The death of George Floyd is back in the spotlight ahead of the Walz-Vance VP debate

WASHINGTON — The biggest crisis of Tim Walz’s time as Minnesota governor came in the hours and days after the killing of George Floyd, which divided the country on issues of race, policing and civil order.

The 46-year-old’s death in May 2020 at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin sparked thousands of protests on the streets of Minneapolis, with riots, looting and vandalism occurring across the city – and across the country. In the days that followed, Walz deployed the National Guard in his state to quell the unrest.

But the heated debate over how to handle the events remains a key talking point for Republicans. Ahead of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate in New York City between Republican candidate JD Vance and Walz, Republicans have put the Minnesota governor’s handling of the protests and controversy surrounding Floyd’s murder back in the spotlight.

Vance accused Walz of letting rioters burn down Minneapolis at a campaign rally in Philadelphia last month. Although then-President Donald Trump praised Walz’s handling of the protests in a 2020 phone call, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate falsely claimed in recent weeks that he had activated the National Guard, not the Minnesota governor, in response to the unrest.

During his debate with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in September, Trump accused Harris of raising money for “criminals who killed people and burned down Minneapolis” to get them out of prison.

And political experts and strategists say Walz, who has spent little time responding to Republican attacks, must address this key issue at the debate, where tens of millions of people across the country are expected to tune in to support the two vice presidents listen Nominees compete against each other.

“Walz has a great record to defend,” said Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan debate program and editor of the 2016 book “Debating The Donald.”

The Walz campaign referred USA TODAY to a statement from Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Ken Martin, who said: “There is only one candidate for president responsible for inciting an insurrection, and that was Donald Trump on January 6th.” .”

What Walz said about his handling of the protests

As Walz campaigns across the country as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, he faces a tall order: defending his own record at the national level while establishing himself as a potential governing partner for Harris.

When Walz was asked at a news conference in Minnesota last month if he would have done anything differently after the Floyd protests, he replied: “Decisions were made in a situation, that’s it, and I just believed that we tried.” .” “To do the best we can on each of these points.” The exchange took place while Walz was still on the short list for Harris’ vice presidency.

However, in his speech at the Democratic National Convention in August, he did not address his handling of the crisis.

In the immediate aftermath of the protests, Walz was criticized for being too slow to respond to the unrest and activate the National Guard. At a press conference on May 29, 2020, Walz said that he deferred to local police and leadership until the protests got out of control and the state took action.

Questions about why he didn’t act more quickly were “legitimate criticism,” Walz said at the time.

He later added: “If it were a matter of the state should have acted more quickly.” Yes, that’s up to me, whether it’s because of the forces that lay underneath. I don’t think there is a lack of leadership skills. I think there was a lack of coordination and that we didn’t understand what we had to ask for.”

But the Minnesota governor won re-election in a closely contested 2022 gubernatorial race, despite a then-Republican-controlled state Senate releasing a report in October 2020 that claimed he was hesitant to deploy the National Guard, which would “deprive Minnesotans of their lives, their communities and their livelihoods.” .”

During a 2022 gubernatorial debate, when asked if he would have done anything different to quell the unrest, Walz said that “the office of governor is not to sit on the sidelines and criticize. It’s about making the difficult decisions.”

“I’m proud of Minnesota’s response; “I’m proud of Minnesota’s first responders who were out there, from firefighters to police to the National Guard to the citizens who were out there,” Walz said during the debate.

Black Americans feel disillusioned by GOP attacks, defend Walz

But a number of conservative lawmakers and commentators have spoken out about Walz’s handling of the Floyd protests since Harris added him to the 2024 Democratic ticket. And black Americans USA TODAY spoke to said they were disillusioned by Republican attacks and defended Walz’s actions.

Philonise Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, who supported Harris and Walz, said Republican criticism shows that many Republicans are “simply standing up for themselves” rather than people.

“You have to understand that Governor Walz did everything he could do. He also brought in the National Guard to restore order. You know, that was the main goal,” Philonise Floyd, 45, of Houston, Texas, said in a phone interview with USA TODAY in August.

Tomme Beevas, 45, of Minneapolis, said Walz “walked that tightrope as well as anyone by being able to listen to people, making people feel heard … and by leveraging the resources of the… State used to protect people and property as best as possible without causing further harm.

However, others said they felt Walz could have handled the situation better.

“I don’t think it’s fair that the Republican Party is allowed to criticize the governor on an issue that they themselves probably wouldn’t have done what he did,” said Jaylani Hussein, 43, of Minneapolis.

“But at the same time, the governor didn’t do it or he didn’t listen to the community because if he had, I think he would have made the situation a lot better and it would have saved him from the embarrassment that that is before that.” he is standing upright,” he added.

Will Walz flip the script on Floyd during the debate?

Fred Slocum, an associate professor of political science at Minnesota State University, said Walz’s lack of comment on the Floyd protests during the campaign was often a decision on his part “not to rehash that part of the past.”

Walz “tried to find a middle ground between some farther-left progressives, including many ‘defunding the police’ advocates who insist on dismantling and re-establishing police departments, and centrists who worried about a repeat of 1968.” “Richard Nixon won the White House on the issue of ‘law and order’ in the campaign,” he said.

But Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate offers Walz a chance to address the issue in more detail — if he takes advantage of the opportunity.

Amy Koch, a former Republican majority leader in the Minnesota Senate and a political strategist, argued that Walz’s responses to his handling of the protests were not very nuanced.

“The fact that he answers – when asked at all – ‘It’s too poor’ means, what did you mean best?” she said.

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