ROCHESTER, Minnesota (KTTC) – Since announcing Governor Tim Walz’s selection as Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate, the duo’s opponents have criticized Walz’s response to the violence in Minneapolis that followed the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
This week, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said during a campaign rally that Walz had allowed rioters to burn down the streets of Minneapolis.
However, a phone recording from 2020 provides a different perspective than then-President Donald Trump.
In that phone call on June 1, 2020, Trump said, “What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately.”
According to the Associated Press, which obtained the White House audio recording this week, Trump made these comments to Walz and other U.S. governors, as well as Trump administration officials.
Trump also called Walz an “excellent guy” in the recording.
Protests erupted in Minneapolis and across the country after Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a white former police officer, on May 25, 2020, by kneeling on the black man’s neck for more than nine minutes. His death forced a reckoning with police brutality and racism. Some of the protests turned violent.
Three days after Floyd’s death, Walz mobilized the Minnesota National Guard. Later that day, Trump offered federal assistance, but the governor declined the offer.
Last May, Trump said at a fundraiser in St. Paul that he was responsible for the deployment of the National Guard. He said, among other things, “If I weren’t president, Minneapolis wouldn’t exist today.”
As for the 2020 phone call, a Trump campaign spokesman said the then-president was acknowledging Walz for finally taking action and requesting the National Guard.
Walz was criticized at the time for not making faster progress.
Find stories like this and more in our apps.
All rights reserved.