Politics
Walz's handling of unrest after George Floyd's death coming under renewed scrutiny
In May 2020, as Minneapolis burned and grieved after the police murder of George Floyd, Tim Walz seemed backed into a corner.
The Minnesota governor was facing a barrage of criticism for not moving faster to restore order after the torching of a police station and numerous businesses. When Walz mobilized the state National Guard three days after Floyd’s death, the move garnered praise from the most unlikely of supporters: then-President Trump.
In a call with Walz and other leaders about a week after Floyd’s death, Trump remarked that “what they did in Minneapolis was incredible.”
“They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately,” Trump said, according to an audio recording of the call obtained by ABC News and other outlets.
Those comments and Walz’s decision-making in the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death have taken on new significance in recent days, since Vice President Kamala Harris named Walz as her running mate.
After a whirlwind week on the campaign trail with Harris, the until recently little-known Midwestern governor kicked off his first solo campaign stop as a vice presidential candidate with a speech at a labor convention in Los Angeles this week.
Walz was less than two years into his governorship and still grappling with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic when Floyd was killed. His death on May 25, 2020, was captured on a bystander’s livestream, which showed him writhing and pleading for air as a white officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9½ minutes. The incident forced a reckoning with police brutality and racism, with mass protests spreading around the world. Some turned violent.
“That is a delicate balance that I think he has managed: where he has supported the police and … supported community members simultaneously, and many state officials are not able to do that,” said Duchess Harris, a professor of American studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., whose research centers on race, law, politics and gender studies.
Among Democrats, Walz’s backers have highlighted the chaotic weeks that followed Floyd’s death to help show his willingness to set aside party differences to work toward a common goal, a trait that dates back to his days in Congress.
Republicans, meanwhile, have argued Walz’s actions showed he was a feckless leader who stood by, waiting to be summoned, while arson and vandalism spread through his state’s largest city.
But as president, Trump struck a decidedly different tone on a call with Walz and administration officials on June 1, 2020 — a week after Floyd’s death.
“Tim, you called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast, it was like bowling pins,” he said. Trump said he had been planning to send in federal troops “to get the job done right,” and singled out the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, saying he’d shown a “total lack of leadership.” But he didn’t criticize Walz at the time.
In the call, Trump described Walz as “an excellent guy,” and later told him: “I don’t blame you. I blame the mayor.”
But that was then. Walz’s Republican vice presidential counterpart, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is now publicly accusing Walz of letting “rioters burn down Minneapolis.” The sometimes misleading or false claims are being echoed in Republican attack ads and on social media.
On the social media platform X, the official account for the Trump campaign, Team Trump, posted: “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in 2020 and the few that got caught, Kamala bailed them out of jail” — in reference to Harris’ spoken support for a bail fund that was set up to help people who were arrested while protesting.
In the days after Floyd’s death, Walz called the city’s response an “abject failure,” setting off a frenzy of finger-pointing with Frey over who was to blame.
A series of follow-up reports pointed to significant breakdowns in communication and coordination that had led to a disjointed response from numerous law enforcement agencies.
A report commissioned by the city of Minneapolis suggested that local leaders’ unfamiliarity with the protocols for requesting National Guard assistance had “caused a delay in the approval and deployment of resources.”
A separate report by the state Senate — controlled by Republicans at the time — brought a more scathing critique, accusing both Walz and Frey of “failing to realize the seriousness of the riots” that caused roughly $500million in property damage, and of not acting “in a timely manner to confront rioters with necessary force due to an ill-conceived philosophical belief that such an action would exacerbate the rioting.”
Had Walz acted more decisively, the report’s authors said, “the riots would have been brought under control much faster.”
Walz’s backers have dismissed such criticism as an attempt to rewrite history.
The current president of the Democratic-controlled state Senate, Bobby Joe Champion, said Walz had “worked with a cross-section of people” to coordinate a response to the unprecedented mass demonstrations that rocked Minneapolis after Floyd’s death. Despite the criticism leveled at the governor, he did a “great job” balancing the right to free speech with the need for safety and order, Champion said.
