Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s wife once admitted that she “kept the windows open as much as possible” at the governor’s mansion. [she] With renewed attention on her husband’s response to protests, she said she “could smell” the smell of burning tires during the 2020 riots sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Gwen Waltz spoke about how her husband struggled with the protests following the May 25, 2020, killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Roundtable discussion with KTSP In June of that year.
Governor Walz, a former National Guardsman, has been selected as Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ running mate for vice president, bringing renewed scrutiny over his response to the violent Black Lives Matter riots in the Twin Cities.
“You could smell the tires burning. It was real,” Walz said of the BLM protests that have taken place across Minnesota and beyond, including near the governor’s mansion in St. Paul.
“We left the window open as long as we could because we felt it was a touchstone of what was going on,” she added.
Walz noted that stress in his home state, which has been triggered by a national conversation about racism and police violence, has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The veteran educator said the governor gave him many “sleepless nights” during that period.
Governor Walz, 60, was criticized by the Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate Joint Committee on Transportation, Judiciary and Public Safety for downplaying the riots, delaying the deployment of the National Guard and failing to coordinate with police.
He was also accused of giving his daughter, Hope, who was 19 at the time, access to classified information about law enforcement plans and then attempting to pass that information on to protesters.
“There are people who actually have followers. [sic] “To the masses where ‘national guard’ is trending, did you spread a rumor that the national guard won’t be coming tonight?” Hope wrote to X on May 28, 2020.
“The security guard [sic] “They will be dispatched within minutes,” she added in one of several posts, noting that “they will take time to dispatch as they are coming from all over the state.”
The same night Hope posted on social media, rioters occupied the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct and set it on fire.
