Special episode: Sen. Hoffman reflects on a long healing process after shooting

This is Politics Friday from NPR News. I'm Brian Baxt. I'm coming to you on a Monday this week. It's January 19th, the holiday honoring the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. We're dropping in with a special episode again ahead of our season launch in early February. This time, it's for an interview with a prominent Minnesota politician who landed in the headlines for something quite tragic. Senator John Hoffman was attacked in his home last June, shot multiple times by a man posing as a police officer. Hoffman's wife Yvette was also wounded as the two fought off the gunman before emergency help arrived and took them to the hospital. That same night, of course, is when Representative Melissa Hortman, a fellow Democratic lawmaker, was killed in her home, as was Mark Hortman, her husband. The road to recovery for John Hoffman has been long. Surgeries, therapy, and awful memories seared in his mind. Until now, today, we hadn't heard much from the senator about what transpired and how it affected him, and as it turns out, driven him with a new purpose. I met up with Hoffman in his Senate office, where he hasn't spent much time since June. He recounted the incident. If I would have hesitated one more second, I would be dead. Think about that. You know, I couldn't hesitate, right? We ribbed each other about our favorite football teams. Are you a Packers fan? I have to confess, yes. Oh, my God. And we talked about what's ahead for him as a new legislative session approaches and a re-election campaign commences. Senator, we're back. You're back in the Capitol complex in your Senate office. Have you been here much since June? No. This is actually the first time of me sitting here with you other than I had some friends come in the other night and they wanted to see my office. So I popped in here and showed them my office. Then I left. What was it like walking through those doors again after all that you've been through? It was surreal. Grateful. I mean, there's a sense of gratitude, Brian. I'm grateful to be alive. I'm grateful that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for a lot of people involved in getting me here. And had you purposely stayed away until now, or was this just something that you just had to kind of bring yourself up to, to kind of come back and kind of be in your more of a natural setting, your lawmaking setting? Yeah, no, it was, I was so busy with occupational therapy, physical therapy, therapy, therapy, therapy, and, you know, surgery on surgery on surgery that it didn't even cross my mind to come to St. Paul because I was focused on healing, which I'm still focused on, right? Yeah, I was going to ask you, what has been harder, kind of the physical aspect of recovery, the emotional aspect of recovery? I'd imagine both are something that you're going through. No, I agree. It's both. they they they they there there's an intersectionality that occurs between those two right when i'm when i'm physically when i physically hit the wall i'm tired i'm mentally and emotionally physically tired as well right i mean they both kind of hit at the same time um so i got to be cautious of you know what i'm doing what i'm doing and how much i'm doing well talk to me about this physical journey here. You've been through, I think, multiple surgeries since June. Have you had a sense as to, your doctor's given you a sense as to how close to being rehabilitated that you are? Recovery is a journey and it's a process, right? It's not the end goal. And what's funny is the recovery side of it doesn't happen in a linear sense. There's ups and downs with it. And one doctor told me, because I'm like, God, I'm exhausted. And he said, well, duh, you're going to be, it's going to take a year over a year for you to get to the point where you're feeling like you can manage yourself on that. That's a full year because of what my body's gone through and then what my mind has gone through, right? And so it's still, it's one day at a time, Brian, and one moment at a time. I saw you walking through those hallways just a bit ago. You walked with some pace. You're not a guy who seems to have many outward – you couldn't tell, I guess, if you were just picking you out on the street. So when my bladder gets to a point, it starts to send a signal to my kidney when there's this little thing between there. It's called a ureter that was completely torn apart that they put back together. And so I'm walking as a pace, like a Pat Kessler kind of pace, you know, to get from point A to point B. It's because my body's saying, you got to go, you got to go. So, yeah. Anyway, I'm trying to be funny, Brian. My wife told me I'm not funny. I don't try to be funny. But lots of walking. One of the first things I did in physical therapy was learn how to walk. The first time I walked up a stair, a step, my left leg and left foot, it was like the nerves were just not reacting as like they should. How to practice. Yeah. And so I practiced up and down steps. And then, you know, I passed the stair-stepping case finally. And so walking's a good thing. Walk. We're dancing around it a bit, but that new plaque you have up there kind of says it all. Nine shots. You took nine shots. