Since his announcement as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate on Tuesday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been facing attacks from Republicans primarily surrounding his handling of the 2020 George Floyd protests in Minneapolis.
Former President Trump’s current running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-OH, said that Walz “allowed rioters to burn down the streets of Minneapolis.”
Members of the Alabama GOP have also been particularly vocal about their disapproval of Walz’s actions in the wake of Floyd’s murder and the ensuing public unrest.
U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville said that Walz “sat by while rioters burned down Minneapolis in 2020” and U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, bashed Walz for doing “NOTHING while looters destroyed his state in 2020.”
U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, also called called Walz a “far-left Democrat who as governor of Minnesota stood by while rioters burned and destroyed Minneapolis night after night.”
However, newly uncovered recordings of then-President Donald Trump reveal that Trump praised Walz for his response to the protests in 2020.
In audio obtained by ABC from a June 1, 2020 call with a group of governors — including Walz — Trump referred to the Minnesota Governor as an “excellent guy” and lauded his handling of the protests.
“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 said.
Trump continued, saying, “I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim. You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”
With Trump sitting atop the Republican ticket as Harris and Walz’s opponent, these comments appear to undermine the strategy employed by Vance, Tuberville, and others who are attempting to hurt Walz’s approval with voters.
If Trump was supportive of Walz’s actions in 2020, it will be difficult for Republicans to continue to pursue this line of rhetoric without also handing Democrats an easy and effective rebuttal.
Republicans will once again need to return to the strategical drawing board to face Walz after already having to make major readjustments following Harris’s replacement of Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket.
