Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right. Let's take you now to Blaine, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis where Governor Tim Walz is providing an update.
Governor Tim Walz (00:06):
Good afternoon. Today I'm joined by Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson, Colonel Schaefer of the Minnesota National Guard and Colonel Bogojevic of the Minnesota State Patrol. This morning, we learned that an ICE officer shot and killed someone in Minneapolis. My deepest condolences to the family, to the loved ones who had to learn about this tragic event on national television. We've been warning for weeks that the Trump administration's dangerous sensationalized operations are a threat to our public safety, that someone was going to get hurt. Just yesterday, I said exactly that. What we're seeing is the consequences of governance designed to generate fear, headlines, and conflict. It's governing by reality TV, and today that recklessness cost someone their life. I've reached out to Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, and I'm waiting to hear back. Let me be clear that Donald Trump and his administration may not care much about Minnesota. That's been pretty evident, but we love this state.
(01:08)
We won't let them tear us apart. We'll not turn against each other. To Minnesotans, I say this, I feel your anger. I'm angry. They want a show. We can't give it to them. We cannot. If you protest and express your First Amendment rights, please do so peacefully as you always do. We can't give them what they want. The hearts and minds of the people in this state are on our side. To Americans, I ask you this, please stand with Minneapolis. To Minnesotans, know that our administration is going to stop at nothing to seek accountability and justice. The State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension are working on the investigation. We have activated the State Emergency Operation Center. State Patrol and Minnesota National Guard leadership is connected with the Minneapolis Police Department, the St. Paul Police Department, Hennepin County Sheriff's Office, the DNR, and Minnesota's Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
(02:05)
We have activated dozens of members of the State Patrol's mobile response team. And from here on, I have a very simple message. We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you've done enough. There's nothing more important than Minnesotan safety. I've issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard. We have soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed if necessary. I remind you, a warning order is a heads up for folks. And these National Guard troops are our National Guard troops. They're teachers in your community, they're business owners, they're construction professionals. They are Minnesotans. Minnesota will not allow our community to be used as a prop in a national political fight. We will not take the bait. We will continue to update you Minnesota as we get more information. Now, I'd like to turn it over to Commissioner Bob Jacobson of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Commissioner Bob Jacobson (03:02):
Thank you, Governor. As the Governor mentioned, my name is Bob Jacobson. It is my honor to serve as the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. First of all, I want to acknowledge the reason that we are all here. The loss of life is not anything anyone would ever want. We fully expect that the community will want to peacefully demonstrate their anger or frustration. Minnesota residents and visitors have the right to peacefully demonstrate. We recognize that demonstrations are often driven by strong emotions, beliefs, and certainly a desire to be heard. Our role is to help ensure everyone can express themselves without anyone getting hurt. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety's role through the Minnesota State Patrol is to ensure safety, protect constitutional rights, keep roads accessible, and above all, to prevent harm. Our top priority is public safety. Our focus is keeping demonstrators, community members, drivers, and law enforcement safe, especially during moments of heightened tension or uncertainty.
(04:26)
Demonstrations must remain safe and lawful, particularly around roadways. We will join with our partners to support safety while respecting the right to protest. With that in mind, I'd like to share a few safe and lawful ways to demonstrate. Minnesotans can safely and legally express their views in many ways, including getting together peacefully with others in public spaces, marching or walking, not on roadways, making your voice heard through chance, speeches, and displaying signs, being present in public areas where pedestrians are allowed, gathering in designated or permitted areas, and these actions will allow people to express themselves while protecting the safety of everyone involved. Unsafe or illegal actions could result in fines or arrests. Certain behaviors create serious hazards that threaten public safety, disrupt emergency services, or put people at risk. These actions could result in fines or arrest, demonstrating, on or entering a freeway on foot, walking on highways, throwing objects, starting or setting fires, damaging property or graffiti, using illegal fireworks, displaying or using illegal weapons, reckless or dangerous driving, especially near pedestrians, and certainly assaultive, aggressive, or riotous behavior toward anyone.
(06:04)
We all want definitive answers to what happened today. Our Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is working in conjunction with the FBI to investigate this morning's shooting. As you know, we don't comment on active investigations, but also keep in mind that this investigation is also in its infancy. So any speculation about what had happened would be just that. And we will not engage in speculation. With that, I will turn it back over to the governor. Thank you.
Governor Tim Walz (06:36):
Thank you, Commissioner. We'd be glad to take any questions.
Dana (06:44):
What do you mean when you say that you're the National Guard is ready?
Governor Tim Walz (06:45):
Yeah, and I can let General Schaefer talk about this. It so happens it's a training weekend. We've got about 7,500 troops in training at our sites, training sites across the state. What it is, and in the National Guard, you give a warning order, which is a heads up of something could be coming. That just allows people to think about what they would need, what it would mean to mobilize, what it would mean to put them in. And I could let the general talk a little bit about this. Obviously, since the summer of 2020, we had a lot of work done on teams being ready to make sure that civil unrest. And what that means, and I think Commissioner Jacobson is very clear, and I want Minnesotans to hear this from me.
