SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Yesterday, Republican Senator Scott Jensen was seen golfing during a hearing of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which Jensen serves as the Vice Chair of.
The Evidence of Jensen Golfing During a Committee Hearing
The video of the full committee hearing can be found here. Some key moments from the hearing are:
- 5:39 – Jensen is seen driving at the beginning of the meeting
- 17:49, 19:01 – The sound of golf is clearly audible
- 18:13 – Jensen is visible outdoors and someone can be seen with golf clubs behind him, despite Jensen’s efforts to obscure this by holding his camera close to his face
- 38:14 – A conversation, presumably between Jensen’s golf buddies, is clearly audible during the committee hearing
- 50:44, 56:30 – Jensen is clearly sitting in a golf cart.
- 50:55 – Jensen’s golf cart gets so loud that it disrupts the meeting and folks are asked to mute microphones.
- 51:10 – Senator Hayden jumps in to “ask Senator Jensen how’s he hitting them out there?”
What Senator Jensen Missed at the Hearing
One of the items under consideration at the committee hearing Jensen couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to was an amendment to allow telemedicine providers to prescribe medication for those with substance use disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jensen’s History as a COVID-19 Conspiracy Theorist
Senator Jensen has been an extremely prominent voice casting doubt on the death toll of the COVID-19, appearing on the Ingraham angle twice and fueling conspiracy theories all across the internet. Jensen’s claims on the COVID-19 death toll have been labeled false by numerous fact-checkers.
Recently, Jensen appeared on a web show hosted by Del Bigtree, a noted anti-vaccination conspiracy theorist who has advised healthy people to avoid any eventual COVID-19 vaccine. Jensen has also shared a widely debunked videofeaturing two California urgent care doctors who cast doubt on the seriousness of COVID-19 and recommend ending Stay at Home Orders immediately.
Ken Martin, Chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party released the following statement:
“Senator Jensen owes an apology to the people of Minnesota for golfing while a committee he’s on considered ways to help Minnesotans with substance use disorder continue treatment during this pandemic. The fact that Jensen cannot be bothered to do his job is an insult to those Minnesotans who have lost work and who are suffering due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
“Senator Jensen’s absurd golf outing and conspiracy mongering make it clear that he’s unwilling to take this global pandemic seriously. This pandemic has both asked and taken much from Minnesotans across our state, and the least Senator Jensen can do to honor those sacrifices is stop golfing during work, stop spreading disinformation, and start helping the people he’s supposed to represent.”