MINNEAPOLIS – A former Republican Minnesota lawmaker and the head of the state Republican party slammed Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, telling Fox News Digital he is 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 didn’t do anything for three days, and I think it’s because he was fearful of alienating this left-wing base that is the Democratic Party,” Hann said. “They were talking about this as a protest against police violence,” Hann said. “I think that if he were to call in the National Guard when it started to get out of control, that would have been seen as, oppositional to their narrative of, we’re just out here protesting, you know, excessive police force.”
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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 three days until it got completely out of hand. And it was really unbelievable. We would see these things on the news, and I’ve lived here most of my life and know the city very well,” he said. “It was just hard to believe that this was going on and that the governor was doing literally 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 only took after about four days that he finally did that, when it was clear that this thing was not going to stop on its own. So he was completely absent. He has never acknowledged that it was his responsibility 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 word gets out that Governor Walz is partisan and he’s very much aligned left, left-wing politically, and he is far from a moderate and is unwilling to try to work with people who differ with him,” Hann said.
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 think his record as governor has not been good for the people of the state. His allies are this, left-wing political base, public employee unions. That’s where his base is. That’s what he caters to. But for most of us who are just trying to, you know, live our lives, take care of our families, start businesses. It’s tough and he doesn’t seem to have much 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 happy” with Walz’s handling of the riot and calling him an “excellent guy.”
The Trump campaign told ABC News those comments were made after Walz sent in the National Guard.