A northern Minnesota state senator tweeted a now-deleted video of himself asking why campgrounds and resorts are closed during the coronavirus pandemic, while homeless Minnesotans are sleeping outside.
Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, on Tuesday tweeted the question, “How is camping on the streets of St Paul any safer than your family camping up North?” He later deleted the tweet after drawing criticism on social media.
In a corresponding video of himself in St. Paul, he pointed behind himself to a “tent city” of homeless residing in tents outside. “Unfortunately,” he said, campgrounds and resorts are closed to recreation as part of DFL Gov. Tim Walz’s statewide stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Pointing to the tents behind him at Kellogg Boulevard and Interstate 35E, Eichorn said, “If you’re OK with this, we should certainly be OK with our resorts in greater Minnesota, campgrounds being open.”
Eichorn called the state’s campgrounds, as well as their employees, essential, and urged Walz to “open up Minnesota.”
“We can do it safely. Our campgrounds have a plan. They know how to do this,” Eichorn said. “And by our nature in northern Minnesota, we’re distanced. I’m so disappointed to see the Boundary Waters shut down for camping and all of our beautiful places we have to go up there.”
He did acknowledge the tent encampment’s dwellers, adding “it’s also unfortunate this is how our homeless people have to live right now.”
In a statement later Tuesday, Eichorn said he was trying to persuade Walz to “take heed of the dismal economic conditions” Minnesotans are facing in his district and across the state.
“The video may have missed the mark, but Governor Walz’s blanket extension of the stay-at-home order only exasperates the pain that my constituency feels, said Eichorn, a Senate freshman.
State campgrounds remain closed under Walz’s stay-home order curtailing nonessential businesses and activities as a way to arrest the coronavirus outbreak. Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness announced Monday that they will allow day trips.
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Ken Martin, chair of the state Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, responded in a written statement that Eichorn “should know better than to use homeless Minnesotans as a political prop to attack the stay at home order.”
“Comparing people experiencing homelessness to campers is thoughtless and cruel, and Eichorn’s push for an unsafe reopening would only serve to further spread the coronavirus across Greater Minnesota,” Martin said.
This report includes information from the Associated Press.