Within literal moments of Kamala Harris’ VP running mate announcement, Donald Trump and his people made quick work of denigrating, attacking, and demoralizing Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz, with their biggest criticism surrounding Walz’s handling of the infamous May 2020 riots that took place across the American northwest in response to the police murder of George Floyd.
“He allowed rioters to burn down the streets of Minneapolis,” Trump’s 2024 running mate, far-Right Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, said of Walz in public remarks earlier this week, following the Harris Campaign’s announcement.
However, newly leaked audio is now exposing the former president’s past remarks about the Minnesota governor, surrounding the Floyd protests and riots, and it paints a far different picture when it comes to Donald’s feelings about Walz.
In a recording of a phone call obtained by ABC News, Donald Trump is heard speaking with a group of governors on June 1, 2020, telling the group that Walz “dominated” the situation and praising the Democratic governor’s leadership amid the riots and protests as an example for other state leaders to follow.
“I know Gov. Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days,” Trump is heard saying in the resurfaced audio recording of the call, going on to call Walz an “excellent guy.”
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“I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim,” Donald continued on the call. “You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”
The then-president also claimed on the call that it was his encouragement that prompted Governor Walz to call in the National Guard in response to the riots: “I said, you got to use the National Guard in big numbers,” Trump said. A spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign said Wednesday that was untrue.”
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign, Karoline Leavitt, has already responded to the newly resurfaced, leaked audio and claimed that Donald was only praising Walz at the time because Walz chose to listen to him and follow his advice with regard to calling in the National Guard.
In a statement to ABC News following the leaked 2020 call, Leavitt said:
Governor Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy soldiers and cries for help from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis. In this daily briefing phone call with Governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump acknowledged Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city.”
Nevertheless, this resurfaced proof of Donald Trump’s approval of Governor Walz serves to directly undermine one of the Trump Campaign’s most heavily relied-upon lines of attack against the Democratic VP pick.
Walz is a 24-year veteran of the National Guard himself and ultimately summoned more than 7,000 guardsmen to the Twin Cities amid the Floyd riots. However, that call did not come until 18 hours after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey first requested that the governor activate military forces to help quell the riots.
Walz’s apparent hesitation ultimately resulted in an investigative report compiled by Minnesota Senate Republicans, in which they stated: “This hesitation cost Minnesotans their lives, communities, and livelihoods.”
Walz publicly condemned that report at the time of its release, just weeks ahead of his 2022 reelection as governor, dubbing it an “unhelpful” political hit job.
More recently, Walz has once again addressed his response to the Floyd riots and said: “It is what it is. And I simply believe that we try to do the best we can.”
You can read the full report from ABC News here, and you can listen to a clip of the leaked call here:
For the last 2 days, all that we’ve been hearing from Fox News and from social media personalities is that Tim Walz was a disaster during the George Floyd riots in Minnesota.
Breaking Audio – Trump disagreed:
“I fully agree with the way he handled it”
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) August 7, 2024
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
