Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who was recently chosen as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate for the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket, for his handling of the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots in Minneapolis.
Speaking after a briefing on Hurricane Debby, DeSantis condemned Walz’s response to the unrest and linked it to broader concerns about Democratic policies.
“We all remember the BLM riots of 2020 in Minneapolis,” DeSantis said. “Those were riots that Harris supported, raising money to bail out the rioters with the Minnesota bail fund. Tim Walz, as governor, sat back and let the city of Minneapolis burn. That city has been gutted as a result of those riots.”
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DeSantis further asserted that such events would not be tolerated in Florida, warning against an America shaped by what he called the “failed policies” of Minneapolis.
“We do not need to see cities burning down. That is not a prescription for America,” he added.
The controversy surrounding Walz intensified after an interview with his wife, Gwen Walz, resurfaced. In the interview, she described leaving her windows open during the 2020 riots to “smell the burning tires,” calling it a “touchstone” moment.
“I could smell the burning tires. That was a very real thing, and I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening,” Gwen Walz said.
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Minneapolis was quickly swarmed by rioters after the death of George Floyd in 2020, leading to many buildings being burned down and businesses looted, with the violence lasting for three days.
This has reignited criticism of Walz’s decision not to immediately deploy the National Guard during the unrest, a choice he defended at the time as a way to avoid escalating tensions.
According to Fox News, Walz had previously argued that calling the National Guard would only incite further rioting, as he had suggested protesters needed space to express their outrage.
“I want to just be clear there’s philosophically an argument to be made that an armed presence on the ground in the midst of where we just had a police killing is seen as a catalyst,” Walz said at the time.
Walz’s office and the Harris campaign have not responded to requests for comment on the matter.
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