“Hindsight being 20-20, there are those who are going to say what they coulda, woulda, shoulda done,” said Champion, who under the state constitution will become lieutenant governor if Harris and Walz win in November.
Any skeptics of Walz’s record need look only to the raft of “recent legislative victories” aimed at addressing “historic racial inequities” that will have a downstream impact on crime rates, Champion said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, attend a memorial service for George Floyd in June 2020.
(Julio Cortez / Associated Press)
Walz’s political record is that of “a centrist Democrat who happened to be in control of a state where the Democrats had moved to the left,” said Michelle Phelps, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota.
Walz has won respect from some in his party for his part in passing progressive legislation to expand free school lunches and protect transgender and abortion rights, she said, but has failed to push through any bills that “substantially challenged police powers in Minnesota.”
He also pushed for hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding for more police when violent crime surged after Floyd’s murder.
“If you look at him more holistically, what you get is this more centrist Democrat who is trying to thread this classic needle of how [to] rein in illegitimate police violence, while also promising a sense of security to the state’s residents,” said Phelps, who has written a book on police reform in Minneapolis. “And what that means is empowering police while also trying to make some tweaks along the edges.”
And just as Harris has had to answer for her past as a prosecutor in California, Walz’s record on criminal justice will probably come under intense scrutiny. In recent days, some have seized on the several times Walz intervened in high-profile criminal cases.
After Floyd’s death, the governor made the unusual move of reassigning the prosecution of the fired Minneapolis police officer who killed him to the state attorney general, Keith Ellison. More recently, he publicly questioned the top prosecutor in the county where Minneapolis is located over her handling of several cases, including one in which she charged a state trooper with the murder of a Black motorist.
The prosecutor, Mary Moriarty, later dropped murder and manslaughter charges against the trooper amid mounting pressure from law enforcement groups, and accused Walz of treating her differently than her male predecessor because she’s a queer woman.
Toussaint Morrison, a filmmaker and musician, said that although Walz faced a difficult challenge in responding to the unrest, his decision to deploy the National Guard escalated an already tense situation as numerous troops used force against protesters. The following year, Walz again used the Guard to respond to protests over the killing of a Black motorist in a Minneapolis suburb.
“What I saw is someone who targeted, brutalized and attempted to intimidate protesters. I understand people want public safety — they want to feel safe. On the other hand, people want to be able to access their 1st Amendment rights,” said Morrison, a longtime organizer in the Twin Cities who has supported families affected by police brutality. “And I’m saying this as someone who will likely vote for Harris-Walz.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Walz speaks at a May 29, 2020, news conference about the unrest in the Twin Cities.
(Glen Stubbe / Associated Press)
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Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner has emerged as one of the party’s fastest-rising political figures, drawing national attention for his populist message and outsider image.
But as his profile has grown, so has scrutiny of his past conduct, with controversies ranging from sexually explicit messages and offensive social media posts to a Nazi-linked tattoo and campaign staff upheaval.
PLATNER CONTROVERSIES FUEL SPECULATION ABOUT LITTLE-KNOWN MAINE BALLOT REPLACEMENT PROVISION
In continued clean-up of those scandals, Platner came to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to huddle with party figures at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters just one week before his primary election.
The Marine veteran and oyster farmer has defended himself against the criticism and retained the support of prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Still, some have questioned whether the allegations could complicate Democrats’ efforts to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races.
Here’s a look at the major controversies that have engulfed Platner’s campaign.
Explicit text messages and sexting allegations
Senate candidate Graham Platner is under fire, but it was his wife Amy Gertner coming out with a controversial five-minute social media post by the campaign to denounce the ‘attacks’ while she did not deny the allegations of infidelity in a new marriage. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The most recent controversy surrounding Platner stems from reports that he exchanged sexually explicit messages with multiple women during his marriage, an issue that campaign aides were reportedly aware of as his Senate bid was taking shape.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, informed a campaign aide about the text exchanges shortly after he launched his Senate bid as staffers were assessing potential political liabilities.
