Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers attack Minnesota Governor Tim WalzTHE Democratic Vice Presidential Candidatefor his handling of riots in his state following the killing of George Floyd in 2020 — but in a phone call with governors including Walz, then-President Trump praised his handling of the situation and said he was “very happy” about it.
In the audio recording obtained by CBS News, Trump is heard saying: “I know Governor Walz is on the phone, and we’ve talked, and I completely agree with the way he’s handled the situation over the last few days.”
Trump appeared to reference that conversation during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, though he characterized it as a phone call from Walz, rather than a group call with other governors, and claimed that Walz had called him to ask for help.
“His house was surrounded by people waving an American flag,” Trump said. “They didn’t seem like very bad people, and he called me, and he was very concerned — very, very concerned that things were getting out of hand. They only had one guard, I guess he was at the mansion or at his … house.” He said Walz asked him to “get the message out that I was a good person, and I did, I got the message out, I said, ‘He’s a good person.’”
Republicans, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, have accused Walz of inaction during the riots.
“Tim Walz is a radical who let rioters burn Minneapolis in 2020,” Scalise posted on X on Tuesday.
In his 58-minute call with governors, Trump said of Walz: “He’s a great guy. You’ve got a great National Guard ready to go out and fight like hell. I’m telling you, the best part is what they did in Minneapolis, it’s unbelievable. They went out there and dominated, and it happened immediately.”
Trump said he had sent security forces, but Walz had already activated them before the call took place..
According to the audio recording of the call, Walz also agreed with Trump that it was necessary to use force initially to quell the riots, but he argued that the next step was to allow peaceful protests to continue.
“I think the rule is that you have to harness that force — that’s absolutely true,” Walz said on the call. “And then the transition in the next phase is to try to get those spaces for peaceful protest. And I’m happy to do things that we need to look at — how do we get reforms?”
Asked about Trump’s remarks, his campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Wednesday: “Governor Walz let Minneapolis burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy troops and pleas for help from Minneapolis’ liberal mayor. In that daily phone call with governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump thanked Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city.”
— Hunter Woodall and Zak Hudak contributed to this report.
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