Back in 2020, when George Floyd was murdered, and the Black Lives Matter movement was reaching an apex, I interviewed Keith Ellison. At the time, the Minnesota attorney general—and one of the country’s most prominent Muslim Americans—found himself in the nation’s glare as his office prosecuted Derek Chauvin, the police officer found guilty of killing Floyd. Ellison impressed me with how he viewed policing and power in America and the ways his office handled what was arguably the most important police brutality case in modern American history.
Six years have passed, and Ellison is once again back in the spotlight. Earlier this year, his state found itself under siege by the Trump administration as it sent thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota. Ellison himself was targeted by Republican senators for his handling of a pandemic-era fraud scheme. So I knew I had to interview him again.
On this week’s episode of More To The Story, Ellison opens up about his congressional confrontation with Sen. Josh Hawley and what the federal government has left in its wake since it scaled back its immigration enforcement efforts. (Scaled back, I learned, but not gone.) And let me tell you: Ellison isn’t one to hold back when it comes to the Trump administration. Find out what I’m talking about by giving our latest a listen.
—Al Letson
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