Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s wife once admitted she kept the windows of the governor’s residence “open as long as [she] could” to smell the burning tires from the violent 2020 riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death — as her husband’s handling of the protests is back in the spotlight.
Gwen Walz described her husband’s struggle to grapple with the outcry following the May 25, 2020, murder of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in a sit-down with KTSP in June of that year.
Gov. Walz’s response to the fiery Black Lives Matter riots in the Twin Cities is facing scrutiny again after the former National Guardsman was picked to be Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic ticket.
“I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing,” Walz said of the BLM protests that swept Minnesota and beyond, including the area near the governor’s home in St. Paul.
“I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening,” she added.
The stress of their home state becoming a lightning rod for the national discussion about racism and police violence was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Walz noted.
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There were lots of “sleepless nights” for the governor during that time, the veteran educator said.
Gov. Walz, 60, was accused by the Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate’s Joint Transportation and Judiciary and Public Safety Committee of downplaying the riots, delaying the deployment of the National Guard and failing to coordinate with police.
He was also accused of allowing his then-19-year-old daughter, Hope, access to confidential information about law enforcement’s plans — which she then tried to share with the protesters.
“Could someone who actually has followers rely [sic] to the masses that have gotten ‘national guard’ trending that the guard WILL NOT be present tonight??” Hope wrote on X on May 28, 2020.
“The guard can not [sic] be sent in within minutes,” she added in one of several posts, noting that “it takes time for them to deploy because they come from all over the state.”
On the same night that Hope posted on social media, the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct police station was overrun by rioters and set on fire.
