New York Times: ‘Walz Has Faced Criticism for His Response to George Floyd Protests’

Tim Walz stood back as Minneapolis burned and then Kamala Harris fundraised to free the rioters.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Minnesota officials "believe that Gov. Tim Walz should have deployed the Minnesota National Guard sooner when riots broke out following the police murder of George Floyd."

NYT:  Two days after Mr. Floyd’s death, with protests in Minneapolis turning increasingly violent, the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, asked Mr. Walz to deploy the National Guard. Hours later, the city’s police chief submitted a written request for 600 troops. But it was not until the next afternoon that Mr. Walz signed an executive order allowing the Guard to assist cities.

“It was obvious to me that he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down,” said State Senator Warren Limmer, a Republican who helped lead a committee that investigated the response to the unrest. He suggested that Mr. Walz’s personal sympathies toward protesters might have delayed a muscular response.

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Critics have said that the riots grew larger and lasted longer because he did not move sooner.

“Governor Walz had the ability and duty to use force and law enforcement to stop criminal violence, but he did not,” said a 2020 Minnesota Senate report on the riots, published at a time when Republicans controlled that chamber. “Governor Walz was not willing to do what was necessary to stop the rioting right away because he was having a philosophical debate about whether the use of force should be used to stop violence.”