MOORHEAD, Minn. (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson isn’t backing down from his secretly recorded comments that an anti-abortion group that recently pulled its support was “extremist.”
Concordia College junior Kate Engstrom had a friend videotape Peterson while posing for what he believed was a photo at the school.
The Fargo Forum reports he also told the 20-year-old that Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life’s stance on the Affordable Care Act is “the end of them as an organization.”
Engstrom, who describes herself as a Republican with no ties to MCCL or a campaign, said she didn’t think he would say his actual thoughts if he knew he was on camera.
Peterson said he respects the group’s decision not to endorse him but their opposition to the Affordable Care Act has become political.
I feel like it is unfortunate that students aren’t able to freely express themselves without their actions reflecting back on the school. People should know that we are individual entities even while we are students at this school.
(Concordia alum. writing this)
I can’t say there was anything all that unethical about what Kate did. But… I think it’s laughable that she’s trying to portray Rep. Peterson as some radical. He’s been a conservative Democrat throughout his whole time in Congress, yet every two years the Republican opposition claims that he is some extreme leftist. It won’t work this time.
I hope that Concordia College junior Kate Engstrom won’t be cooked and eaten as a result of her incorrect thoughts and deeds. Sounds like she committed blasphemy to me!
On the other hand, it is an excellent audition tape for the O’Reilly Factor.
What Kate did here is not only a move that looks poorly upon herself but it also looks poorly upon Concordia College. Kate, being a student here, is a representative of our school. Future visits from candidates may be less now because of this secretive move. Candidates may fear to even speak with students for a fear of a “gotcha” like video as this is. Kate may have thought she was being pretty crafty with doing this when in reality she just made herself look bad as well as her school.
I think it was pretty sketchy of her to pretend to take a picture and take video instead. She can complain all she wants about Peterson’s politics, but hers are even more skeezy.