Senator Ernest Lundeen in a mysterious plane crash in 1940 left a series of questions that lead to revealing threats to American democracy. Other countries have senators as well, either elected or appointed. To reach that kind of scale, he needed more speeches. It was the last name of a guy: a guy named George Sylvester Viereck. He was kind of their top banana here. Note that he may make real-time changes to some of the exact language. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. In 1896, Lundeen and his family moved to Harcourt, Iowa, and then to Minnesota. IE 11 is not supported. 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. The Senate Republican caucus eagerly awaits the opportunity to help achieve solutions that will benefit all Coloradans. Pretty soon were talking right past each other and the cacophony can only be described as noise. This was Vierecks life's work. We can ratchet up the noise of politics or we can elevate the level of debate. The German agent would provide speeches to Senator Lundeen, Lundeen would then deliver on the Senate floor, theyd get tons of copies made, then the publicist would run logistics on getting those copies mailed out to the public. Maddow: The scale of this operation, it kind of takes your breath away. She threatened to sue one radio journalist who had reported a story about her late husband. Yes! Republican. Many were Communists, including Party chairman Earl Browder. Library of Congress Engineer: Cut B-4 sounds like a dynamite record. A - Agriculture. 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. Young: Wheeler used his position as a sitting member of the United States Senate to lobby the Justice Department to fire Maloney. And I think that for some, playing footsie with fascists was a good idea, they thought. And random people dont just get to jump on a national radio broadcast whenever they feel like they have something to say. Senator Bob Rankin Announces his Resignation Dec 1, Hart: He realizes very quickly that one Senator isn't enough here. That was all she asked for. box 4, folder 4-5. He served from January 3, 1937, in the 75th and 76th Congresses, until his death. Initially, his Communist sympathies remained strong: in 1936, then Senator-elect Lundeen addressed a meeting of the "Friends of the Soviet Union" at Madison Square Garden as " Tovarishchi " ("Comrades"). There are challenges. They asserted that Lundeens speeches were bitterly anti-British and vigorously against American preparedness. Whether certain foreign agents figured that they were about to be exposed, whether G-men on the plane tangled with Lundeen on the flight, or whether it was an act of God and the weather may never be known, they declared. The handwritten note at the top was added by his widow, Norma. It is those who love the dead, and who all the years of their lives will bear his name with pride, they are the ones who feel the force of the dagger driven into the back of the dead. Viereck needed to reach large numbers of Americans, to start turning the tide of public opinion away from U.S. interests and towards Germany. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern. Darcy always has the most informative and entertaining articles. They represented a bunch of different states, up and down the political spectrum. These allegations were being reported by crusading journalists, some of them with national reach. He had close ties to George Sylvester Viereck, a leading Nazi agent in the U.S. Viereck often used Lundeen's office, and "sometimes dictated speeches for Lundeen, openly using the Senator's telephones to obtain material from Hans Thomsen at the [German] embassy. Please include your return postal mailing address when corresponding with a Senate office. Two years after failing to win her late husbands seat in the U.S. Senate, Lundeen remarried, tying the knot with U.S. Sen. Rufus C. Holman of Oregon in a simple ceremony in Minneapolis during the summer of 1944. 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. He needed more pre-paid envelopes. Disc 20612 Side A from Box T41-26. Member of the Farmer-Labor Party was born 1878 and died 1940. Maddow: Norma Lundeen made her case, defending her husband passionately and directly to the public. It tends to be our nature as politicians to launch into any debate at full throttle to tell everything we know about a matter. [1] He then 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. We face challenges too big to ignore and opportunities too important to fumble. Despite the persistent problems and challenges the people of Colorado face, I am optimistic about our future.because the people of Colorado are an optimistic people. But he remained isolationist and was later denounced by the party as a reactionary. But no. And the old-fashioned idea behind it is that members of Congress should easily be able to communicate with their voters back home about what theyre doing in Washington. 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. But Senator Lundeen was also someone who always had money on the mind. Despite Norma's best efforts, the secret was getting out in the press and, soon, in court. Paul Lundeen is the Republican Colorado Senator for District 9. 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 This promises to be good. They expected to find evidence of that scheme that they knew about: notes, documents, records of payments, other evidence linking this Nazi agent to Senator Lundeen. That was classic Viereck. Hart: We believe it's millions of Americans. Mrs. Ernest Lundeen speaks and apparently she's speaking in reply to certain statements about her husband made by Walter Winchell in his broadcast. 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. Much broader. But historians who've studied this have made the very obvious point, how could she have not known his connection to Viereck and the Nazis? It was disbanded when Derrick was only six, after that grouchy old ultra-Libertarian Senator Timothy de Illy Maddow: When George Viereck was looking for a member of Congress to rope into his new scheme to have the Hitler government advance its work through the U.S. Congress, Senator Ernest Lundeen was perhaps an obvious first target for him. I have been asked, can a team of twelve, the minority caucus in this august chamber make a difference? Viereck wrote speeches and articles for Lundeen about how our supposed allies were weak and hypocritical and corrupt and doomed, how American democracy was corrupt and rigged, how the fascist government in Germany was strong, how the United States government should stay out of Germanys way. 