Soon after Gov. Tim Walz was publicly announced as Vice President Kamala Harris' veep pick, Donald Trump and other Republicans started bashing him for how he handled the George Floyd riots in Minnesota.
In a video reaction to Harris picking Walz, JD Vance bashes him and Harris saying he "allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020."
However, ABC News obtained audio of Trump talking to Walz on the phone after the riots, telling him he was "very happy" with how he managed the protests and the entire situation.
"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," Trump told a group of governors on the audio recording of a call.
"I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim," Trump said. "You called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins."
Trump went on to insinuate that it was actually he who inspired Walz to make the call to the National Guard.
"I said, you got to use the National Guard in big numbers," Trump said.
In a statement to ABC News, Trump's spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said: "In this daily briefing phone call with Governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump acknowledged Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city."
