The State Senate is working through their legislative load in week 4, but there’s a specter over everything that they are doing. The absolute freak-show that was dropped in the legislature’s lap last week when State Senator Julie Frye Mueller was suddenly and mysteriously suspended of all duties by the State Senate, leaving many to ask “why?” “what did she do?” with only the sketchiest of reports that it involved Senator Frye Mueller harassing an employee of the legislative research council about “private maternal matters, including childhood vaccines and breastfeeding.”
Understandably, given that Frye-Mueller was a legislator, and the LRC works for legislators, the Senate removed her from the situation with a strong vote. But there was enough wiggle room and ambiguity that Frye-Mueller and her political allies went on the attack, spending the weekend trying to portray her victimhood, culminating with a “woe is me” “I don’t know what I did wrong” press conference in an attempt to garner sympathy from the public.
But what Mueller didn’t count on was the fact that after they redacted some materials, the Senate was willing to release the statement which started all of this, to the public’s horror. It’s horrifying and graphic. So much so that the squeamish Argus Leader Argus will give a hint to the crazy, but won’t print the bad parts.
After the discussion about the bill, Sen. Frye-Mueller asked the staffer about her baby and asked if the infant was vaccinated, according to the complaint. When the staffer answered yes, Frye-Mueller said vaccinations could cause issues such as Down syndrome or autism.
and..
Frye-Mueller then went on to tell the staffer, “he will die from those vaccines,” according to the complaint.
The discussion then moved from vaccines to breastfeeding, according to the complaint. The staffer said she was formula feeding her child that then led Frye-Mueller to give an explicit description of how to have milk come in.
Read the corporate sanitized version here.
So much for the Argus’ milquetoast account of the matter. Because it sanitizes the accusation, and strips it of any moral call for justice for the victim. Thankfully, the State Senate believes in open government, and lays it out there, warts and all:
After the discussion on the bill was finished, Senator Frye-Mueller asked, “how is baby?” I answered that he was doing well. Senator Frye-Mueller proceeded to ask, “did you vaccinate?”. I told her, “Yes.” Without allowing me to elaborate further, she proceeded to point her finger at me and aggressively say that this will cause him issues. She said my baby, “could get down syndrome, or autism.” She further went on to say that “he will die from those vaccines.”
She talked about the World Health Organization (WHO) and a video released by WHO that that confirmed that vaccinating babies is wrong and said that “we are guinea pigs for big pharma.” She further went on to say that God gives babies immunity and that, “you are taking away God’s gift of immunity from your son.”. During this time, she then asked if I was breastfeeding my baby. I told her “No, I am formula feeding, but I wish I could have.”
I was told by Senator Frye-Mueller that my husband could “suck on my breasts” to get milk to come in. She indicated, “a good time for that is at night.” She proceeded to provide hand gestures to her chest area and motion to her husband to see if he agreed. He smiled and nodded.
Senator Frye-Mueller preceded to get even more emotional and aggressive with me. She continued to point her finger at me with tears in her eyes saying repeatedly, “you can’t vaccinate your child anymore.” She knew of a set of twins that got vaccinated and “came out completely different”. She asked, “do you want that to happen to your son?”
Read the redacted employee statement here.
According to an account, the Legislative employee and new mother was subjected to a barrage of the worst, long-debunked pile of vaccination crazy from the internet, directed at her from a superior as if it was gospel, intimating she might be killing her child.
And far, far worse, she starts going on about breastfeeding in a tremendously inappropriate way forced on her by a work superior, with the work superior’s husband leering.
This wasn’t advice from one mother to another. The level of abuse to the employee is unlike anything ever heard in the halls of the legislature, and done so with the attendance and tacit approval of Frye Mueller’s husband for all of it.
I was in the censure court when the charges were originally announced. Now that the details are out, if the Senate chose to expel her, I’m easily good with that. South Dakota would be far better off getting rid of Frye-Mueller. And at this point, with the information out, I’m disappointed that the Senate has so far left Mueller’s husband untouched for his role in this matter.
Given his part in this event, the Senate needs to ban JFM’s husband, Mike Mueller, from legislative offices, committee rooms, and keep him away from the employees given the account from the employee making the complaint.