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. What we can do is give space in every Coloradans life. It hadnt even been a year since her husband had died in that terrible, mysterious plane crash. It went on for years, right up until the day Lundeen died with one of Vierecks speeches in his pocket. One of those photographs was taken at such an angle as to convey the impression that my husband was standing beneath the swastika. Maddow: Despite her efforts to hide her husband's relationship with Viereck, her removing the documentary evidence from her husbands office right after his death. He had begun to identify those who had been involved in the scheme. Well that material was supplied to Francis Moran by George Sylvester Viereck. That said, it's a longshot because, as Greg Brophy explained on today's show, the GOP would have to win 6 of the 7 currently contested seats. In reality, a number of the most high-profile America First members of Congress were in cahoots with a paid agent of the Hitler government who was supplying them with propaganda intended not just to keep the U.S. out of World War II, but also to divide Americans along political lines, racial lines, religious lines, class lines, all in the interest of national demoralization." She said it was a big misunderstanding. Maddow: Once George Viereck was arrested, the members of Congress who had participated in this scheme, they knew that prosecutors were onto them. Photo of Minnesota Sen. Ernest Lundeen, April 1940. Her name was Norma. Hours: M-F 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Senate in session) 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Senate out of session) Get Directions. How many members of Congress were in on this thing? He served as a Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party member in the House from March 4, 1933, to January3, 1937, in the 73rd and 74th Congresses. [2] Owing to the vote, he would lose renomination for the Republican primary in 1918 to the eventual winner, Walter Newton. It is our duty that the voices of people who find themselves in the minority in this season of Colorados history be heard and shared. Jared Poliss office. Because not only did she know for a fact that that allegation was true, that in fact an agent from Hitler's government really had been writing speeches for her Senator husband, she knew that it was true. He should write books or something! 1937 in the 75th and 76th congresses, until his death. Manifest for Pennsylvania Central Airlines Flight 19 on August 31, 1940. So at that point, they had two options: fess up, give up the game, cooperate with the investigation; or, try to burn the whole thing down. Speech before Congress by US Senator Ernest, Senator Lundeen gave this speech detailing the history of the, Lundeen served in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War. Senator Ernest Lundeen, a scandalous story had begun to unspool about how the Senator was tangled up with a Nazi agent. Because George Sylvester Viereck was not the kind of a person who ought to have been a long-standing close friend and work-collaborator with a sitting U.S. 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. For it is in those commonsense and broadly acceptable solutions and the ability to crane our necks to see beyond today, even tomorrow, far beyond our time in this chamber that the optimism of the people of Colorado rests. So when federal agents raided the publicist's apartment that day, what they expected to find was a bunch of stuff involving Ernest Lundeen. Maddow: And that right there, that is where Norma Lundeen slipped 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. That said, colleagues, I am grateful and honored for the opportunity to stand before you today and share with you some hopes going into this legislative session. And he was a high profile person. Current Membership: Each Senator represents 931,349 Californians. Rachel Maddow: A mission which is unprecedented in radio broadcasting. Kinda sounds like melodramatic radio-age hyperbole, I know. We hope that the majority will listen to our ideas and incorporate the best of them in what we ultimately together offer the people of Colorado. And while he was doing that, he was also wheedling his way into the heart of American power. Bold. To the majority caucus: We will make honest and sincere efforts to work with you. senado. In 1906 he was admitted to the bar. When Norma Lundeen took to the airwaves that Sunday in May 1941, she and her family were very much still in the throes of grief. So now we launch into 120 days of policy and politics. Lundeen might be dead, but George Sylvester Viereck was still out there. Young: Republicans are just feeling very defeated as if theres nothing that they can do to stop Roosevelt. [11], "Senator Lundeen" redirects here. And yet we must not mislead ourselves into believing that the government can solve all problems. Senators The Constitution prescribes that the Senate be composed of two senators from each State (therefore, the Senate currently has 100 Members) and that a senator must be at least thirty years of age, have been a citizen of the United States for nine years, and, when elected, be a resident of the State from which he or she is chosen. Millions of Americans receive pro-Nazi, anti-interventionist content in this period. I have beside me four photographs proving the truth of my statement. President, Mr. 2. in ancient Rome, the chief legislative and administrative body. When wheat is fed into the thresher the chaff blows away. He graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1901 and then studied law at the University of Minnesota Law School. Our Senior Executive Producers are Cory Gnazzo and Laura Conaway. By then, the Lundeen name had been too badlytarnished by revelations that her late husband had associated with some fairly seedy characters on the Far Right, the most damaging of which was his longtime association with George Sylvester Viereck, a controversial German-American poet and novelist who was then serving