Former President Trump has recently criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on the campaign trail for his handling of the 2020 George Floyd protests despite praising the governor in a call that took place at the time.
In the call, previously obtained by PBS NewsHour and reported Wednesday by ABC News, Trump pointed to the demonstrations in Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by a police officer in May 2020.
“I know Gov. Walz is on the phone and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days, I asked him to do that,” Trump said in 2020 on a phone call with governors during the Black Lives Matter protests, CNN also reported at the time.
Trump’s comments contrast those he’s made recently about Walz, who on Tuesday was named as Vice President Harris’s running mate in the upcoming election.
Then-President Trump said on the call that people were taking over the police departments and called the city a “laughingstock.” Trump asserted that under his encouragement, Walz called the National Guard to help with the protests.
“I’ve never seen anything like it and the whole world was laughing. Two days, three days later, I spoke to the governor, the governor’s I think on the call and he’s an excellent guy,” Trump said, adding, “And I said you gotta use the National Guard.”
“They didn’t at first, then they did,” Trump continued.
Walz has faced criticism from some Republicans for being slow to activate the National Guard to settle the protests.
The former president later said during the call that he was “very happy” with Walz for calling big numbers of law enforcement to the protests. Trump said the “big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”
On Wednesday, Trump called the announcement of Walz a “shocking pick” because he is a “very liberal man.” He pointed to the riots in Minneapolis and said that was the only time he and Walz interacted while he was in office.
The Hill has reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign and the Trump campaign for comment.