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and they're not counting this one on the side of my face here. That one has caused a little scarring. That would be 10 if we're counting. Well, I'm hoping you could tell me about the night of June 13th in the Hoffman household before any of the horror that was visited upon your family. What was that like? What was June 13th like? That night was normal. We were at a DFL fundraiser. We were listening to the governor of Illinois. He came to town to give a rousing keynote speech about the Hyatt. No, I'm kidding. I mean, that's what his family, right? It's like, wow, he's an actual billionaire, right? And so we're table mates with Zach Stevenson and then Melissa and Mark Horvath. We're all sitting at the same table. And that got done, and everybody hugged each other and said, okay, see you tomorrow. And we went home, and it was just an ordinary night. And then things changed. Yeah, then what? Then I was watching in my green chair watching TV with my neck pillow, just chilling out. and then of course what do you do when you sit in a green fluffy chair you end up falling asleep I fell asleep in the green chair Yvette was already upstairs sleeping and there was a pounding and a banging and door ringing and I could see lights and somebody yelling police open the door you know and then everything changed in a moment right there Brian you know I realize you might have been a little bit groggy stirred just stirred but what was going through your mind when you answered that door and that was it was grogginess it was a fog because it was like you know i wasn't fully awake and when you're awoken in such a manner where you're not able to fully be there be present um you you're just like is this really happening um and then when when when it you know kept moving and i realized he wasn't who he said he was um it was it was then survival. It was just a focus on survival at that point. Yeah. How can you even react in a moment like that? Yeah. Your adrenaline's flying. Everything was in slow motion. To this day, as I think back, you know, I was able, when I slammed the door on him, when I first pushed on him, right, after I said, you're not a cop. And he looked at me and he goes, you're right. This is a robbery. And I'll never forget, he, and I could, you know, that voice, those eyes then i said f it is and i pushed the door and um first bullet went through this finger my i'm a drummer so my freaking i'm and i'm a traditional match drummer right um that bounce effect is gone because that's where the first bullet second one was my elbow which tore apart you know my bicep and tricep and i have a steel plate and seven screws in there and then the third one it was like slow motion poof these bullets started coming through the door and i saw this one come through the door and enter me right here and that was two millimeters away from my heart the fourth one was right here and that one's still inside me and brian so i had these two my heart sits right here so um grateful that the guy's a bad shot um but he talked about it as a robbery there was no kind of like because obviously what we know now is more about the kind of the political motivations but at the time you didn't you none of that was showing itself no and it was no he kept because he was convincing and trying to convince everybody's a cop and when i finally said you're not a cop then he switched gears and said this is a robbery and then that's when we did what we know how to do the hoffman family fought back and then once i hit the ground after being shot you know with nine holes my wife jumped in and she threw her hand out and was pushing him out the door right got him to actually leave after he shot her eight times were you surprised he left i mean um it to me it i wasn't there's no there's no feeling there brian except the fact that all of a sudden he was gone and then you know um next thing i know i looked up and there was sergeant lewis from the champlain police department and to this day when i see him publicly or i in a meeting and he in there i break down in tears i'm so grateful that that that guy showed up when he did like right away and then the emts everybody you know fell in line and did what they needed to do and and this was all in a matter of minutes like after a 911 call it was boom it was it did they were they were on their way you know the 911 call they were on their way within minutes and everybody um was organized i mean they were they came i'm grateful to the chaplain police to the emts absolutely so you're in the hospital when do you find out that this was bigger than just an attack on the Hoffmans? Two or three days. It was a few days later when the chief of police from Brooklyn Park was in talking to me. And that's