According to the report, Gertner discovered the messages months after the couple married in 2024 and disclosed their existence before her husband held a campaign rally alongside progressive Sen. Sanders. The campaign told Politico that the aide viewed the matter as a private issue between the couple and did not raise concerns about it publicly.
SENATE CANDIDATE GRAHAM PLATNER SENT EXPLICIT TEXTS TO MULTIPLE WOMEN WHILE MARRIED, WIFE SAYS: REPORT
Platner’s campaign later confirmed the existence of the text exchanges to Politico.
He also told Fox News Digital in a statement: “Amy and I went through something hard — because of me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day.”
“I’ve learned throughout this campaign is that people don’t care about gossip or headlines, they care that you’re fighting for their hospitals, their paycheck, their kids… Our opponents want politics to be empty of content and empty of actual change — and beating that is exactly what our movement is about,” he added.
In a statement to the Journal, Gertner criticized the disclosure of the information, saying she had shared “deeply personal details” about her marriage with someone she considered a friend, only to see those details become public.
She revealed that the two attended couple’s counseling, worked through the issues in their marriage and have since emerged as a stronger couple.
“I know who Graham is. I know the man I married and the husband he has been to me on the best and the worst days of my life,” Gertner said. “That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.”
Nazi-linked tattoo
Graham Platner, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, points to a covered tattoo that was previously recognized as a Nazi symbol during an interview in Portland, Maine, on Oct. 22, 2025. (WGME via AP)
Platner’s campaign also faced intense scrutiny after it was revealed he once had a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest closely resembling the “Totenkopf” symbol used by Hitler’s SS paramilitary forces.
The Maine Democrat said he got the tattoo during a “night of drinking” while on leave in Croatia in 2007 as a Marine and claimed he was entirely unaware of its meaning at the time.
In an Instagram video posted in May, Platner elaborated on the tattoo’s origins. He explained that he merely selected the design from a flash tattoo wall while “carousing” with fellow Marines in Split, Croatia.
“We thought it looked cool,” he downplayed.
Platner said he was later “appalled” to learn the image resembled a Nazi symbol, arguing that his life and career have been defined by opposition to fascism, racism and Nazism. He also noted that he was never questioned about the tattoo during his military service.
MAINE DEM SENATE HOPEFUL BACKED BY BERNIE SANDERS APOLOGIZES FOR NAZI-STYLE TATTOO, VOWS TO STAY IN RACE
Rather than undergo removal, Platner said he chose to cover the tattoo because tattoo removal services were not readily available near his rural Maine home.
“Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he told The Associated Press. “I wanted this thing off my body.”
The symbol was ultimately covered with a tattoo featuring a Celtic knot and images of dogs, which Platner said were meant to honor his family pets.
Deleted Reddit posts reveal offensive comments
U.S. Senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks during a campaign event on May 17, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The keystone scrutiny Platner has faced during his bid stemmed from thousands of now-deleted Reddit posts that resurfaced after he launched his Senate campaign.
In posts first reported by CNN and Politico, Platner referred to himself as a “communist” and “socialist” and endorsed the slogan “all cops are b—–ds.”
In other posts, he argued that those who “expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history” and said that “an armed working class is a requirement for economic justice.”
DELETED POSTS URGING VIOLENCE HAUNT DEMOCRATIC SENATE HOPEFUL IN MAINE RACE
The posts under his since-retired username “P-hustle” were deleted before Platner announced his Democratic Senate bid in August.
The candidate has since addressed the posts multiple times, telling CNN and Politico that he was “f—ing around on the internet” during a period when he felt “lost and very disillusioned with our government who sent me overseas to watch my friends die.”
“I made dumb jokes and picked fights,” Platner said. “But of course I’m not a socialist. I’m a small business owner, a Marine Corps veteran, and a retired s—poster.”
In the posts Platner made crude comments about masturbating in port-a-potties and claimed a U.S. service member who took enemy fire in Afghanistan “didn’t deserve to live.”
GRAHAM PLATNER VOWS TO ‘COME AFTER’ BEZOS AS SENATE HOPEFUL ESCALATES BILLIONAIRE TAX FIGHT
The controversies have done little to erode Platner’s standing within the Democratic Party as he has continued to attract national attention and grassroots support in the Democratic primary bid to challenge Sen. Collins for her seat.
