Harris running mate's wife faces scrutiny for admission about 2020 riots
Gwen Walz is now facing scrutiny for a statement that she previously had made about the 2020 riots, Fox News reports.
Gwen Walz is the wife of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who has been selected to be Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate in the 2024 presidential election.
As a result, the governor and his wife have found themselves under a lot of scrutiny for past actions, including their handling of the 2020 riots.
The reader will likely remember that the 2020 riots were precipitated by the death of George Floyd. The incident took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the time, Walz was the leader of the state, and, as such, he was responsible for overseeing the state's response to the riots.
"I could smell the burning tires"
Gwen Walz, in particular, is facing criticism for a previous statement that she made about the riots. The statement, according to Fox News, was made by Walz to KSTP in July 2020.
There, she said:
Again we had more sleepless nights during the riots. I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing. And I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.
The statement has now gone viral, following Harris's selection of Gov. Walz to be her running mate. At the very least, many seem to find the statement strange, while at the other end of the spectrum are those who find the statement to be troubling.
The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh would fall into the latter category. On his X account, Walsh wrote:
Everything you need to know about leftist elites can be found in this short clip. Tim Walz’s wife sat by the window enjoying the smell of poor neighborhoods burning during the Floyd riots. She did everything but pull out a fiddle.
Everything you need to know about leftist elites can be found in this short clip. Tim Walz’s wife sat by the window enjoying the smell of poor neighborhoods burning during the Floyd riots. She did everything but pull out a fiddle.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) August 6, 2024
Who is Gwen Walz?
Many news outlets have taken the time to do a brief writeup on Gwen Walz, now that her husband could be the next vice president of the United States. This includes the Washington Examiner.
The outlet reports:
After dating for a while, the couple got married on June 4, 1994. Two years later, the couple moved to Mankato, where Gwen continued to pursue her career as an educator. Before transitioning into politics, Walz was a geography teacher and the couple started the Educational Travel Adventures program, taking high school students on summer trips to China.
Tim Walz is already receiving significant criticism for his ties to China.
The Examiner goes on to report:
As first lady of Minnesota, she has been a proponent of prison reform and implementing more educational programs in the prison systems. Gwen has also supported giving prisoners access to a liberal arts college degree through the Bard Prison Initiative.
Walz has been a hands-on first lady. According to the Examiner, she is the state's first first lady to have an office in Minnesota's Capitol building, just down the hall from her husband's office.