when I was told that Melissa and Mark were killed. And it was a moment of just nothing. I just like, no, I didn't want to believe it. Now, they kept it from me because of the fact that there was a tube that was through my chest where the bullet hole was, so it was right next to my heart. And they were all concerned, cardiac stuff, and wanted to keep me as stable as possible, right? But when I found out, it was like the world just dropped right in front of me, right? It just fell, you know? And we know now it could have been far worse, given the people that he visited or had on his sheet in the car, right? Yeah, I mean, and he had the guns. You know, where was our red flag laws? This dude had more guns than, you know, Fort Knox. I mean, he just, why was somebody like that allowed to own and possess so many guns, right? And like 9mm. Like that's what that sound of a 9mm is embedded in my ear forever, right? I mean, that sound and that gun, it's taken good therapy for me to get that. You know, when you're facing a 9mm Beretta and it's inches from your nose and all you see is the barrel, and that's something I would never wish on anybody, Brian. So the Hoffman and Hortman families, they're kind of bound in this tragic act of violence. Have you been working through it together, if at all? I mean, have you been in tandem recovery with the family and in touch with the family? Yeah, we're going to go visit with them eventually. You know, it's a time, you know, timing is everything, right? And so we'll eventually sit down with them and really have the conversation. Zach Stevenson is setting that up as we talk. We've been talking about it. And as much as you're willing to talk about here about this is an active case, right? There could be a trial at some point. Have the federal prosecutors been keeping you in the loop? Are they asking you your thoughts on capital punishment? It's interesting you bring that up. But we had a federal prosecuting team in place, and they resigned. So there's new prosecutors that have been assigned to the case, and I haven't met them yet. These are the people who resigned last week? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Does that give you a concern? Uh-huh. It does, Brian. It really does. Because it's like, how is the process? because there's a process they have to present to the federal local has to present to the federal national folks. And then somebody makes a decision on how this case is taken. And I don't know the ins and outs on that one. I just know that that's the process. And then so now it's, you know, we just need to know who these new prosecutors are and then meet with them to find out, you know, what's their process? How are they doing to it? Have they asked you about whether they should pursue it as a capital punishment case? So whatever decision they make, you know, and I'm not at privilege really to kind of talk about this stuff, Brian. I've been advised to not talk about that stuff. I know that's one of the options that they're presenting to whoever they need to present to. That is one of the options. I know that. So former President Joe Biden visited you in the hospital in the weeks after. What was that like and what did he convey to you? He shared about the loss of his wife and child when he was first elected. I didn't know he was coming. And the state patrol, all they said was, yeah, there's a secret service clearance visitor and they're going to be coming. And I didn't know it was President Biden until like three hours prior, you know, once they had their clearance stuff. And then state patrol came in and said, you know, yeah, you have a secret service. And I said, well, who is it? And he said, it's the president, Joe Biden. Well, once a president, I was a president. I was President Joe Biden. And we're like, what? And my mom was coming to visit me, and she was just going to stop in and say hi. And so I told her, you might want to stick around. She said, why? I said, I don't know. Joe Biden's coming to visit me, right? And so all of a sudden, the door opens, and this guy comes through the door, and he goes, hi, I'm Joe Biden. gracious human talked about trauma. I mean, he was real. He spent almost an hour with us, Brian. And we were told no pictures, no photographs. He took a selfie, though. It was funny because he said, he's like, anybody got a camera? He goes, let's get a picture. You want a picture? He's like, yeah, take as pictures as you want. So he's basically going against the process. But he was real. What about the current president? Did he call you at all? Has he talked to you since this? I was, you know, when I was laying in the hospital, no. I didn't, no. Since? No. Does that bother you? I mean, I'm focused on, you know, this is the thing that, you know, does it bother me that certain people, people not calling? No. I mean, the people that have called, I'm so grateful for folks, my neighbors who I didn't really know. All of a sudden, they were mowing my backyard. I was like, wow, how cool is that, right? Or the