Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s response to unrest in his city in May 2020, saying the governor hesitated to deploy the National Guard later that year as the city burned in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.
Frey spoke about Gov. Walz’s response in an August 2020 interview with the Star Tribune, saying his office had made multiple emergency requests to the governor for National Guard resources, but that the request was only granted after the city was forced to abandon its besieged police station.
Text messages and emails obtained by the Star Tribune for this article appear to support Frey’s claim, showing that Frey first called Gov. Walz at 6:39 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27, 2020, the second day of unrest in Minneapolis, asking the governor to call in the National Guard.
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (Getty Images)
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Mayor Frey’s call with the Governor on May 27, 2020, came just six minutes after he had received a call from Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who told Frey that a Target near the police station had been looted and that the National Guard was needed.
“We conveyed the seriousness of the situation. The urgency was clear,” Frey said of the call with the governor.
“He didn’t say yes,” Frey added, “he just said he’d consider it.”
Frey also told the Star Tribune that he specifically asked the governor if the verbal request was formal, and the governor’s office confirmed that it was a formal request — a claim that Walz’s office later disputed.
But text messages and emails obtained by the Star Tribune corroborated Frey’s story, with the mayor’s spokesperson texting a small group of city employees at 6:28 p.m. that day, saying Frey “just came out saying the police chief wants the 3rd Precinct to call in the National Guard to help and it looks like the mayor intends to do that.”
Frey’s policy director later updated the group, texting that Frey “just called the governor.”
Frey’s spokesman updated the group again later that night, telling employees that “Waltz was hesitant.”
The mayor told the Star Tribune he had not received any confirmation that the National Guard would be there for the remainder of Wednesday night or the following morning.
Mayor Jacob Frey speaks to supporters at an election night party on Nov. 2, 2021, in Minneapolis. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
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As reported by the New York Post, the Minnesota Senate Joint Committee on Transportation, Justice and Public Safety later released its own investigation into the events of that night, with the Republican-dominated committee accusing Governor Walz of “failing to act” as unrest in Minneapolis continued to spiral out of control.
“It was clear the governor was overwhelmed by the calamity and pressure as people’s property was being burned,” Republican state Sen. Warren Rimmer told The New York Times, suggesting the governor may have had “personal sympathies” for the rioters.
According to the Senate report, the request for the National Guard was “requested at 9:11 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27th, to deploy at least 600 National Guard troops,” but “Governor Walz ultimately deployed 100 National Guard troops to Minneapolis late in the evening on Thursday, May 28th.”
The mayor’s office again requested National Guard troops the following morning, May 28, this time in a written request, noting that the riots had seen “widespread looting and arson” and had injured both protesters and emergency responders.
“The current situation has far exceeded the capabilities of police and fire departments,” Frey wrote in the request.
A spokesperson for Governor Walz told the Star Tribune that the governor “knows how much planning it takes to successfully execute the National Guard’s mission,” noting that Walz is a “24-year veteran of the Minnesota National Guard.”
“That’s why he pressed the City of Minneapolis for details and a strategy. He ordered the Minnesota National Guard to begin preparations Thursday morning so they could deploy to both St. Paul and Minneapolis that evening, per the mayors’ requests,” the spokesperson said.
People carry merchandise out of a Target store in the aftermath of widespread rioting, looting and arson in a shopping and commercial district in South Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd on May 28, 2020. (Scott Taxi/MediaNews Group/St. Paul Pioneer Press via Getty Images)
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Walz’s office also criticized Frey for not being specific enough in his request, claiming that the mayor never mentioned the need to protect the city’s Third Precinct, which would later be burned down.
Governor Walz ultimately activated the National Guard at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 28, roughly 18 hours after Governor Frey’s initial phone call request. The Star Tribune reported that by 10:30 p.m. that day, only about 90 troopers were in the city, but police officers had already been evacuated from the 3rd Precinct.
The Senate committee report said that around the same time the National Guard was mobilized and began arriving in Minneapolis, the governor’s daughter, Hope Walz, was given “access” to “classified information” “which she then disseminated to the public and to rioters.”
Hope sent out multiple tweets that night informing protesters of the location of National Guard troops.
“There are people who actually have followers. [sic] “Will the masses for whom ‘National Guard’ is trending get the news that the National Guard will not be coming tonight?” Hope, who the New York Post reported was born in 2001, tweeted on May 28, 2020.
“Guards cannot be deployed within minutes,” she wrote in another tweet, adding that “they come from all over the state so deployment takes time.”
“To be clear, the National Guard will not be deployed tonight,” she added.
On May 28, 2020, an AutoZone store was set ablaze as protesters gathered outside Minneapolis’ 3rd Precinct. (Mark VanCleave/Star Tribune via The Associated Press)
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“Just because someone asks for something doesn’t mean it’s going to be done right away or even at all,” another tweet said, referring to the National Guard being called in. “I don’t know about SWAT but I do know they won’t be arresting people tonight.”
The Senate report took aim at Hope’s tweet and slammed Walz, alleging that he “unnecessarily put law enforcement, the Minnesota State Police, and the Minnesota National Guard at risk” by sharing the information with his daughter.
Nevertheless, Mayor Walz held a press conference on Friday, May 29, 2020, blaming Mayor Frey for allowing the situation to get out of control and calling the city’s response to the unrest a “total failure.”
But Frey argued to the Star Tribune that the governor’s comments were “a major departure from any conversations we were having at the time” and called Walz’s comments “definitely a punch in the gut.”
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Instead, Frey argued that he did the best he could “under extremely difficult circumstances.”
“I told the truth,” Frey said, “I shared as much information as I could with our state partners, and we did what was asked of us for the city.”
Neither Frey’s office nor the Harris campaign immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
