Former President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans are currently trying to attack Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz over his handling of the riots in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd in 2020, but newly-released audio shows that Trump felt the exact opposite at the time during a phone call with Walz.
Floyd was murdered in May 2020 by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, an event that set off international protests in response to racism and police brutality after a bystander's harrowing video footage of the death went viral.
At the time, Trump criticized citizens who took to the streets following Floyd's murder, suggesting they should be shot "when the looting starts," breathing life into stereotypes about people of color being more inclined toward criminality. He also openly attacked Democrats, accusing them of supporting what he and Republicans cast as a violent movement.
However, during a phone call with governors, including Walz, then-President Trump praised his management of the situation and expressed that he was "very happy" with it. At the time of the call, Walz had already deployed the National Guard to quell violence, though critics argued that both the governor and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were too slow to respond, with each blaming the other for the delays.
The audio, obtained by CBS News, was amplified by Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, just days after Harris announced Walz as her running mate.
You can hear the audio below.
Trump can be heard saying the following during the call, which took place on June 1, 2020, mere days after Floyd's murder:
"I know Governor Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days. I asked him to do that and the whole world was laughing. Two days, three days later, I spoke to the Governor and he's an excellent guy."
"You've got a big National Guard out there ready to come in and fight like hell. I tell you, what they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately. Tim Walz is on the phone now; again, I'm very happy with the last couple of days, Tim. ... The big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins."
Walz can be heard acknowledging that it was necessary to use force initially but said "people just watched eight minutes of a man dying" and expressed his support for peaceful protests to continue:
"I think the guidance is, you got to get a handle on it with that force — that is absolutely correct. And then the transition in the next stage is trying to get those spaces for the peaceful protest. And I'm happy to do things that we have to look at — of how do we get reforms?"
Trump responded:
"But Tim, it shows the incredible difference between your great state, yesterday and the day before compared to the first few days."
Harris' campaign noted that Trump is "now trying to criticize Walz over the same issue," which Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed in the following statement, attempting to rewrite the script:
"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."
But the evidence was damning, and Trump was swiftly called out for his hypocrisy.
Trump is openly misrepresenting the details of the call and appeared to reference it during a Wednesday interview with Fox News. He falsely described it as a personal call from Walz, rather than a group call with other governors, and claimed that Walz had reached out to him for help.
He said:
"His house was surrounded by people that were waving an American flag. That didn't sound like very bad people, and he called me, and he was very concerned — very, very concerned that it was going to get out of control. They only had one guard, I guess it was at the mansion or at his … house."
Trump claimed Walz asked him to “put out the word that I’m a good person" and Fox, often so deferential to the former president, characteristically did not ask further questions about his anecdote, which doesn't hold up under scrutiny.
In 2021, two Politico reporters interviewed Walz for a book project, and after his selection as Harris's running mate, they released more of the interview. Walz did not say that he sought Trump's help with protesters during the unrest following Floyd's killing. Instead, he recounted that Trump had actually encouraged hostile protesters on two separate occasions during that period.
Walz told them that a post Trump made in April 2020, urging his supporters to "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" from COVID-19 restrictions, led to armed individuals, including members of the Proud Boys, gathering at his house.
He also recalled that on January 6, 2021, as a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol under the false belief that the 2020 election was stolen, protesters surrounded his home. Walz noted that among them were legislators and others who believed the election was illegitimate, causing the situation to spiral out of control.
The state patrol had to evacuate his 14-year-old child and the family dog "to an off-site location."
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