nurse across the street who's making sure that, you know, the packages that are coming, you know, she was taking care of that. She even shoveled my driveway with the snow, first snow we had, you know. It's like grateful for folks that have reached out. small businesses that you know our fence was falling down and and all sudden within six hours everything's fixed i had no idea you know that's kind of stuff one of the reasons i'm asking of course is because just a couple weeks ago in early january you issued a response to a social media post by president trump that was amplifying this conspiracy theory about yeah also hortman's death Why did you feel compelled to do that? Man, it's hurtful because that's the underlying issue. If you go back to when we start treating people like people, we have to get back to that, Brian, right? And that underlying conspiracy theorist, which just ramps up the gap, the fear gap, right? It ramps people up to where there's no trust anymore and you fear. And all of a sudden you're starting to – and we were attacked because of political violence. somebody who didn't know us from Adam, right? And so that brought back that same kind of feeling of why are you doing this kind of thing? That's why we decided to do that. And you have been making this appeal about political violence in other settings, some of the virtual speeches you gave in the months after. Do you feel like any of it has gotten through? It's something we have to keep amplifying, right? And one of the things you look at guys like paul wellstone who would forgive you for everything but would not forgive you if you ever gave up he would say don't give up keep it up right jim ramstead would say the same thing i'm going to keep it up we have to keep it up disagree with my policy disagree with my politics that's part of normal discourse right but as soon as you start to dehumanize me as an individual then you start to create that fear that anger and that anxiety and that's not okay just on the score though we're headed into this supercharged election year that has already been uh very intense in the in the early weeks here in minnesota uh it's going to be intense in minnesota and around the country what worries you the most but well that would worry the most is the finger pointing and brinkmanship the the political politicalization of things like for example in the human services world right we have a charge in minnesota and have always done a great job of taking care of most vulnerable and our elderly, right? Don't politicize this, Brian. You know, keep it pragmatic. And I do want to get into that and we will in just a little bit but just in terms of more on the political violence and the public safety of people in office who come to see people in office who come to their halls of government Yeah. Obviously, capital security is a focal point right now. What do you think should be done? You know, it sure changes how we've done business around here, right, Brian? I mean, you're going to probably notice that. It changed a little bit as we, you know, certain security measures. Now it's even going to get tighter. And I don't like that because of the fact that that is the people's house. And for years, we've always had free reign of that people's house. People coming in, just merely having the state patrol presence has always been a great deterrent for any bad actors that show up here. You are metal detectors? Now we're going to change that. Is that something you want to see? I think that's the direction they're going. I don't know. I've not been involved in those conversations. What are you hearing? Are you hearing that they're going to do it? I mean, there's the recommendation that's on the table. I don't know where it goes from there. But, I mean, obviously, people like you, don't you think you have a louder voice in this conversation? Well, then again, people like me who have been shot nine times would say bring in the metal detectors and get rid of the guns, right? I mean, that's – but you can still have your conceal and carry in the state capitol, right? I think if the recommendation is for the metal detectors, man, bring them. You know, if that's what the – because there's a group of people that are made up of state patrol and, you know, are public safety folks. And if they're recommending one thing, I think we should listen to those recommendations. Don't you? I mean, they're the experts, right? So at some point, you have to refer to the experts. And see, that's what leadership's all about. It's not – I don't have any – yeah, when you say, well, you, you know, got some more say in this. But I'm not an expert in that. I'm just a victim of it, right? And so it's like, what are the experts saying? And you just said it, then I think we should listen to those. This is the other thing about recovery's got me listening more, right? Yeah. If the experts are saying, this is what you guys need, then I think we should listen to them. How are you viewing these last few weeks of tension centered in Minneapolis, not