A Hardin County supervisor was asked to promise he would not participate in any actions at the Iowa Capitol this weekend and before next week’s inauguration by a citizen during a board meeting.
“The people of this county want reassurance that you will not participate in any actions at the Capitol in Des Moines this weekend and prior to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris,” Duhn said. “Do you commit to avoid participating in any demonstrations or armed actions in Des Moines?”
B.J. Hoffman, the county supervisor and chair of the board who Duhn was asking the question of, said “absolutely.”
“I will be officiating a youth wrestling tournament this weekend,” he said.
Duhn asked where that tournament was taking place at.
Hoffman asked someone else in the room where the tournament would be, only to learn it was canceled.
“I won’t be officiating that. So I’ll be staying close to home,” he said.
Hoffman told The Iowa Standard that he believes the vitriolic rhetoric from constituents who are “staunch Democrats deflects and detracts from the unity that the Democrat Party is calling for from one side of the mouth while spewing egregious demands and commitments that violate constitutional rights.”
“Ms. Duhn’s demand for a commitment to forgo my constitutional right fits the narrative for a socialist point of view, while during 2020 she encouraged lawlessness, property damage and destruction of lives and livelihoods in the name of racial injustice,” Hoffman said. “The constitution is an amazing document that women and men have laid their lives down for and my son is preparing to do the same, so having Ms. Duhn attempt to demand without any track record or history of any protesting, invading corporate offices, trespassing on private property or going armed to intimidate or provoke action is unwarranted and actually very hypocritical.
“I understand that elected officials are free game to attacks from the public, and as chairman of the board I expect and anticipate continued attacks that grow the divide in rural Iowa, but in the name of Iowa Code Chapter 21, I will allow the public comments to paint the picture of progress towards unity.”