Since former Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills halted her campaign in April, much of the party establishment has consolidated behind Platner, and national Democrats have continued to support his candidacy despite the flurry of scandals.
The steady stream of allegations and past controversies has also drawn attention to a little-known provision in Maine election law that allows political parties to replace a nominee under certain circumstances after a primary election.
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Under state law, a candidate who wins a primary and subsequently withdraws by 5 p.m. on July 13 can be replaced by a nominee selected by party officials. Any replacement candidate must then be chosen by 5 p.m. on July 27.
There is currently no indication that Platner plans to withdraw from the race, and the Democratic hopeful has repeatedly vowed to continue his campaign. Still, the provision has drawn renewed interest as questions persist about whether additional revelations could complicate his candidacy.
Platner’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Politics
Commentary: Bass clears first hurdle, but if Pratt holds off Raman, the mayoral race could be a holy war
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass made what sounded like a victory speech Tuesday night.
Councilmember Nithya Raman made what sounded almost like a concession speech.
And former reality TV star Spencer Pratt relayed a message from the heavens.
“Well, obviously God wanted five more months of me exposing all the failures of our mayor, so it’s gonna be a fun ride,” Pratt said. “I hope she’s ready.”
Assuming Pratt holds on to one of the two spots in the Nov. 3 general election as the final votes are tallied in the next few days, the smart money will be on Bass, for reasons I’ll get into in a moment.
But the supreme being and patron of all pontiffs has to be considered a wild card. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that an incumbent mayor in the City of Angels would be running against a challenger whose campaign manager is God Almighty.
So here we go. We could be in for one of the more remarkable electoral adventures in city history, with a complete novice and MAGA conservative going up against a liberal career politician in a deep-blue city and state full of people who are tired of hearing excuses from Democrats. (If Raman ends up ousting Pratt, my apologies for jumping to conclusions. But it’s not my fault. The devil made me do it.)
If you intend to follow closely, as of course you should, maybe you can help me count the number of times Pratt plays the faith card. I went to St. Peter Martyr School and attended the church by the same name, and I don’t recall ever hearing a nun or a priest drop God’s name as often as Pratt does.
In fact, I just watched a clip of Pratt talking to Fox News TV host and Donald Trump disciple Kayleigh McEnany, and over the course of 1 minute and 52 seconds, he mentioned God or Jesus 10 times.
“Thankfully, I married an angel who was very connected with Jesus and has brought me to the light,” Pratt said of his wife and former reality TV co-star Heidi Montag. “It’s been very empowering to just pray and just be on his path and just say, ‘God, if you want me to save these animals, save these humans and protect my city, just keep putting me in the place where I can do that.’”
Is he running for mayor or cardinal?
Look, I totally respect your average true believer. But I’m not entirely comfortable with a mayor who might be sitting around City Hall waiting for signs and smoke signals rather than knowing what to do on his own.
God has a lot on his plate. He might be busy multiplying fishes and loaves so people don’t go hungry thanks to the president’s tariffs and warmongering. Is he going to rush to answer a prayer for guidance about underfunded parks or broken sidewalks in Los Angeles?
How did we get here, you ask?
Well, Pratt is an AI creation, in a way. A composite of sorts. You combine the forces of social media, political rebellion, second-rate celebrity obsession and the Peter Principle, and here’s a little Trump puppet walking around L.A. like he’s the chosen one.
Add to that the very real essence of his appeal to some voters:
Los Angeles has problems. Big problems that don’t get fixed quickly enough or at all, and Pratt represents the angry voter who wants to know why City Hall can’t do better and where all the money went. He’s absolutely right when he says we shouldn’t have people living on the streets, using drugs on the streets and dying on the streets.
But if Pratt is in the general election rather than Raman, we’re in for a national media circus rather than a summit on solutions. Raman is well-versed on matters of relevance and could have pushed back against Bass in substantive, detailed ways. On the other hand, as Pratt has fairly argued, Raman headed City Council’s homelessness committee, so isn’t she partly to blame for the failures she tried to pin on Bass?