Sounds like a private conversation with a mother
In the mother’s office, with a work superior standing there talking about the employee’s breastfeeding, with the work superior’s husband leering.
It’s the opposite of a private conversation. It’s horrific.
Stop over dramatizing the story, you are making yourself look silly. It was not the conversation that you and your fellow establishment groupies are making it out to be. This has been way over the line..Have you desperately sold your soul to the devil?
Mike, do you go around telling new mothers that they are killing their new babies? Or what they should have their husbands due to their nipples?
Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answer for.
I’m sure he does. Seems like a friendly and helpful person that way. I bet he also claims to be Christian yet knows nothing about the teaching of Christ.
Well, he only accused you of selling your soul to the devil. You are not the devil himself. That would be Lee Schoenbeck, of course.
this is the clearest comprehensive take i’ve read, thanks mr powers.
mr. zitterich, it is you and your cohorts who adopt and adapt the disruptive tactics of the left to apply to the party that offers you a home as long as you don’t leave messes on the rug. your tactical room-packing in low turnout situations has paid off i guess. others might say ‘you broke it you bought it.’
you never get or accept the negative feedback sane people give you, or recognize it happens. the positive feedback merry go round brings you all here, today, pretending an over-the-line breech of ethics and behavior is nothing at all.
it’s something to the rest of us, who are at the limits of our legal power to get through to you in some way you will respond to. your conceit that your tactics will lead to the ultimate good of bringing long-denied freedom to millions of oppressed conservative voters, needs to make room for the fact that most of the RINOs in your way are the voters themselves. those rare times they do turn out in huge numbers, they vote for candidates you hate and avoid the path you make for them, time and time again.
so let’s not bring satan, hitler or any other catch-all epithet into this. let’s settle this according to process.
Mike, I am going to assume you have never breastfed a child, or had to make the decision not to.
As a nursing mother, I was allowed, by the owners and operators of a long term care facility, to have my daughter brought to me so I could nurse her on my dinner break. My immediate supervisor didn’t like it at all. Too bad, I’d gotten the ok from the top. But I had to deal with her disapproval.
I also got some disapproval from my in-laws when I was nursing my
son; my MIL asked “how long are you going to do that?”
Cue the snarky response “until he gets teeth.” One day, while bottle feeding the same child my own milk, a woman said “you’re BOTTLE feeding him?” I had to explain it was my own milk.
Everybody’s got an opinion.
New mothers have to put up with this. They shouldn’t have to.
The decision to breast or bottle feed an infant is entirely the new mother’s business, nobody else’s.
If the staffer had ASKED for JFMs advice, it would have been okay. But she didn’t ask, and she didn’t need a lecture about how she was killing her child.
Anne, we don’t need to hear about you breastfeeding….but if you seem to think it’s appropriate…
I’m confident you’d be the first voicing your opinion and giving advice
Regardless….it was someone attempting to help. And it is still one persons word against another. No laws were broken.
New mothers don’t need people giving them shit about how they choose to feed their babies. She was NOT trying to help. I was pointing out the negativity I encountered myself. Everybody has an opinion. Nobody wants to hear it.
yeah. ok mike. enough with the establishment. surpised you’re not using racist comments here like you did in that facebook group and under a fake profile.
and she crossed the line when she got into an argument over breastfeeding. The staffer said she wasn’t able to. The reason is none of JFM’s business. The staffer did not ask for advice.
No, it really wasn’t. JFM was communicating at work, with a subordinate LRC staffer. JFM brought up the issues discussed and made the vulgar statements.
I agree with you Mike!!!
Down Syndrome? Does the vaccine cause Down Syndrome? What do you think, Veda?
and nobody with half a brain thinks vaccines cause autism. That idea was debunked decades ago.
This is clearly a case of a sitting senator creating a hostile work environment. Action needs to be taken.
Sometimes politics is hostile….
Once again, the SD Legislature is a circus. A total clown show.