(07:20)
The desire to get out and protest and to speak up to this administration of how wrong this is, that is a patriotic duty at this point in time, but it needs to be done safely. And I think the commissioner simply just laid out some of those parameters. We can do that. This is the peaceful resistance that we need. Simon, you want to say a few things about what that means to have them on the ready?
Colonel Schaefer (07:39):
Yes, sir. Thank you, Governor. So for the military, Minnesota National Guard is comprised of 13,000 soldiers and airmen. We live all across and work throughout Minnesota. A warning order is just an initial step to increase your preparations. The Minnesota Guard is always prepared to respond and support state agencies and the citizens of Minnesota. So what that means for us today is just some additional checks on equipment that is ready at all times, and maybe some additional phone calls to service members who might be activated, but nothing… No activations. We are embedded with our State agencies here at the Operation Center to just continue parallel planning in the event that we are needed to support.
Governor Tim Walz (08:23):
Thanks. And I would make note, Mary, and to Minnesotans on this about the National Guard, they're there to protect you and protect your constitutional rights. These are our neighbors. They don't wear masks. They don't bust in from somewhere else. They're not here to cause the hassles to you or what we saw today, the tragedy. Having them at the ready to make sure, because when we see these types of things happen and we saw it after the murder of George Floyd, there's folks that want to cause chaos. There's the disruptors in it. And while the vast majority of those protests were peaceful expressions or First Amendment rights, there were those that destroyed property and put people at risk. The National Guard is there to make sure that peaceful protests are able to be done and that those that want to do the destruction are stopped from doing that.
Dana (09:05):
Governor Walz?
Governor Tim Walz (09:05):
Yes.
Dana (09:06):
What is your professional [inaudible 00:09:09] large scale demonstration, the demonstration [inaudible 00:09:13] have been increasing intention to the point where we saw a woman was shot today.
Governor Tim Walz (09:18):
Yeah. And well, and I think apparently by a federal agent, not by Minnesotans who were there to express their First Amendment rights. I think we've seen this to have folks ready. The gatherings that were down there today, I think this shocked everyone. People showed up as they should. There's people putting flowers down on a memorial. There's people expressing their anger. It's just as these situations develop, we decide when we need to move these people out. And I think the local reporters know well on this, both unfortunately and for us, the upside of this is that we're very good and we've had practice at this. And I just want to, again, implore Minnesotans. I am not telling you not to express your anger or your frustrations or the outrage that we have. Look, this was totally predictable, as I said it yesterday, and it was totally avoidable.
(10:13)
And I just wanted to remind you, too, that local law enforcement, we get no coordination. They don't tell us they're coming. They don't say why they're sending the largest deployment in American history to Minneapolis. They're not making us any safer. We don't have any of that coordination. They should be talking to us when we do these things. Let us know we are going to be down here. This is going to happen. We don't have that. So when you see local law enforcement or state patrol, or if it would take the National Guard, we're there responding to the chaos they've created, too, but our role is to make sure that we're protecting Minnesotans so that something like this doesn't happen.
Speaker 8 (10:49):
Have you spoken to this individual's family?
Governor Tim Walz (10:51):
I have not. The question was, have I spoken to the individual's family? No, we do not have a definitive ID on this individual. And look, I'm going to note to all of you. I think it's really important and the professionals do this and they train me to do this. This is an open investigation. You need to be very careful about it. I know that many of you, myself included, have seen a very difficult video to watch, one where there's a family member watched their family member be shot and killed in front of them. It's beyond me that apparently from the federal government, from the Homeland Security Director herself, has already determined who this person was, what their motive was, and they hadn't even been taken out of the vehicle. We're not living in a normal world. And so no, I have not. And I want to be very careful because I know how painful this is.
(11:44)
I know how painful it is right now. I'm saying person and all that. This is a human being. This very well is an individual's child, a parent, and we don't know that yet. So no, I have not, but once we do, we will. So, yes.
Speaker 8 (11:56):
You mentioned adding to the state patrol. Could you say more about how many state patrol people are-
Governor Tim Walz (12:04):
Colonel, would you like to do that?
Speaker 8 (12:04):
… you going to have? And then, also-
Governor Tim Walz (12:09):
Colonel?
Speaker 8 (12:10):
So the governor was mentioning mobilizing more of the state patrol. How many state patrol people are on the ground in Minneapolis right now? Should there have been more state patrol people on the ground like a couple of weeks ago?
Colonel Bogojevic (12:23):
So the question was how many state patrol troopers have been deployed to the City of Minneapolis? Right now, we don't talk typical numbers because that is considered security information. We do have a specialized team that does deal with crowd control, and so they have been deployed, but again, they are from all over the State of Minnesota, so they will come in tiers to the state.
Speaker 8 (12:50):
And they had already been on the ground to some extent before today?
Colonel Bogojevic (12:54):
No, it was in response to this event.
Speaker 7 (12:58):
One more. Oh, sorry. Just to clarify the intention of National Guard, is there any chance that the National Guard [inaudible 00:13:08]?
Governor Tim Walz (13:00):
I'm sorry. What was it?