far from where you live around immigration? And what's been happening closer to your city of Champlin? Yeah, well, Brooklyn Park just yesterday, you know, there was a constituent who was videotaping the presence of some federal folks. And she was pepper sprayed in her front yard just for observing, even after a federal judge said you can't do that to observers, right? And so then I have another family, she happens to have, you know, she has a name that lots of people have the same name from the same family. And there's a guy, they showed a picture to her neighbors and saying, you know, where is this person? You know, do you know you live next to a criminal? And it's the woman, not the guy. The woman might have the same name, but her middle name is completely different, right? She now is scared beyond all scared because of the fact that they think she's a he. And it's stuff like that. What do you say to those folks? I connected her right away with our local mayor who has our chief of police at Brooklyn Park, right away with a congressional office and right away with a council of people that had lawyers ready to help her. And I tell you what, I feel her anxiety and I feel her fear because I actually faced that, Brian, the anxiety and the fear. if i would have hesitated one more second um i would be dead think about that you know um i couldn't hesitate right and that's exactly so i feel that fear that that's going on in that family and these are constituents these are people i know in brooklyn park so the trump administration as you know has tied a lot of this back to allegations of fraud in minnesota particularly within immigrant communities what do you make of that we gave the department of human services the state department yeah we gave them and then yeah you know we gave them authority to to go in like a laser at least statutorily to go get the bad actors from the from the good actors right and so um the allegations that that that were that were driving this were from the feeding our futures kind of thing that's what they seem to be highlighting right when the fact is that But yes, there were bad actors in that, right? But there was also then rolling down to some other providers. But instead of going like a laser and focusing on the bad actors and getting those bad actors in jail and paying back, they did a blanket approach. And you have good actors like up in Duluth, right? I don't know. Does NPR go ahead up to Duluth? Yeah, and I know you've written a letter to the department to talk about this blanket approach. And you've voiced concerns that people who are legitimately providing services or entitled to receive them might be swept up in this fervor over fraud. What gives you kind of – where's this headed? And what can you do about it as a lawmaker? Two things. The point is that there were good actors that were swept up in this, right? And I'm using one example up in Duluth. A woman for 30 years has been a good actor. She's shutting her doors because of the fact that they decided to offset this payment restructuring piece and didn't give ample notice, right? All of a sudden, get your time in on that. Second thing, the question really is, given what we gave you, right, because you told us you needed this statutory authority in order to do this, you know, A, did you do it or B, why didn't you do it, right? And what was missing from the fact that we gave you? And I got nine pages, and that'll come out in the hearings, Brian, if you're here on the 28th and 29th. I think I'm going to get that notified today. We're going to do two days of, you know, we're going to have public hearings on my letter, which you apparently have seen a copy of. Who'd you get it from? I can't say that. But what has the Wallace administration's response been to that? Like these cautionary notes you've been getting. What have they said to you about it? About the letter? Nothing. I got no response. All I got was a response back that said, you know, because I basically said we will be having hearings and your attendance is expected. And if not, I would do full, I don't know what I said, subpoena authority on that or something. I don't know. But I got a response back that said, no, we would be more than happy to participate fully in your hearings. So that's the only response I got back from the administration. But they haven't sped up payments at all to some of these providers that are contacting you? Well, I had one provider told me that they were supposed to speed that up, but when they gave notice on doing it, it was like December 20-something. They gave you two days to get your authorizations in order or something. It was the, what's the word, the clarity of how they gave that out was not very open and tight. It was too tight. Don't ever get shocked because your brain, I know what I want to say, Ryan. I'll try not to. But dude, it's like, all right, the timing on it was terrible. And how they process it was terrible. How they didn't bring in people that were part of the discussion, the transparency