MADISON – Five weeks before the U.S. presidential election, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo traveled to the closed Wisconsin State Capitol to deliver a speech on China’s pursuit to influence U.S. policy. This was the first visit paid by a U.S. Secretary of State to Wisconsin’s Capitol in state history.

In response to yesterday’s event, Senator Jeff Smith (D – Brunswick) released the following statement:

“I was beginning to ask myself, if a global pandemic, which has cost the lives of 1,265 Wisconsinites, cannot convince Republicans to do their jobs, what can? Yesterday I got my answer.

“On state time using state resources, Republicans gathered in the Senate Chamber where Secretary Pompeo told the Republican-filled room, ‘You have a friend in the Trump Administration.’ If that’s not electioneering I don’t know what is.

“People in Wisconsin are suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, record-high unemployment and extreme racial injustice. To top that off, Wisconsinites have a Republican-controlled Legislature that blatantly refuses to work for the people who elected them. The Republicans have refused to meet for the last six months, ignoring their responsibility to work for the people.”

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