeens late husband, had been narrowly defeated in a bid for a second term a few months earlier, losing a bitterly-contested Republican primary to the blunt-mannered and outspoken Wayne Morse. Viereck would then order Lundeens staff to print off gazillions of copies of those speeches, which would then be sent in pre-paid government envelopes to unwitting members of the public. If they could advance their career by playing footsie with Nazis, and if that meant winnowing away the strength of American democracy, then so be it. Challenges faced by all. Lundeen cited a 2022 bill Polis signed that, he said, allowed for restrictive environmental building codes that raise housing costs. House of Representatives. 2003, Olga Gardner Galvin, The Alphabet Challenge, Page 31. Norma Lundeen: A pair of columnists had written that two Department of Justice agents were on the plane with my husband when it crashed, that they had been assigned to watch him. Darcy could be President if he listens to me. senate. Viereck's plan was working. She said it was a big misunderstanding. It should literally be free to send their constituents mail about any government business. Klicken Sie auf Einstellungen verwalten um weitere Informationen zu erhalten und Ihre Einstellungen zu verwalten. To do that, within 2 days after the crash she travelled to his office in the Capitol to retrieve the "Viereck files". It was the last name of a guy: a guy named George Sylvester Viereck. She also went right after the journalists who she said were responsible for the smears against him. His base of operations the center of American democracy itself the United States Congress. He graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1901 and then studied law at the University of Minnesota Law School. William Maloney was an experienced federal prosecutor. Lundeen was carrying these pages when he died, and they were found near the scene of the plane crash. The speech extolled the great contributions of German culture to American life, and argued that Americans had more in common with the fascist German government than it did with the democracies Germany was busy invading. Viereck would arrange for speeches that he wrote for Lundeen to be printed in major American magazines and newspapers. Hart: What Viereck realizes is that members of Congress have unique privileges relating to the words that they speak on the floor of the House or Senate and to the Congressional Record itself. Norma Lundeen: I am the widow of Ernest Lundeen, United States senator from Minnesota, who was killed in an airplane crash on August 31, 1940. There were newspapers, the radio, newsreels at the movies, and then there was the mail. If you were trying to reach Americans in their homes, if you were trying to influence Americans opinions and political leanings, and fundraise, and all the rest of it, you sent them mail. Maddow: This idea that there was American unanimity against the Nazis, this sort of wishful historical nostalgia we have for an era in which Amerians were supposedly all on the same page about the need to fight Hitler, for the need to pull together to meet this grave global challenge, that is a tidier, happier memory than what is justified by the real history. Main Sections. With Lundeen's help, a subcommittee of the Labor Committee heard testimony from 80 witnesses on the benefits of the bill and the suffering of the unemployed. Images: Telephone; U.S. Constitution; Senate leaders Byrd & Baker; John Glenn receives medal; Appropriations Committee Contact Leadership & Officers Former Senators Qualifications & Terms of Service Facts & Milestones States It was direct documentary evidence that the Senator had been colluding with a Nazi agent. Archival radio material is from NBC Newsvia the Library of Congress, which you really should visit. But his biggest, boldest, most successful operation, is the one he ran from the seat of American democracy itself. Our Web Producer is Will Femia. Viereck supplied the Christian Front and other violent ultra-right groups around the country. Environments We help to create collaborative learning spaces. An IPR Editorial January 6, 2021 Our John Brown Moment? That's Viereck's portfolio from Germany. But he remained isolationist and was later denounced by the party as a reactiona Her name was Norma. Viereck wrote Lundeen's speeches. He was. Yes! He served as, a Republican from Minnesota in the United States House of Representatives, from March 4, 1917, to March 3, 1919 in the 65th congress. He said a lot of aspirational things about making Colorado better," said Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen. And then in the run-up to World War II, he was basically the poster child in the Senate for leaving Germany alone to just do its thing. But Norma Lundeen was just getting warmed up. DENVER Below is the transcript of Colorado Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeens (R-Monument) speech on the opening day of the First Regular Session of the 74th General Assembly. How far did it go? There are challenges. Addresses for each senator can be found on the senator's website or state's web page. But he remained isolationist and was later denounced by the party as a reactionary. ICPSR #5839 Join our email list to receive press releases and other important news about legislation delivered straight to your inbox. She told the staff that she wanted the