Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers have attacked Minnesota Governor Tim Walzthe Democratic candidate for vice presidentabout his handling of the 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” with it.
In the audio obtained by CBS News, Trump can be heard saying, “I know Governor Walz is on the phone and we’ve spoken. I completely approve of the way he’s handled it the last few days.”
Trump appeared to reference the call during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, but he described it as a phone call from Walz, not a group call with other governors, and claimed Walz had called him asking for help.
“His house was surrounded by people waving an American flag,” Trump said. “They didn’t sound like very bad people, and he called me, and he was very concerned — very, very concerned that things were going to get out of hand. They only had one guard, I think it was at the mansion or at his … house.” He said Walz asked him to “spread the message that I’m a good person, and I did. I spread the message, I said, ‘He’s a good person.'”
Republicans, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, accuse Walz of inaction during the riot.
“Tim Walz is a radical who allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in 2020,” Scalise posted on X on Tuesday.
Trump said of Walz in the 58-minute call with the governors: “He’s a great guy. You’ve got a great National Guard ready to come in and fight like hell. I’m telling you, the best — what they did in Minneapolis was unbelievable. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately.”
Trump has said he sent security units, but Walz had already activated them before the call took place.
According to an audio file of the conversation, Walz agreed with Trump that it was necessary to use force initially to quell the riots, but he said the next step was to allow for peaceful protests.
“I think the directive is that you have to get it under control with that force — that’s absolutely correct,” Walz said during the call. “And then the transition in the next phase is to try to get those spaces for peaceful protest. And I like to do things where we have to look at — how do we get reform?”
Asked to comment on Trump’s earlier 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 cries for help from Minneapolis’ liberal mayor. In this daily call with governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump credited Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to stop the violence in the city.”
— Hunter Woodall and Zak Hudak contributed to this report.
And
contributed to this report.