a two-to-six year prison sentence for having worked as a publicist and propagandist for the Nazis following Hitlers rise to power in Germany. The members or legislators of a senate are called senators. January 17, 2023 at 11:16 a.m. Below are the remarks as delivered by Gov. quotations . Maddow: So Viereck would get pro-German speeches from the Hitler government, from the German embassy. View all links. The twelve Republican senators seated in this chamber were also elected by the hard-working people who call Colorado home. That's a charitable way of putting it. Join our email list to receive press releases and other important news about legislation delivered straight to your inbox. box 4, folder 6-8. In part because everyone who choosesand most politicians chooseown a broadcast channel. The plane crashed near Lovettsville, Virginia, and all 25 persons on board were killed. He served from January 3. To commemorate the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, and recognize the service of the first female senator in 1922, learn about the Women of the Senate. 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. President, Mr. Senate probe His father, C. H. Lundeen, was an early pioneer who was credited with the naming of Brooklyn Township as well as with helping to establish the school and other institutions located there. And it was a hot story: the worst civilian air crash in U.S. history, a Senator killed, three members of the justice department on the plane with him, killed in the same crash, the cause of the crash totally unclear; the reporting on his ties to the Hitler government, which was soon bolstered by legitimately shocking photos that emerged of Senator Lundeen standing under a giant swastika banner. ( sent) noun. 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. Young: Norma Lundeen directed, upon her husband's death, to have given to her all the Viereck files. She told the staff that she wanted the Viereck files. Hart: His initial idea is that he's going to have a U.S. In that demand for the papers, there is what could be read as an acknowledgement of guilt. She was looking for something very specific. All eyes were briefly on Lundeen. You will experience the difference in the way this body and the broader General Assembly takes on and talks about issues. The speech written for Sen. Ernest Lundeen by a paid Nazi agent. It wasnt surprising, therefore, thatTIME Magazine, in a particularly vicious swipe at the late lawmaker,referred to Norma Lundeen shortly before the primary as the 46-year-old widow of British-hating, German-loving Senator Ernest Lundeen.. William Maloney had managed to run up an eye-popping, 400-to-nothing record as a prosecutor there. Maddow: Millions of Americans. Here at Senator we create products that set the stage for people to do amazing things. Legislature Home > Senate >. And less than 48-hours after her husband had died, she in one of her memorable hats marched into his Senate office in the U.S. Capitol. noun [ C ] uk / sen..t r/ us / sen..t / (written abbreviation Sen.) a politician who has been elected to a Senate: Only two senators voted He not only votes the right way but he fights for other pro-gun leaders to be elected to defend the Second Amendment. Norma Lundeen: Only a few days after the husband and father we loved had been laid away, this storm of malice broke. His speech lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes and touched on a broad range of topics, from climate change to affordable housing, water to public safety. His employees would get paid a salary by the Senate, but he would then demand that they hand over a portion of that salary back to him. , By Darcy G. Richardson on February 2, 2022 2:05 AM. She later made a dramatic plea for justice for her late husbands memory, but was denied an opportunity to speak directly to the jury. Lundeen might have added a comma, or changed the spelling of a word, but Lundeen did not do any significant, or even mild editing to the prose provided to him by Viereck. The bill attracted support from liberals dissatisfied with the less generous and much less radical Wagner-Lewis bill (which became the Social Security Act). Meaning of senator in English. Young: Norma Lundeen is going all spouse-proud and, "My husband was not a Nazi," saying things like that to the press. In 1934, during the 73rd Congress, Lundeen sponsored the Workers' Unemployment Insurance Bill. The charming 46-year-old widow waged a relatively low-key campaign, quietly yet passionately defending her late husbands record and promising an all-out prosecution of the war, all the while presciently warning the voters of Minnesota that the internationalists including the Farmer-Labor Partys own Elmer Benson would keep American troops in Europe, Africa and Asia following the war, thereby making the United States the policemen of the world. It was direct documentary evidence that the Senator had been colluding with a Nazi agent. Radio Reporter: George Sylvester Viereck, the man who has been prominent for several years as a Nazi propagandist. Senator Ernest Lundeen would then deliver those speeches on the floor of the Senate, enter them into the Congressional Record. Testifying as a witness for the defense in Vierecks trial, Norma Lundeen said that she had never heard Viereck utter a single un-American remark. In late 1940 and early 1941, the Ernest Lundeen story it started off bad, it took a hard right turn, but then it just kept getting worse and worse all the time with each new revelation. Most of Ernest Lundeen's brothers and sisters died during a diphtheria epidemic during the 1880s. Republican State Senator Paul Lundeen could be the next President of the State Senate if Republicans take the majority. Declaring her candidacy shortly before the states filing deadline, Lundeens last-minute entry created a three-way race for the Farmer-Labor Partys U.S. Senate nomination, forcing former Gov. Radio Announcer: Youre about to hear an address delivered before a meeting of the America First Committee in Madison Square Garden in New York City. , they thought were also elected by the hard-working people who call Colorado home several... One radio journalist who had reported a story about her late husband Republicans are just feeling defeated... 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