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MINNEAPOLIS – A former Republican Minnesota lawmaker and the pinnacle of the state Republican occasion slammed Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, telling Fox News Digital he’s a pure “partisan and abandoned the city during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots, which was echoed by another former Walz colleague.
“It was absent,” Minnesota GOP Chair David Hann told Fox News Digital about Walz’s leadership as the city of Minneapolis was destroyed by Black Lives Matter rioters in 2020, resulting in hundreds of buildings being destroyed and an estimated $500 million in damage.
Walz has faced criticism for waiting several days to call in the National Guard, which Hann tells Fox News Digital was a decision made for political reasons.
“He did not do something for 3 days, and I believe it is as a result of he was petrified of alienating this left-wing base that’s the Democratic Party,” Hann said. “They have been speaking about this as a protest in opposition to police violence,” Hann said. “I believe that if he have been to name within the National Guard when it began to get uncontrolled, that may have been seen as, oppositional to their narrative of, we’re simply out right here protesting, you understand, extreme police drive.”
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Gov. Tim Walz waited several days to call in the National Guard as riots destroyed Minneapolis in 2020. (Getty Images)
“So, he did nothing for 3 days till it obtained fully out of hand. And it was actually unbelievable. We would see this stuff on the information, and I’ve lived right here most of my life and know the town very effectively,” he said. “It was simply laborious to consider that this was happening and that the governor was doing actually nothing.”
Hann, who served as minority leader of the Minnesota Senate, told Fox News Digital that as the city was burning, he knew of multiple people, including the Republican majority leader at the time, who tried to urge Walz to call then President Trump for assistance.
“He wouldn’t do it,” Hann said. “It solely took after about 4 days that he lastly did that, when it was clear that this factor was not going to cease by itself. So he was fully absent. He has by no means acknowledged that it was his duty that he failed.“
Hann told Fox News Digital that four years later, the city has yet to fully recover from the destruction.
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MN GOP Chair David Hann speaks to Fox News Digital (Fox News Digital)
“It’s still, I call it a ghost town,” Hann said. “A few weeks ago, I had a meeting in downtown Minneapolis. I try to avoid going there as much as I can. This was on a Tuesday or Thursday morning, 10:00 in the morning. I drove down there. It was like 7:00 Sunday morning. There were no cars. There were no people. There was no activity. It was just dead.”
Hann continued, “There’s no places to eat. In the evening, people don’t want to be around. There are sports, you know, basketball games or baseball games with people that do not want to stay around the city after dark. And at one point, Minneapolis was a pretty good city for nightlife. Not anymore. People are fearful. The crime is out of hand and carjackings, shootings. We’re a high crime place now, which is unbelievable, and this is all under the watch of Governor Walz because he has failed to try to address the crime, and he has gotten himself aligned with this defund-the-police movement.”
Hann told Fox News Digital that he also believes that Walz is a far more partisan politician than the narrative is letting on.
“Partisan, divisive, very thin-skinned, mean-spirited,” Hann said. “He does not like to be challenged. He does not like people to differ with him, and he can get angry if he thinks that you’re not agreeing with him sufficiently.”
Building goes up in flames during the George Floyd riots. (Getty Images)
Hann added that Republicans he has spoken to called Walz the “most difficult guy to deal with they’ve ever had to deal with.”
A former Republican state senator in Minnesota who worked alongside Walz for several years, interviewed under anonymity in order to speak more freely, echoed Hann’s claim and shared with Fox News Digital that it was “very frustrating” and “difficult” to work with Walz.
“He doesn’t handle stress very well. He gets very, very angry and displays it,” they said.
“He’s very nice, very engaging. Comes off like everybody’s friend. But it’s very treacherous as far as what he’s done to the state and his vision,” the former lawmaker added. “He’s got a veneer of extreme liberalism that is quite obvious now.”
When it came to decision-making, the former state senator claimed that Walz listened to “the last person that got to him.”
The Minnesotan said they are “very concerned” about a potential Harris-Walz presidency, urging voters to “listen to what he’s saying, you can’t decipher it. He talks and talks and never really answers the questions.”
Fox News Digital asked Hann, now that Walz has become the vice presidential nominee and is being introduced to a brand new national audience, what is the most important thing people should know about Walz’s tenure as governor.
“I hope the phrase will get out that Governor Walz is partisan and he is very a lot aligned left, left-wing politically, and he’s removed from a reasonable and is unwilling to attempt to work with individuals who differ with him,” Hann said.
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Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign event on August 7, 2024, in Detroit, Michigan. Kamala Harris and her newly selected running mate are campaigning across the country this week. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“I believe his report as governor has not been good for the individuals of the state. His allies are this, left-wing political base, public worker unions. That’s the place his base is. That’s what he caters to. But for many of us who’re simply making an attempt to, you understand, reside our lives, care for our households, begin companies. It’s powerful and he does not appear to have a lot empathy for that.”
The Harris Walz campaign pointed Fox News Digital to a recent Fox op-ed from a Republican who worked with Walz that praised his bipartisanship along with other quotes from former colleagues calling him someone who works across the aisle.
The campaign also pointed to newly unearthed audio first reported by ABC News where Trump said he was “very glad” with Walz’s handling of the riot and calling him an “glorious man.”
The Trump campaign told ABC News those comments were made after Walz sent in the National Guard.
