Hortman Didn't Need to Mute Opponents, Klobuchar Recalls

On Day 3 of her tenure as Minnesota House speaker, Melissa Hortman turned off the mute button that her predecessor had used to silence legislators. "She's like 'I don't need that. I can use the gavel,'" Sen. Amy Klobuchar said, per Politico. "She was just such a skilled legislator at bringing people together." The state's senior US senator, who attended a dinner event Friday night with Hortman hours before her friend was shot to death along with her husband, mourned her fellow Democrat as a positive force in politics. "I just wish everyone in the world, the political world, knew this woman like we know her in Minnesota, loved by Democrats and Republicans," Klobuchar said.

Hortman's preparation for the speakership included leading a Girl Scout troop and teaching Sunday school at a Catholic church, Klobuchar said. "That ability to manage with two kids led her to do a really good job managing legislators," she said. The senator also discussed Hortman on Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. "We started out together in politics, moms with young kids, and somehow she was able to balance getting to know everyone, door knock every house in her district, while raising two children," Klobuchar said, per CNBC. The senator said her own security has been increased since the shootings, per the Hill, though she hadn't made a request. (More Minnesota killings stories.)