GOP attacks Harris VP pick Tim Walz over handling of 2020 George Floyd protests

Republicans seized on Tuesday’s announcement that Vice President Kamala Harris had selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, launching a flurry of attacks on his record.

In particular, the GOP focused on the amount of time it took Walz to deploy the Minnesota National Guard to Minneapolis to quell the civil unrest and rioting in May 2020 that followed the police killing of George Floyd.

As a result of the unrest, more than 1,500 Minneapolis businesses were damaged, resulting in damages totaling $500 million, according to the Star Tribune.

What happened in 2020?

On May 25, 2020, Floyd, a 46-year-old Black Minneapolis resident, was killed while being taken into custody by Minneapolis police officers. Floyd was detained for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill at a local convenience store. Cellphone video emerged showing officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, pinning Floyd to the ground, holding his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck as Floyd gasped for air for nine-and-a-half minutes, repeating, “I can’t breathe.” Floyd was pronounced dead at a local hospital later that night.

A video of Floyd’s death went viral, sparking calls for police reform and criminal charges for the four officers involved. On May 26, 2020, large protests started in Minneapolis at the Third Precinct station where the four officers were based. Other protests were held at the site where Floyd was killed.

Two days after Floyd’s death, on May 27, 2020, protests had spread to other U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Boston. While the protests in Minneapolis began peacefully, looting and fires broke out across the city and police attempted to clear crowds with rubber bullets and tear gas.

As local authorities became quickly overwhelmed, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he called Governor Walz on the evening of May 27 and verbally requested he deploy the National Guard, citing the seriousness and urgency of the situation.

"He did not say yes," Frey later said of the conversation with Walz. "He said he would consider it."

What was Walz’s role?

On May 28, 2020, at 10:55 a.m. CDT, Walz's office received a request from Frey for National Guard assistance, in addition to a request received from St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter in the afternoon, according to a timeline provided by Walz's press secretary, Teddy Tschann, to CNN.

Just after 4 p.m. local time on May 28, Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard. "We are ready and prepared to answer the Governor's request. We are currently in process of assigning and preparing units to respond," said Minnesota National Guard Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen.

In the meantime, some protesters set fire to the Third Precinct station, but the Guard didn’t arrive until hours after the building burned.

Walz was in charge of what time the Guard would arrive in the city, according to a National Guard Bureau spokesman.

Walz, who served in the National Guard himself, had called the city’s response to the riots and unrest an “abject failure,” saying the city’s request did not immediately provide enough information to deploy the Guard in an effective manner until May 28.

Months later, Frey blamed Walz, saying he did not take his initial request seriously. Walz, he added, "hesitated" to deploy the Guard.

"During one of the city and state's most difficult moments, we collectively tried our best to navigate unprecedented times and to do so quickly," a spokeswoman for Frey's office told the New York Times.

The frosty exchange between the two Minnesota Democrats appears to have thawed, with Frey supporting the Harris-Walz ticket in a Tuesday post on X.

But the dispute has also given Republicans a line of attack against Harris’s new running mate.

“Tim Walz refused requests for the National Guard, allowing rioters to burn more than 1,500 Minneapolis businesses & a police station. More than half a *billion* $ in damage,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas wrote in a message posted to X. “Walz could have stopped it, if he wanted to.”

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