was not well executed. So the question then we're going to ask them is, what do you need from us statutorily to make sure you're doing your job that we're expecting you're supposed to be doing? don't leave people with disabilities and are elderly on the side of the road because that was my biggest fear brian in all this so there's there's no disputing that we're in some unprecedented times the public attention has been drifting yeah crisis to crisis and the outrage machine is still in full force just consider what's happened since your shooting you've had the school shooting annunciation the enormous fraud focus a governor who's abruptly ended his campaign for re-election this ICE operation we've been talking about that the nation hasn't seen the likes of before. How are you and maybe how should people make sense of it all? So you look back in time, right? And I think about the guys that went across the bridge. They were peacefully protesting going across a bridge and they were met with, they got just beat up, just beat, right? I look at guys like Andrew Young. You're talking down in Selma. Yeah. Thank you, Selma. Emmett. I used to know that. What is it? Edmund Pettit. Edmund Pettit Bridge, yes, that you think about in time, right, when we've had moments in time when society is being challenged by some things that aren't right. And I look at guys like Andrew Young who never gave up. And Rick Hansen and I and Sarah Stroman actually got to spend a lot of time with him down in St. Louis for a Mississippi River meeting. and the history of somebody like that. And you go to Memphis and you go to the museum down there, the Lorraine Hotel. Yeah, it was the Lorraine Hotel. And Andrew Young is all over that place, right? Those guys were met with a society that said, well, you're not equal to us. They dehumanized them, right? And Andrew Young he never gave up the folks that were with him they never gave up right And so it saying the same thing here Brian Society gets challenged, whether it be then or, you know, the civil rights piece of it. You think about Kent. I remember the Vietnam War you had, like, in Mankato. Did you grow up in Minnesota? I did not. Wisconsin. Really? Do you want to end this interview right now? We're done, man. Are you a Packers fan? I have to confess, yes. Oh, my God. I got through the screeners. Did you get through the screener? You're good on that one. So do you notice I didn't say Packers suck? I mean, that seems to be the thing that comes after you say I'm a Packers. Packers, and then they come with Chicago Bears. What a team. What a great team that was. So anyway, in Wisconsin, in 169 going through Mankato, the students down there shut down 169 as a protest. I mean, they shut down the freeway. And the National Guard was out there shooting flares over their heads, right? So you think about those times in society when there was unrest. We seemed to find a way to get to the right side of history on that. And these are challenges for us, Brian. And we have to keep leading the right way to get us to that. Does that make sense? Let's talk about a month from now. And I won't be making fun of the Packers. That's okay. You can make fun all you want. They had a rough ending to the year. About a month from now, the Capitol will be busy again. The session will be back in. What do you think needs to happen? And what particular role do you intend to play in the session? My bill, I got a bill that you're impersonating a police officer. Right now it's a misdemeanor charge, and it should be a felony from the get-go. If you want to pretend you're a cop, then go hire a good lawyer to get you off this felony. All the bonding projects that we have will get fully funded. Those construction projects for your area. Yes. David Tomassoni taught me that. You've got to deliver it for your city, and that's all that matters. I think you're going to see bonding. We are going to have these serious, and it will be a short session, Brian. We're going to need to have those serious conversations. That's why I'm doing a pre-session conversation with the department about, well, what? What didn't we give you enough of nine pages of statutory authority that you couldn't do this, and now you've done this hammered approach, and it's not working, right? Those fixes, and that'll be it, other than people that are running for higher office or running for some other office are going to get their 15 minutes of fame. We should get a bingo card going about how many times certain people can get up and talk on the floor. You're going to have some fame. How do you expect to be received when you... I don't have any fame. I'm still the same guy I was. I'm still going to ignore you when I come walking by you on the floor because I'm not the interesting one to talk to. With your headset on and your microphone and you're always looking for somebody else, I'm giving you a hard time. You know that, Brian. I think you're going to see that. And we just need to stay focused on what's important to Minnesota. It's how can