It’s a complete set-up just like the Democrats pull against Republicans all the time: turn a private conversation into an allegation that can’t be proven (it’s COMPLETELY a she-said/she-said kerfuffle), then rush ahead with the desired political solution (in this instance, marginalizing an effective conservative senator in advance of the HB 1080 debate/vote while deflecting from SB40, which the SD Central Committee agreed to complete a resolution recommending it be pulled at the 14 Jan meeting), with a parallel effort to falsely smear anyone supporting Frye-Mueller (whose due process rights were violated when the rules were suspended and she was summarily removed from her committee assignments) – which you hacks are dutifully engaged in. In a few weeks, after the dust has settled, we’ll find out that it was all a set-up and a series of lies. This process happens all. the. time.
She has no one to blame but herself. if she had an ounce of social EQ she would know she shouldn’t have said that. But she doesn’t, this isn’t the first issue of her speaking without thinking. This is just the first one that the person on the other end was willing to file a report on and stick with it. Good for the staffer.
Blame everything on the evil democrats and establishment republicans so you can be the victim. Always the victim.
I don’t know where some of you work, but if I made these comments to a colleague, I would be in trouble, and I am a business owner. This is not professional, but much of the far right victim hood agenda lately is not work appropriate either. See how far your reverse racism claim goes, or your claim that allowing someone to be openly in a same sex relationship is infringing on your religious freedom, at the office. The solution is simple, live YOUR life, you don’t have any right to be able to control how others live their lives, it may completely contradict your thoughts, but you as an organic being have the ability to generate any possible thought, that doesn’t make you special. Leave people alone.
The District 30 Clown Car has finally run over the cliff! First, JFM’s husband should be banned from the Capitol building – period. Second, JFM has little to stand on since this is purely an employment related harassment issue, plain and simple. Yet, the added component of her husband in the room may give rise to an even more elevated legal component that most of us have never dealt with before – he’s not an employee so…. I have faith in the Senate select committee and hope this is completed quickly. District 30 voters have gone far too long without a real State Senator that listens and is responsive to their constituents. It’s time for the circus to leave town. I challenge those who support JFM to go to any employer and ask them how they would handle a situation such as this. We will then hear crickets.
Sounds like the staffer is a snowflake. I was expecting something far more egregious. This is almost insignificant.
And that’s why people file sexual harassment lawsuits. Because of people like you.
I like your comment. Nothing intelligent to say in defense of a nut, so you attack the victim.
If the staffer is a snowflake for reporting something which made them uncomfortable, you can’t be far from a snowflake given your compulsion to share your opinion. What exactly triggered you, and what exactly are you defending, Tom?
Also, I’d recommend considering the parts of the report where the staffer touched on why they didn’t cut the conversation short. You have no idea what this staffer has experienced in the past with JFM and her husband, and you have no idea how their work environment could change if the staffer let this conversation slide.
Besides the husband’s intimidation and leering over JFM telling the staffer to add nipple sucking at night to the bedtime activities, the appalling ignorance and stupidity exhibited by perpetuating the “vaccines cause autism” idea, with Down’s Syndrome thrown in on top, shows that JFM lacks the knowledge and intelligence necessary to be an effective legislator. She needs to go.
Actually NO ONE knows the unbiased FACTS of this case since NO ONE on Julie-Frye Muller’s side of the story or any other observer has been placed under oath and interviewed by the Senate “Select” Committee (SS Committee). The actual travesty in this case is that due process was not followed, the established rules of the SD Senate were changed TWICE for neither a legitimate nor a legal reason, and the voters of District 30 were almost immediately disenfranchised (1/26/23 to present).
The reality is the SD Senate has failed by EVERY measure. There was neither a legitimate nor a legal reason in removing the ability of Senator Julie Frye-Muller “from exercising any rights or privileges as a senator” on 1/26/23.
Further, if the ACTUAL events on 1/24/23 were so terrible — why wasn’t security or police called? Why isn’t there a police report filed? There are far more questions than there are answers in this case.
So WHAT DATE will Senator Julie Frye-Muller be able to tell her side of the story? Is the SS Committee ever going to release that information to the taxpayers who pay their salaries and pay for the buildings where these proceedings are occurring?
Further, why aren’t ALL SS Committee actions in the open, PUBLIC, and BROADCAST. One could say, what about the accuser (LRC female employee)? If it was her WISH to be interviewed in Executive Session, fine, make that portion in Executive session. WITH ONLY THIS EXCEPTION, ALL OF REMAINDER of the SS Committee interviews and actions should be a PUBLIC MEETING. What is the SS Committee trying to hide from the people of South Dakota?
