Democratic Speaker Melissa Hortman has removed Republican Representative Matt Grossell of Clearbook from two committees in the Minnesota House. It follows an altercation and Grossell’s arrest last May, after which he allegedly told an officer he was a state lawmaker and, quote, “it will be hell to pay.” Hortman says because of that it “stands apart” from previous incidents involving House members and alcohol “and is consistent with those instances when prior members have been removed from committees and encouraged to resign their position.”
House Republican Minority Leader Kurt Daudt responds removing committee assignments for a former law enforcement officer who was shot in the line of duty is “the latest example of House Democrats’ outright hostility for law enforcement.” Hortman calls that statement “preposterous.” She says, “It gives me no joy to impose a sanction on Representative Grossell, but I think under the circumstances he has passed a red line for conduct for state representatives.”
Police say Grossell scuffled with a security guard at a hotel bar near the State Capitol and was later arrested for trespassing at Regions Hospital, where he had been cleared after an evaluation but then refused to leave.