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Following Vice President Kamala Harris’ announcement of Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, supporters of former President Donald Trump hurried to discredit the Minnesota Democrat, capitalizing on critiques of his management of the uprisings following George Floyd’s killing in May 2020.

“He permitted rioters to incinerate the streets of Minneapolis,” Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, remarked Tuesday.

Yet, at that time, Trump expressed approval for Walz’s handling of the demonstrations, based on a recording of a phone conversation obtained by ABC News — commending a group of governors that Walz “controlled,” and commending his guidance as a model for other states to emulate.

“I know Gov. Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully concur with the way he managed it the last couple of days,” Trump informed a group of governors on June 1, 2020, according to a recording of the call, during which he also labeled Walz an “exceptional guy.”

“I was extremely pleased with the last couple of days, Tim,” Trump added. “You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”

Trump also indicated on the call that it was his push that spurred Walz to mobilize the National Guard: “I said, you got to use the National Guard in big numbers,” Trump stated. A representative for the Harris-Walz campaign refuted that claim on Wednesday.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, mentioned Trump praised Walz only after the governor followed his suggestion to seek assistance from the National Guard.

“Governor Walz permitted Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy soldiers and pleas for assistance from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis,” Leavitt stated in a declaration to ABC News. “In this daily briefing phone call with Governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump praised Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to stop the violence in the city.”

Trump’s concurrent approval of Walz’s decision-making in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder weakens one of Republicans’ most vocal criticisms against the vice presidential contender. Opponents have accused Walz of delaying the mobilization of the National Guard to suppress rioters who set fire to 1,500 buildings, caused approximately $500 million in property damage, and were associated with at least three deaths.

Walz, a 24-year veteran of the National Guard himself, ultimately called up over 7,000 guardsmen to the Twin Cities. However, that choice was made 18 hours after Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey initially requested the governor to activate military personnel.

“This delay led to the loss of lives, destruction of communities, and loss of livelihoods,” according to an investigative report compiled by Republicans in the state Senate.

At that moment, Walz criticized the Republicans’ report — which was released just weeks before his 2022 reelection — as a political attack that was “unhelpful.” More recently, Walz dismissed scrutiny of his management of the protests.

“It is what it is,” he recently informed reporters. “And I simply believe that we try to do the best we can.”

After the aftermath

Following the killing of George Floyd, as instigators set fires and besieged a police precinct, city authorities rushed to control the turmoil.

Floyd, an African American man, was murdered by Officer Derek Chauvin on Monday, May 25, 2020. By Wednesday evening, the city’s police “had utilized all accessible resources,” according to a copy of the written appeal for the National Guard prepared by police officials.

At 6:29 p.m. that Wednesday, Frey phoned Walz to ask for the National Guard, he later shared with the Star-Tribune. That verbal exchange was followed by a written request from city police officials hours later, at 9:11 p.m. A copy of the written request obtained by state senators stated that the city would require 600 guardsmen for area security, transportation assistance, and logistical support.

That evening, Frey’s office drafted a preliminary press release announcing the deployment of the National Guard, but did not release it, as per records disclosed by the city and reported by local media. Instead, city aides had to wait an additional 15 hours before Walz officially mobilized the National Guard.

In text messages unveiled by the city, a member of the mayor’s team inquired, “What’s going on? In terms of the Guard,” around 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday night. Another staff member responded that Frey “stated Walz was hesitant.”

“As per Minneapolis officials, the governor’s office indicated that they would review the request, but the city did not receive any further communication until much later,” according to an after-action report commissioned by the state.

On Thursday afternoon, Walz enforced a curfew on city residents and officially mobilized the National Guard. The initial troops arrived within hours, and by that weekend, the unrest had mostly subsided.

On Friday, Walz informed reporters that he had conversed with Trump the day before and that Trump had “assured his assistance in providing any supplies we require.”

A few days later, during the June 1 call with governors, Walz expressed gratitude to Trump and accepted his praise before sharing his own thoughts — showing support for peaceful demonstrators and proposing that governors who might hesitate to deploy the National Guard could do so tactfully, portraying them as “not an occupying force,” but rather as “neighbors, teachers, business owners.”

“That’s a very effective approach,” Walz commented.

Trump agreed, but added his own interpretation of the guardsmen’s role.

“It became so severe a few nights ago that the people wouldn’t have objected to an occupying force,” Trump remarked. “I desire an occupying force to be present in that location.”

A ‘fruitless’ disagreement

A duo of post-event assessments commissioned by the city and state pointed out private misunderstandings and public conflicts between Walz and Frey as barriers to effectively managing the protests. At one stage, Walz described the city’s reaction as a “complete failure.”

“Numerous interviewees faulted the Mayor and Governor for their public clashes regarding the handling of the protests and stated that this was counterproductive,” according to the report commissioned by the city, which was published in March 2022.

The state-commissioned report arrived at a similar conclusion: “Other state officials claim that the request became complicated when elected officials became involved (i.e., the Minneapolis mayor, the governor’s office).”

Another complicating factor, those post-event reports indicated, was the failure of city officials to express their needs. The requests made on May 27 “initially lacked clarity and that more information and time was needed for [the state’s emergency management office] to develop the necessary details of the mission to activate the Minnesota Guard,” one report said.

On his end, Walz initially argued that mobilizing thousands of National Guardsmen requires time.

“The average person maybe assumes that there’s soldiers waiting in helicopters to drop in like they do in movies,” Walz said that Tuesday, May 26. “Actually, they’re band teachers and small business owners. They’re folks working in a garage in Fergus Falls who get a call that says you’ve got 12 hours to report to your armory.”

Days later, however, Walz told a reporter that “if the issue was that the state should have moved faster, that is on me.”

Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen, the director of the Minnesota National Guard at the time, later testified before state senators that, had the National Guard been deployed sooner, the protests might not have been so destructive.

“If we had done things differently on Tuesday, as it relates to numbers, as it relates to tactics, could we have avoided some of this? My unprofessional opinion as it relates to law enforcement is ‘yes,'” Jensen said. “My professional military opinion is ‘yes.'”