we be honest to Minnesota and stay focused to Minnesota. And that's what recovery has done for me is giving me clarity about what my role is, Brian. And I think that's what we're going to stay focused on. And you're planning to be on the ballot this fall. you announced it a couple weeks ago. I did. Was it a close call at all? Yeah, it's a long conversation with my wife. We made a decision. And then at 3.41, we made that decision. At 3.42, Blois Olson got a phone call from somebody wondering about it. At 3.45, Blois called me and said, when you were going to inform me that you were going to run again. that's a decision that was made with lots of family and friends. And also you looked around, I looked around and I saw what was happening in the last seven months and I said, we can do better. Nobody would have faulted you for stepping back, right? After all you had been through, why was it important for you to kind of stay in the game as I think you put it that way? Yeah. And the crossroad comes up, right? And you say, okay, the normal reaction is to withdraw, right? and say, I'm going to withdraw and I'm going to isolate, I'm going to go take care of me, myself, and I, right? But then I remember the words of Paul Wellstead who said, don't ever give up, or Andrew Young who said, I never gave up, right? These folks have said to me in the worst of times, don't give up. And in this case, it's not to give up, right? And so it's to keep focused on doing what's right. Then I know, and I'm not being Pollyanna about it, Brian. And I'm just saying, you know, that's my decision was to not give up. And I think that's what Melissa Hortman would say the same thing. There's a picture my daughter had made, I don't know, acrylic something. I don't know how she did it, but she got that thing up there. It's for my birthday. Describe that picture for us. So it's David Tomassoni is an angel wings. Former state senator. Yeah, and just absolutely an Olympic hockey player who took out Wayne Gretzky. In the 84 Olympics. Did you know that? That's a famous, absolute famous picture. I heard a lot of his hockey stories, but not that one. That one, yeah, he didn't like talking about it. But I re-reminded him one time with that picture on a Wheaties box, and he yelled at me. Carrie Dietzik, who actually is the only person in the history of the Senate that could get David to be quiet and listen. And it was all because she would come in when we were on the LCCMR, and she would start off with, if she said, hi, David, then it was just a normal conversation. But if she started with so, David, the so led to so, then your first name, then you knew there was some serious Dietzik something coming. And then Melissa Hortman, who said to me one time when we were arguing, she said, I am like your little kid sister. It's just a pain in the side. And I said, absolutely. So she was my political kid sister. I miss her always pushing back and always smirking as she threw the Senate under the bus would make fun of us every time we did a public meeting. And then she would turn around and she would be smirking at me like, I got you. And winking. Oh, that was there. It was, you know. And when she would say, let's effing go, Brian, it was like, let's go time. those three people had such a huge influence on me and my daughter apparently I talked about them all the time she went and did that and it was kind of cool and just so I understand you're doing a lot of these now because you want kind of the focus on your personal tragedy to not be the focus on your work for the year right yeah I think you know you look at it yeah what happened to me is absolutely in my family, unspeak of. I don't think another state senator in the United States had done what happened, right? It's kind of like, that doesn't drive who I am, right? What drives me who I am is the work that I do and I want to keep doing and the clarity that I have to keep moving forward. Don't forget, never forget what Mark and Melissa Hortman were about. right in their life and never forget what Yvette and I are about. We're grateful to be alive, Brian. I mean, it just, you know, there's one other guy in Minnesota that I know that was shot nine times and lived. And there's a, one other musician I know nationally was shot nine times and lived. So with that, you know, 50 cent, I am the 50 Senator, Brian. Anyway, Senator John Hoffman, And thank you for your time and welcome back. And thanks for all the candidness. I appreciate you, Brian, and appreciate your work. And thanks for letting me be on here. This special episode was produced by Matt Alvarez with technical assistance from Josh Savage. They had to endure, as you heard, many instances of Packers Bears banter. Both teams are done for the year, but we're not. We'll be back for our new season on February 6th, so tune in and keep checking our feed for special drop-in episodes as events warrant. Until then, this is Brian Baxt. Stay safe and stay warm. Transcription by CastingWords This work is only possible with community support.