Viereck files. But it's almost something from a James Bond film. [8], In 2022 Rachel Maddow released a podcast series titled Ultra, which explored Lundeen's complicity in Nazi Germany's intelligence and propaganda operations in the U.S. during the 12 to 18 months immediately preceding America's entry into World War II. Services Learn more about Sustain. She was looking for something very specific. [3], Lundeen was elected to the United States Senate in 1936 as a member of the Farmer-Labor Party. The bill attracted support from liberals dissatisfied with the less generous and much less radical Wagner-Lewis bill (which became the Social Security Act). What she was there to do really was, as she put it, something unprecedented in radio broadcasting. Maddow: Once George Viereck was arrested, the members of Congress who had participated in this scheme, they knew that prosecutors were onto them. Amateurs were turning this stuff up, not the authorities. Maddow: Senator Lundeen had built his career on being outspoken against the US joining foreign wars. In fact, politics has become extremely noisy. We must not use the resources and mechanisms of state government in a way that encumbers our grandchildren with a burden that cripples their future economy or saddles those precious souls with a debt they can never repay. So now we launch into 120 days of policy and politics. Senator Smith. The book on your desk has the subtitle of talking politics without the noise. It offers each side of the aisle the ability, at least in some small way, to seek first to understand before seeking to be understood. These speeches would run as articles, under Lundeens byline, as if the senator had written them himself. Maddow: Norma Lundeen made her case, defending her husband passionately and directly to the public. Young: Viereck is a spy for the German government, part of his responsibility being cozying up to those in power in U.S. politics to gather as much information as possible and to try to get them to do things that will forestall U.S. entry into the war. Lundeen served in the United States Army during the SpanishAmerican War. Moving forward we propose the marker that gives honest purchase to the claim of bipartisanship should be: the tone, tenor and discernable principles and meaningful details folded into the legislation. That's what they were expecting. Maddow: The America First Committee started up in 1940 as a pressure group, to try to stop the United States from getting involved in the Second World War. With the help of his pal, Senator Ernest Lundeen, George Sylvester Viereck had roped in dozens of sitting members of Congress to help him launder and disseminate Nazi propaganda using the resourcces of the United States congress. Senate probe As a matter of fact, he was standing under the stars and stripes. Norma had an answer for that. His work ethic, persistence, and principled defense of gun-rights makes this endorsement simple. Many were Communists, including Party chairman Earl Browder. Send any friend a story. We wont be able to fix every problem this state faces during these next 119 days. Maddow: The scale of this operation, it kind of takes your breath away. Maddow: The Viereck files. Global Reach Hart: What we know is true is that Viereck is receiving much of the material for these speeches from the German embassy itself. He was something close to famous for his opposition to World War I. She complained to the radio stations who carried his reporting, trying to get him taken off the air; she threatened the sponsors who advertised on the broadcasts in which he appeared. In an echo of Coveys encouragement for to us to seek first to understand then to be understood, lets start from the perspective that every material amendment offeredis a friendly amendment. The twelve Republican senators seated in this chamber were also elected by the hard-working people who call Colorado home. Much broader. And as soon as he was assigned to this new job by the Attorney General, Maloney began putting the pieces together, starting with Ernest Lundeen and George Sylvester Viereck and what sure seemed to be an improper relationship there. Former Minnesota senator Ernest Lundeens story of suspected sedition is back in the headlines thanks to a new podcast. All accusations of this nature are emphatically denied in the letters of the Attorney General Jackson and J. Edgar Hoover. The thick-lipped Viereck, who reportedly earned more than $100,000 singing the praises of Adolf Hitler while excoriating the British, was later indicted by a grand jury shortly after the devastating sneak attack on Pearl Harbor and was subsequently convicted on charges that he had deliberately concealed information when he registered as an agent of a foreign government. The previous 12 months had shown that the federal government, time and again, was behind the eight ball when it came to this gathering threat at home from the ultra-right the plotting and planning of extremists in this country who were inclined towards violence and, in many cases, hooked up with the Hitler government. Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, said that businesses are already passing over Colorado for their expansion plans and conferences because they think its too much like California. Republican. It went on for years, right up until the day Lundeen died with one of Vierecks speeches in his pocket. Despite Norma's best efforts, the secret was getting out in the press and, soon, in court. George Viereck and the Nazi government were using the America First movement and America First members of Congress for those ends. Welcome. Maddow: The widow of Senator Ernest Lundeen. Not yet. Norma then proceeded to falsely testify that she indeed took the Viereck files, but the files are gone due to a burglary that has taken place at their residence. Senator Patricia Billie Miller Senator Miller represents Darien and Stamford. President, Mr. Envelopes bearing the names of Senators Rush Holt and Senator Burton Wheeler and Congressman Clare Hoffman, and all sorts of others. And all of us face a future where energy is unreliable and unaffordable unless we wisely use the best carbon transition fuels we have and explore alternative energy options, like nuclear. Senator with a quite literal German agent of influence sitting in his office, writing speeches for him, writing pieces that are paid pieces. Majority Leader, colleagues, families, guests here in the Capitol, and to the People of Colorado : Welcome. He operated all over the country in the lead-up to America entering World War II. Shortly before Sen. Ernest Lundeen's death, a newspaper called P.M. published a report that exposed Lundeen's scheme with a paid Nazi agent to distribute German propaganda throughout the United States. And yet we must not mislead ourselves into believing that the government can solve all problems. [10] Viereck's defense called her as a witness during his trial. His real talent was recruiting sympathetic Americans to do the work for him; recruiting Americans sometimes with cash, but sometimes just with his charm, with his powers of persuasion. How many members of Congress were in on this thing? Thanks to that raid on that D.C. apartment, he now had names and literal receipts of the other members of Congress who had been involved. It turned out that Viereck also helped write speeches for several isolationist congressmen, including ghostwriting at least six speeches for Lundeen all of which came out during his closely-watched trial in early 1942, seven months before the Minnesota primary. Washington, DC 20510. He was criminally charged for his role in the scheme that he ran through Congress, which was a shot across the bow to all the members of Congress who had helped Viereck carry out the scheme. Senator Bob Rankin Announces his Resignation Dec 1, 2022 Hart: America First becomes a grab bag of everything, anti-Roosevelt. But we are intent to do more than just talk. Just as she failed to find justice in the courtroom, the soft-spoken and attractive Lundeen found little fondness and impartiality for her husbands memory at the ballot box as Benson, still enormously popular among Farmer-Laborites in the Twin Cities and with miners on Minnesotas Iron Range, easily captured the partys U.S. Senate nomination, garnering 66,051 votes to Lundeens 24,019 and 17,163 for Arens. Rachel Maddow: A mission which is unprecedented in radio broadcasting. Kinda sounds like melodramatic radio-age hyperbole, I know. ", On the afternoon of August 31, 1940, Lundeen was a passenger on Flight 19 of Pennsylvania Central Airlines, flying from Washington, D.C. to Detroit. Daten ber Ihr Gert und Ihre Internetverbindung, wie Ihre IP-Adresse, Browsing- und Suchaktivitten bei der Nutzung von Yahoo Websites und -Apps. Pitted against the popular Benson and ex-Farmer-Labor congressman Henry M. Arens, a 70-year-old former lieutenant governor with deep ties to the states farm cooperative movement, many observers believed that the Lundeen name still possessed some magic in Minnesota Farmer-Labor circles, especially among the states large German-American population. Sen. Ernest Lundeen sent these pamphlets to his constituents, and asked them to indicate whether or not they supported the United States declaring war on Germany. Education. All of us face a season of rising crime that will continue to expand unless we commit to a culture that honors law and law enforcement. In 1906 he was admitted to the bar. They were mostly Republicans, but also some Democrats. Senator McCrory is committed to strengthening neighborhoods through education, development and civic engagement. We face some tough issues this session, those empty shelves I mentioned earlier, unaffordable goods and services, crime, a struggling education system, soaring energy costs. We care about the quality and flexibility of your childs education that is so important to their future success. Maddow: And that right there, that is where Norma Lundeen slipped up. And George Sylvester Viereck was the top German agent in charge of executing that mission in the United States. This was in no way a secret and Lundeen must have known the man he was dealing with was at least pro-German, if not actively working on behalf of the German government. His very, very well-funded mission in the United States was two-fold: to try to keep the United States from getting into World War II, but also to soften us up, to mess with us, to make us just less effective as a country, by finding and exploiting what the Germans called "kernels of disturbance" in the United States. Maddow: William Power Maloney arrested and indicted George Sylvester Viereck. But we are intent to do more than just talk opposition to War... 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