Speaker 7 (13:00):
The National Guard [inaudible 00:13:15]?
Governor Tim Walz (13:20):
Well, I said this yesterday. We've never been at war with our federal government. I think in this case, the National Guard is their main mission. They have a dual mission. There's the federal mission when they're under Title 10 orders, and then they're under Title 32 orders. In this warning order, there's nothing officially been done yet. If I am to activate them as the Commander-in-Chief of the Minnesota National Guard, I will issue the executive order to the Minnesota National Guard, and then they will be put in state duty status. And as you've seen over the last few years, that could be flood prevention, that could be after a wind blowing storm up in the north, up in Bemidji, or it could be COVID, or George Floyd response. In this case, again, it doesn't necessarily change the mission.
(14:03)
They're there to protect Minnesotans. They're there to serve Minnesotans. I think the thing that is so challenging in the moment we're in is we don't see a desire to work with us on public safety. We hear a demonization of our state. We see people coming in who don't know our community, and we see this massive display for the TVs that we're trying to understand how is this coordinated. And some of you watch the videos on there, total chaos. And look, I have very limited work in this, the training in the National Guard, but I've had a lot of training now to watch how our professionals operate. After this person was shot, federal agents milling around, touching the vehicle at a crime scene and things, I don't know what to tell you. And I don't quite know how to respond to the question other than my primary responsibility as governor is the protection of the people of Minnesota.
(15:00)
And you can be assured whether it's the state patrol or whether it's the National Guard, their deployment is there to protect Minnesotans from whatever it is, if it's an act of nature, if it's a global pandemic, or in this case, if it is a rogue federal agent, I don't know at this time. And I want to be very careful. It's unprecedented that we have the federal government's already determined exactly what's happened here and the motives of an individual that we don't even know the name. They don't know the name, and that's very difficult. But one more, Dana. Dana?
Dana (15:35):
How are you responding with [inaudible 00:15:36] we need to stand by and protect our law enforcement officers from this radical left wing [inaudible 00:15:52]?
Governor Tim Walz (15:53):
Look, and I understand the uniqueness of this moment in this week, following this week, seeing what's happening in the backdrop of a show hearing in DC, my job is to govern and my job is to see what the facts are. This happened a couple of hours ago and we're already pitting American against American. All of you saw a video in your eyes. We have a chaotic situation caused by the largest deployment in American history of federal agents into a community with no communication to locals. We had a chaotic situation where an individual is in their car, shot and killed. And so look, I want to be very cautious here because Donald Trump will make this about me. He will make this about politics. This is about public safety and this is about normalcy. To Americans who are watching this, if you're in Portland or you're in LA or you're in Chicago or you're wherever they're coming next, stand with us, stand with us against this.
(17:05)
This was so preventable, so unnecessary. And I don't know, I hope… Maybe we're at the McCarthy moment. Do you have no decency? Do you have no decency? We have someone dead in their car for no reason whatsoever. And I don't want to be right about this, but I said, if they do this, they're going to create a chaotic situation where someone innocent's going to get killed and they did it. And now we hear more political rhetoric, enough. Enough is enough. And so to Minnesotans, don't take the bait. Do not take the bait. Do not allow them to deploy federal troops into here. Do not allow them to invoke the Insurrection Act. Do not allow them to declare martial law. Do not allow them to lie about the security and the decency of this state. And let's let this investigation play itself out. Let's make sure we protect our neighbors.
(18:10)
I encourage you to use your First Amendment rights and all of your constitutional rights, but do so in a peaceful manner. We'll gather back with you as soon as we gather more information that needs to be put out. But again, stay safe, Minnesotans, and we'll be back with you.
Speaker 11 (18:25):
Governor?
Dana (18:29):
Thank you.
Governor Tim Walz (18:29):
Thank you, Bob.
Speaker 12 (18:29):
We'll be back soon. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Okay. We just heard from Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota. A couple of newsy elements there that we just learned. First off, we know that there has been a warning order issued to the State National Guard in case they might be needed for demonstrations that might be a result of what we saw today in Southern Minneapolis. We know that right now, the guard is doing equipment checks and making phone calls to troops who could be activated, but we also know there are about 7,500 troops at training sites. We also know that the state has deployed its public safety department to ensure that demonstrations maintain peaceful and stay off of roadways. The governor's saying we know that people want to peacefully demonstrate, but that folks want to cause chaos and that after the murder of George Floyd, the vast majority of people were peaceful, but there were those that destroyed property.
(19:21)
We heard the governor there say that President Trump is governing by reality TV, and that he's reached out to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and is waiting to hear back. He said to Secretary Noem and President Trump, "You've done enough." And he said, "We will not allow our city to be a prop. We will not take the bait." He also said toward the end of his remarks that to his view, he saw federal agents milling about and touching the vehicle in question here, and questioned that. He said that he thought Donald Trump would make this about politics, but this is about public safety. This is about normalcy. He put a call out to people in cities where they're going next saying, "Stand with us. This was so preventable and so unnecessary." And he said, "Maybe we're at a McCarthy moment. Do you have no decency?"