Also, why has no one every asked the question – Why do LRC bureaucrats have offices whereas elected House Representatives and elected Senators do not? In fact, the average Representative or Senator don’t even have a conference or meeting room available to them – only a small wood desk on the floor of the respective legislature? Who actually works for whom – by all appearances, it looks like the LRC is the supervisor and the legislators are subservient to the LRC.
This looks more like a Soviet-era Show Trial than a legitimate, objective, and systematic finding of fact. To conclude, since the entire process has already been spoiled from a legal standpoint – any result will not be legitimate.
I’m just dumber for having read this.
All of the meetings of the Senate Select Committee on Discipline and Expulsion (with the exception of the executive session) ARE public, and are being broadcast.
Good lord.
MLZ is that you? Sure looks likes it with the random capitalization.
This has to be a Mike Zitterich post, I only read the first sentence and scrolled two pages down and skipped the rest. You would think for someone as confident with himself as he is, there would be better communication methods. Twitter was good for that, if I wanted to read a book I would go to library with published authors, not internet comment warriors.
If someone did this in Corporate America, they would be out on the street so fast that the door literally WOULD be hitting them in the butt.
If these were to peers, as opposed to a superior and a subordinate, then it would have been wildly inappropriate for this conversation to happen with JFM’s husband in the room. Like leading to lawsuits against the individuals and the company.
It would have been wildly inappropriate without him in the room UNLESS the both sides were on board with the conversation. People get fired over this kind of thing. There is a reason that you do NOT talk about ANYTHING even remotely connected to sex/reproduction/etc. in a business environment. Because it can go from funny to lawsuit REALLY quickly.
The fact that JFM IS her superior, and the LRC member can’t in any realistic way tell her to take a hike and HAS to just sit there and take it just push this into another level of bad. Again, in corporate America this is where huge lawsuits with many many zeros happen.
This is abuse of power. This is a sitting member of the Senate talking to a subordinate about a private, personal, topic of a sexual nature in front of a third party.
JFM’s politics and views are not an issue here. This the definition of a hostile work environment.
In South Dakota, Executive Sessions are NOT public meetings and are also not broadcast. Nearly zero details of what happens in Executive Sessions (at any government level in SD) are released to the public. My understanding is both the LRC female staffer’s and Senator Julie Frye-Muller’s testimony will be in Executive Session. So unless there are other individuals in this case being interviewed in public (that we don’t currently know about), then by default almost all the information and action is actually happening in Executive Session — keeping the South Dakota taxpayers in the dark (as usual).
Always remember —
JN8:7 (KJV) “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
Indeed…JFM cast the first stone.
District 30 needs to do a recall. There are 109,294 people in Pennington County and 93,403 of them have received at least one dose of Covid vaccine.
Custer County has 8573 people and 5810 of them have received at least one dose
Fall River County has 6774 and 5079 of them have received at least one dose.
It can be expected that the majority of children in all three counties have also been vaccinated, for Covid as well as other diseases.
The voters of District 30 are unlikely to share JFMs crazy and erroneous ideas and should be embarrassed to have them represent her.
I doubt this is like it was in Vermont in the 70s when the only way we could get rid of Patrick Leahy was to send him to Washington DC. It’s possible she has annoyed so many people they consider her time away from home to be a respite, but they need to take one for Team SD
Hey Tom, since it’s nothing: cool with you if I [*snip.. okay, I’m going to redact this… jeez – PP*] to help the milk come in? Or does me asking that come across as way too forward and a completely moronic thing to say? Just figuring out parameters here.
District 30 must be crazier than crazy to keep electing these far out extremists. It’s the ground zero of what has infected this state.
I actually looked to see if the World Health Organization put out a video which says vaccinating children is “wrong” and what I found was one video about how vaccinating children against Covid is not a priority. That’s a lot different from saying all vaccines for kids are wrong. And then there’s a lot of stuff the WHO has put out about the importance of vaccinating children.
I would like more information about the twins who were vaccinated and turned out different. Does she mean they started out identical and the vaccines made them fraternal? Sounds like an Alex Jones story.
District 30 must be so proud.