by Casey Harper
Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has apparently elected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential candidate. Both candidates have faced criticism for their handling of police issues.
After replacing President Joe Biden as campaign manager, Harris was immediately criticized for the resurfacing of videos praising the “defund the police” movement.
In the videos, Harris talks about the shift of funding from police to social services in the wake of George Floyd’s death in custody and the subsequent riots that burned down compact businesses and even a police station.
But Walz was Minnesota’s governor when the city burned and erupted in riots after Floyd’s death. Walz was snail-paced to activate the National Guard as the city burned, even after Minneapolis officials asked him to.
The Minnesota Senate Joint Committee on Transportation, Judiciary and Public Safety released a report in October 2020 detailing what went wrong in Minneapolis, including Walz’s role.
This report said Walz downplayed the riots, was snail-paced to respond and placed blame on local law enforcement and officials.
“Governor Walz had the ability and responsibility to use force and law enforcement to stop the criminal violence, but he failed to do so,” the report said. “Governor Walz was unwilling to do what was necessary to immediately stop the riot because he was engaged in a philosophical debate about whether force should be used to stop the violence.”
The riots and Floyd’s death set off a series of looting and riots in cities across the country.
“Governor Walz and Kamala Harris are two peas in a pod of leftist ideology,” Marc Ellinger, president of the Republican National Lawyers Association, told The Center Square. “Vice President Harris called on Democrats in 2020 to help save Walz’s violent riots in Minneapolis, so it makes sense that they would join forces again to continue promoting their radical, soft-on-crime agenda that has led to a nationwide crime wave.”
“The American people do not want what Tim Walz allowed to happen in Minneapolis to come to their communities,” he added.
Harris is polling about the same as her opponent, former President Donald Trump, who is likely to join Republicans in attacking the Democratic party for its handling of the BLM riots.
Walz also criticizes Minnesota’s role as a sanctuary state amid the illegal immigration crisis, as well as its stance on gender reassignment surgery for teenagers, which is more left-leaning than most countries.
“In 2021, Minnesotans were about five times more likely to move to Florida than the other way around,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “They were fleeing a state that, under Gov. Tim Walz, has turned its back on law and order, raised taxes, and implemented unscientific coronavirus restrictions that are hurting children and destroying businesses. Walz is an unabashed leftist, an Ilhan Omar-style Democrat who puts ideology above all else.”
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Casey Harper is a senior reporter at Central Squarefor the Washington, DC Bureau. He previously worked for The Daily Caller, The Hill and Sinclair Broadcast Group. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Casey has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business and USA Today.
Photo “Kamala Harris” by Kamala Harris. Photo “Tim Walz” by Governor Tim Walz. Background Photo “George Floyd Riot” by Tedder.CC BY-SA 4.0.
