donald trump praised Tim WalzMinnesota governor’s response as Minnesota governor to civil justice protests in 2020, undermining a Republican line of attack against the newly nominated vice presidential nominee, according to a recording that emerged Wednesday.
Trump — who wanted state officials to take tough action to deal with the civil unrest that has erupted across the country in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis — told governors in a conference call that Walz had responded well.
“I know Governor Walz is on the phone and we’ve spoken, and I completely agree with the way he’s handled the situation over the last few days,” he said, according toa recording of the call obtained by ABC News.
The observations were reported at the time but they resurfaced after Kamala Harris announced Walz as her running mate and the Trump campaign launched attacks on the Minnesota governor’s response to the riots.
Trump gave an upbeat assessment of the Minnesota governor’s response during the June 1, 2020, call.
“I’ve been really happy with the last few days, Tim,” Trump said. “You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them down so fast it was like bowling pins.”
Comments resurfaced came just as Republicans began using Walz’s response to civil unrest as a major line of attack.
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance said Tuesday during a rally that Walz “allowed protesters to burn down the streets of Minneapolis” and Rep. Marjorie Taylor (R-Ga.) stated in an X post that Walz “did not did nothing while Minneapolis burned. ”
Campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt echoed the criticism in a statement to POLITICO, saying Walz “allowed Minneapolis to burn for days.” She described Trump’s comments on the call as reluctant.
“In this daily call with governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump recognized Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to mobilize the National Guard to end the violence in the city,” Leavitt said.
At a recent rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Trump revived a four-year-old false claim that he deployed the National Guard to respond to civil unrest after Walz failed to do so following the killing of George Floyd.
At the time, Walz, a retired guardsman, deployed the National Guard via executive order more than seven hours before Trump posted on social media threatening to do the same.
At the time, however, Walz faced criticism from Republicans for taking 18 hours to deploy the National Guard after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey requested assistance.
The Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
