STEINHATCHEE, FL—Governor Ron DeSantis ripped "vapid San Francisco Democrat" Kamala Harris' running mate Tim Walz for allowing Minneapolis to "burn" during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, insisting that America cannot have liberal leaders that will "destroy" the quality of life.
"Those were riots that Harris egged on and raised money [for] to bail out the rioters with the Minnesota bail fund. And those are riots that Tim Walz as governor sat back and let happen. He sat back and let the City of Minneapolis burn," DeSantis said at a Tuesday morning press conference in Steinhatchee, hosted to discuss the impacts of Hurricane Debby.
"This is a ticket that represents the spirit of those 2020 BLM riots. You have a very vapid San Francisco Democrat, and then you've got an Ilhan Omar-style leftist Tim Walz...We do not need an America that represents the failed policies of San Francisco or the failed policies of Minneapolis," he continued.
"We do not need to see poop on the streets and cities burning down," DeSantis added, claiming Florida would never allow what happened in Minneapolis.
The Black Lives Matter movement began in 2013 after black teen and Floridian Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder after he claimed self-defense. In 2020, after black man and Minneapolis resident George Floyd was killed by a cop, a wave of protests that turned into riots culminated in arson, vandalism, and looting that caused over $1 billion in damage, the highest-recorded damage from civil protests since the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Though the vast majority of BLM protests were peaceful (93%) the violent ones took their toll nationwide.
"That is not a prescription for America to work its way back...I think it was in that period, you were five times more likely to move from Minnesota to Florida than vice versa, and that's a result of people fleeing those failed policies," DeSantis said. "Why would we want that for the United States of America? Where are people going to flee to? We can't have everybody live in the state of Florida."
On Monday morning, presumptive Democratic nominee for president Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former non-commissioned army officer and retired teacher, as her running mate. The two will face off against former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance on November 5th.
