Here’s what happened when Tim Walz confronted Trump over his 'liberate Minnesota' tweet

07 August 2024

2020 was a tumultuous year in Minnesota, from the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the resulting protests to the COVID-19 pandemic and Donald Trump's reelection campaign.

At the time, Tim Walz — now Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 presidential election — was serving his first term as governor of Minnesota after having spent 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. And Walz's safety became a major concern after Trump posted his "liberate Minnesota" tweet.

In September 2021, Burns and Martin interviewed Walz for their book "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America's Future," which was published in 2022. According to the Politico reporters, "only a few paragraphs" of that interview were included in their book.

But in an article published by Politico on August 7, Burns and Martin present a lot of more of that September 2021 interview in Q&A form. And the Minnesota governor went into detail about the things he experienced after Trump's "Liberate Minnesota" tweet, which was in response to the state's pandemic restrictions.

Walz, now 60, told Burns and Martin, "It brought armed people to my house. It certainly ratcheted up the social media side of things and put the security folks a little more on high alert, but not all that much."

Walz added, "My relationship was based on pragmatism, understanding that it was very clear that President Trump was going to do what President Trump is going to do."

When Burns and Martin wanted to make sure that "armed people came to your house," Walz responded, "Yes, and these Proud Boys, some of the leaders that were here, have been documented. We have our residences in a residential neighborhood over the last few years. And certainly, with George Floyd and other stuff, folks started taking to protesting here. And I got a great team, and the State Patrol does an incredible job. But on January 6, when the Capitol riot happened, we had that too. And there were, of course, legislators as well as some of these elements that believe the election was stolen, marched on the residence. And that's the one where it got way out of hand."

Walz added, "The state patrol had to evacuate my 14-year-old, find the dog, take him to an off-site location. Just to be very candid, the rhetoric that the president engaged in, and then was amplified by others, changed the whole dynamic — especially in a state like Minnesota, where I could be out by myself without folks around, and it would be fine."

The Minnesota governor, however, recalls having "relatively cordial" phone conversations with Trump in 2020.

Walz told Burns and Martin, "I said: What does 'liberate Minnesota' mean? What do you want me to do differently? What do you think that I'm doing or not doing?.... My relationship was much closer with Vice President Pence. We served together (in the House), and I would say we had even a cordial relationship…. The president's communication style was that I sometimes wondered if he actually heard me."

"I never got a response," he added.

Read the full interview with Tim Walz at this link.

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