As for Pratt’s policy chops, he has not responded to my offers of a get-together. Absent that, and given his careful avoidance of local reporters who know their stuff, I read his platform on his campaign website and I can tell you that while he touches on many of the right issues — public safety, fiscal integrity, homelessness — attention to detail and depth of knowledge are not God-given strengths.
Maybe Pratt can actually deliver on his promise of a “treatment-led recovery model that addresses mental illness and addiction as the primary drivers of chronic homelessness.” But that would require an act of God (which I suppose is possible given their relationship), because those matters are primarily under the direction of the county, not the city.
This is the main problem here. Bass was beatable, and could have been pushed by a serious challenger to do better.
In the last election, Rick Caruso gave her a scare. That was partly because he had some depth on the issues, he was a successful businessman and philanthropist, he had served on the police commission and the water and power board, he had built relationships across the city and, along with his family, he had poured time and millions of dollars into underserved communities.
In this election, it looks as though Bass could get lucky and face off against a guy who lost his house in the Palisades fire, saw a few homeless encampments through his car window, and decided he wanted to be mayor. Some might have questioned his hubris, but only before learning that he was on a mission from God.
If you’re keeping count, that’s nine mentions of God so far in this column.
One more for the tie, with an eye toward five more months of campaign fodder.
Thank you, God.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., suddenly found himself on the defensive at a budget hearing on Wednesday when, amid levying accusations of the Trump administration’s “corrupt” dealings, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent fired back by bringing Wyden’s son’s investments into the exchange.
“We would like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about,” Bessent said, referring to unearthed emails drawing a connection between the senator’s son and the disgraced financier.
“Did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money?”
The moment continues the political fallout for the many names associated with Epstein that — despite not amounting to proof of wrongdoing — continue to prompt embarrassment and scandal at even the smallest mention.
TOP FIERY MOMENTS AS DEMOCRATS CLASH WITH TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT IN CHAOTIC HILL HEARINGS
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, left, pictured along Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, right. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Epstein, a former financier, died while in prison on charges of sex trafficking minors in 2019, leaving behind questions of whether he facilitated illegal sexual encounters for his vast network of rich and powerful figures.
Amid public demands for transparency on the matter, the Department of Justice released troves of documents on Epstein late last year, unveiling a slew of new names with all manner of ties to the infamous figure ranging from purely innocuous to alarming.
Among them, emails surfaced indicating that Adam Wyden, Ron Wyden’s son, went to Epstein, hoping to gain his support for a business venture.
UNEARTHED EMAILS REVEAL DEM SENATOR’S SON WANTED EPSTEIN TO JOIN HIS FUND: ‘ENJOYED OUR CONVERSATION’
Sen. Ron Wyden leaves a Senate Democratic meeting at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2025, as the federal government shuts down after Congress and the White House failed to reach a funding deal. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“Jeffrey, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope my passion and dedication for my business came through in the meeting. I live and breathe this business and take my returns, integrity and reputation quite seriously,” the younger Wyden said in an email in April 2016.
“I intensely appreciate like-minded individuals and would very much look forward to having you join us at the fund.”
The emails came after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida in 2008.
It’s unclear what the business venture discussed by Adam Wyden and Epstein may have been or what, specifically, had been discussed in their conversations.
Even so, Bessent reminded viewers that the younger Wyden had a history of investing in off-color markets at Wednesday’s hearing.
DEMOCRATS ARE HAMMERING REPUBLICANS ON EPSTEIN, BUT ONE SENATOR BRUSHED OFF THE ISSUE YEARS AGO
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addresses a press conference in Rosenbad after trade talks between the U.S. and China concluded in Stockholm, Sweden, on July 29, 2025. (Magnus Lejhall/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Your son’s largest investment position was Rick’s Cabaret,” Bessent said, referring to a series of strip clubs.
Wyden, who has widely panned the Trump administration and its many officials for their own connections to Epstein, didn’t respond to Bessent’s jabs.
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