Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has come under fire again for a remark he made over the weekend in which he appeared to suggest he was hoping for Trump’s death.
Walz was seen at a rally in his state, where last week’s deadly school shooting by a transgender suspect drew little mention. Instead, the former vice-presidential candidate joked about recent rumors surrounding President Trump’s health.
“You get up in the morning and you doom-scroll through things,” he said from a stage. “Although I will say this, you woke up the last few days thinking there might be news!” He added: “Just saying!” the governor said to laughter from a friendly crowd. “There will be news, sometime! There will be news. Just so you know.”
PLAY:
Walz alluded to nearly a week of online speculation over Trump’s health — rumors the president countered with an appearance at a golf outing on Sunday. Also, to counter the chatter, Trump hinted at a “major” White House announcement Monday.
Social media users drew parallels between Walz’s rhetoric and that of Robin Westman, the 23-year-old shooter who killed two children in a Minneapolis Catholic church last week, whose weapons carried scrawled messages including “Kill Trump.”
Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) appeared at a Labor Day picnic at Bayfront Festival Park, where protesters waved anti-Trump signs and chanted slogans. A day later, Walz said he was weighing a special legislative session to push new gun-control measures.
Minnesota Catholic bishops warned in 2022 and 2023 that non-public schools needed state security funding after deadly shootings elsewhere, and now, two years later, tragedy has hit one of their own.
The attack came after the Minnesota Catholic Conference urged state officials at the time to provide security funding and emergency-response training for non-public schools, the National Catholic Register reports.
The appeals, made after the shootings at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, and the Covenant School in Nashville, urged that students in Catholic and other non-public schools be given the same security protections as those in public schools.
“We need to ensure that all our schools have the resources to respond to and prevent these attacks from happening to our schools,” wrote Jason Adkins, MCC’s executive director, in an April 14, 2023, letter to Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who are both Democrats. The letter was also signed by Tim Benz, president of a Minnesota independent school organization, the outlet reported.
Walz and Democrats who control the legislature ignored the plea for assistance even as Minnesota posted a record $17.6 billion budget surplus in 2023.