GOP nominee Donald Trump, his running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance and many other Republican lawmakers have gone on the attack of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was recently selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.
The focus of those attacks are how Walz handled the rioting that happened across Minnesota in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
However, old audio recorded not long after Floyd’s death shows that Trump had high words of praise for Walz.
CBS News obtained a copy of the audio recently, which was recorded when Trump — who was then serving as president — held a conference call with various governors. On that call, Trump can be heard saying he was “very happy” with how Walz was handling the situation in Minnesota.
As Trump can be heard saying on the call:
“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.”
On Wednesday of this week, Trump apparently referenced that conversation. During an interview he gave to Fox News, Trump said the conversation stemmed from a phone call that Walz made to him, claiming that the Minnesota governor was asking him for help as president.
As Trump told Fox News of Walz this week:
“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 added that Walz then asked him to “put out the word that I’m a good person, and I did. I put out the word. I said, ‘he’s a good person.’”
Many leading Republicans have called out Walz this week, saying that he was indecisive and didn’t take sufficient action to stop the riots in 2020.
On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise posted on the social media platform X:
“Tim Walz is a radical who let rioters burn Minneapolis to the ground in 2020.”
But, on that 2020 phone call with the governors, Trump sang a different tune. At one point, according to CBS News, he can be heard saying of Walz:
“He’s an excellent guy. You’ve got a big National Guard out there that’s ready to come in and fight like hell. I tell you, the best — what they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately.”
Trump has also said recently that he was the one who sent in the National Guard forces. However, Walz had activated those officers before the call with governors even took place.
On the call, Walz could also be heard agreeing with Trump that force was necessary to stop the riots initially, though he did also argue that it was good for peaceful protests to be allowed to continue.
As he said:
“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?”
