At Issue: Full interview with GOP Senate candidate Jason Lewis

Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Jason Lewis is confident in his chances in winning, and it’s largely because he’s confident in President Donald Trump’s chances here in Minnesota.

Lewis, a former one-term congressman who rode the Trump wave in 2016 all the way to Washington, knows his pathway to victory against Sen. Tina Smith, DFL-Minnesota, rests largely in how the Republican president fares in suburban and Greater Minnesota.

“President Trump is going to win Minnesota,” Lewis told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. “The suburbs want public safety and the Democrat Party won’t condemn antifa, they won’t back the cops, they won’t do that, and I think Minnesota is coming home to public safety and law and order.

“We’re on the right side of history,” he added.

Lewis went one-on-one with Tom Hauser this week on “At Issue.” A recent KSTP/ SurveyUSA poll has Lewis in a dead heat with Smith, who was a guest on the show last week.

In the wide-ranging interview, Lewis was asked questions about his previous comments about women, the idea of “court-packing” and the government’s response to the coronavirus.

Asked if he joined Trump in downplaying the coronavirus pandemic, Lewis answered, “Eventually it’s going to go away. Nobody knows when, but these epidemiologists’ predictions have been way off, too.”

The pandemic, he said, has “granted unprecedented power to government."

“If they can do it now, when’s the next time they’re going to lock down you and your family? You can’t go to the barbecue, you can’t go to the gun range and you can’t go to church,” Lewis said. “That’s ridiculous.”