Tim Walz turns down NY Times interview requests about response to George Floyd riots

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reportedly turned down interview requests with The New York Times to address fresh criticisms he's facing over his response to the George Floyd riots in 2020.

Walz, who has served as governor since 2019, is accused of failing to act quickly enough as rioters burned and looted businesses for days before he sent in the National Guard. Over 1,500 businesses and buildings were burned, with property damage estimated at $500 million, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The Democrat's actions have once again come into the spotlight after he was chosen as Vice President Harris' running mate earlier this month. 

The Times ran at least two reports on the renewed scrutiny Walz is facing and reached out to him to address the issue in an interview. However, the outlet reported that Walz declined these requests ahead of stories they published on August 14 and August 6.

Gov. Tim Walz waited several days to call in the National Guard as riots destroyed Minneapolis in 2020. (Getty Images)

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"A series of official reports about that week found failures at all levels of government, including some on the governor’s part. Mr. Walz has said little recently about his response, and he declined to be interviewed for this article," the Times reported in its August 14 story entitled, "Walz Faces New Scrutiny Over 2020 Riots: Was He Too Slow to Send Troops?"

Walz also declined an interview with the Times for a story that ran on August 6, the day Harris announced Walz as her running mate.

Instead, a spokesman for the governor, Teddy Tschann, provided a statement to the outlet calling the Floyd riots "a tragic time for our state and our country" and that "Governor Walz took action and deployed the National Guard to keep our city safe."

For the August 14 story, Tschann also said that "Governor Walz took action and deployed the National Guard to keep our city safe — Donald Trump did not."

When asked at a recent news conference whether he wishes he could have changed his response, Walz said, "I simply believe that we try to do the best we can," according to the Times' August 14 report.

Walz's office did not return requests for comment by Fox News Digital.

Gov. Tim Walz has faced criticism for waiting several days to call in the National Guard as Minneapolis burned in 2020. (Getty Images)

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His response to the riots has been criticized by local residents, business owners and politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Minneapolis' Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey, who supports Walz's campaign, was critical of his actions at the time. In an interview with the Star Tribune in August of 2020, Frey said that his office made multiple dire requests for National Guard resources to the governor that were not granted until after the city was forced to abandon a besieged police precinct.

Frey's May 27, 2020, call to the governor came after the mayor received a call from Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo just six minutes earlier, with Arradondo informing Frey that a Target near the police station was being looted and that he needed the National Guard.

"We expressed the seriousness of the situation. The urgency was clear," Frey said of his call with the governor.

"He did not say yes," Frey added. "He said he would consider it."

Smoke rises from a fire on a police cruiser on May 30, 2020, in Philadelphia.  ((AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file))

The Minnesota Senate’s Joint Transportation and Judiciary and Public Safety Committee would later release its own findings of the sequence of events that night, with the Republican-controlled committee alleging that Walz "failed to act" as the unrest in Minneapolis continued to spin out of control, according to a report from the New York Post.

"It was obvious to me that he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down," Republican state Sen. Warren Limmer told The New York Times of the report while also suggesting that the governor may have had "personal sympathies" toward the rioters.

As Walz avoids addressing these concerns about his past leadership, his running mate, Vice President Harris, is also facing criticism for avoiding the media since announcing her presidential bid. 

Fox News' Michael Lee contributed to this article.

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