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MN Gov: My First Responsibility is Safety of All Citizens. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 29, 2020 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:30:00]

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): I don't think you could think it was a mistake of who was leading that down there and that it changed the tone that was there.

So I am concerned. I think it would be disingenuous. I know this is painful. This is hard. There is going to be recriminations. There's going to be going back and looking at this as there should be. My top priority now is the immediate security to make sure that what happened the last 48 hours does not happen tonight. The State of Minnesota has assumed that responsibility.

I don't think it's going to be easy, because this whole whack-a-mole thing. And these folks are really good at what they were trying to do and causing destruction. The way we're able to stop it is employ these tools with the support of the public to make sure we isolate these folks.

And again, as Mr. Harrington said, the idea that you think you can firebomb a building and not be arrested and spend serious time in jail, I understand that. But the idea that we don't want to make people who are out there still asking, what about George Floyd? What happened to those people? What happened to the people who did this that got lost in 48 hours of anarchy? That's what we're going to put again. Tom?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw three television journalists get arrested early this morning on live television. Can you or anyone up there tell me how many looters and arsonists have been arrested over the past two days in the twin cities?

WALZ: I'm going to use this as an opportunity. Again, as I said, Tom, I am deeply apologetic that this happened. I understand that the community would believe if this were targeted. I, as I told Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN, I don't care at this point what the circumstance was why they got arrested. It is wrong. It is unacceptable. We needed to correct it as far as others who can answer.

(INAUDIBLE)

WALZ: Yes. How many?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- and they didn't apply a charge of arresting. JOHN HARRINGTON, MN DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSIONER: Yes. Both St. Paul and State Patrol and others have made arrests on burglary, arson charges, I believe arson charges. I know burglary for sure that they have been arrested. There has been stops, there has been, in fact folks incarcerated. I do not know if they've been charged yet or not, because I think most of them were done in the last 24 hours.

(INAUDIBLE)

HARRINGTON: Yes. It's breaking into the grocery stores, breaking into the targets, breaking into the Walgreens, of the pharmacies have been just decimated with folks we believe, who are seeking Oxycodone and other opioids out of the pharmacy stock. And so we've been chasing that around as well as chasing the folks that have been setting fires.

So yes, there have been arrests made. And there will be more arrests made if -- say, again?

(INAUDIBLE)

HARRINGTON: I will get you a number. I don't have that. I'd asked the -- both Minneapolis St. Paul and my other folks that were part of our unified command to get me information by 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock this morning. I have not received it yet. But I'm hopeful that have a sitrep from the last 24 hours. And we'll get that to you as soon as I get it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor, I have to ask you your reaction to President Trump's tweets from last night in relation to Minnesota and what needs to happen?

WALZ: Well, it's not helpful. I didn't speak to the President last evening. At that point in time, it was in the process of where I said we were going to assume control of this. That it was unnecessary. I did not know he was going to tweet. He certainly can. It's just not helpful. It's not helpful.

The City of Minneapolis is doing everything they can. If mistakes are made, and there's an accountability, we need to do that. But in the moment where we're at, in a moment that is so volatile, anything we do to add fuel to that fire, is really, really challenging.

So as I said, I spoke to the President, he pledged his support of anything we need in terms of supplies to get to us. There's a way to do this without inflaming. And again, this one is so difficult, as I said, again, the tools of restoring order are viewed by so many as the things that have oppressed and started this problem in the first place.

So it would just be more helpful at this point in time. We may -- if we need support from them, it's certainly appropriate that we will ask. But at this point in time, I'm confident that the plan we put together today to restore this order.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- we need to be keen at the Minneapolis Police Department, what kind of culprit, should there be more requirements on where officers live --

(INAUDIBLE)

WALZ: Yes. I don't about it. I think maybe this is Commissioner Harrington and Attorney General Ellison, when we first came into office last year, this was one of the things we wanted. And I said this, as a governor, that the nightmare scenario of having a police involved shooting or as any elected official as one so they started working this. I think I'll hear from the General.

KEITH ELLISON, MINESSOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, Governor, thank you. I think this really is the time to start talking about how we do meaningful deep dive reform. We took a year to grab in a number of people from diverse interests in the community. We had people from the community from the civil rights community with law enforcement there. We had law enforcement from across the state.

[12:35:04]

We met for about a year. We had a professional assistance from the group that guided the 21st Century policing process that Governor -- that President Obama Started. And we came up with a number of key recommendations. We will get that report to you. We hope you write about it. But we not -- but this supercharges the need for the effort.

There was just a few recommendations, well, a few observations and a few recommendations. One observation is, you know, a lot of the deadly force encounters that occur in our state are not concentrated in the twin cities. And in fact, a majority of them were in greater Minnesota, although many were in the twin cities.

Half of them were people in the mental health crisis. We talked and we also -- so we talked about a number of things. We talked about officer wellness, officers dealing from crisis to crisis to crisis, need to be able to check in, get right before they go back and engage the public.

We talked about changing and reviewing the standard, the use of force standard. We talked about making the sanctity of life, a central principle which Mayor Hodges did when she was the mayor. We made duty to intervene. We're recommending that to be essential.

Meaning if you're a police officer, you see a fellow officer doing something wrong. You cannot just say, it's not me, you've got to do something about it. We came up with a number of other principles that I think are really helpful, very useful, involving training, reform at the post board in a number of things. And I think that now, there's a need to further that effort.

I will say that I think that looking at systemic pattern and practice problems in Minneapolis Police Department is an appropriate conversation at this time. I think that we need to really do some deep dive in to make sure that, you know, that our law enforcement professionals are really do and really, really are serving the public, the whole public.

So I will say that, I hope that our state legislature takes up some of the initiatives that we have in there, that the academic community will take up some of it, training communities will take up some of it. I mean, a dual -- one of the recommendations was a dual, a joint or dual response, when there are chemical or mental health crises going on, so that it's not just officers that don't have the training on how to deal with somebody who's in that situation.

So that is, that's a priority. And I'll hand it to Commissioner Harrington.

HARRINGTON: I think General Ellison covered that really most of the points there. The one other point that I will bring in is that this group was very much based out of community. We brought in folks from a variety of different diverse and geographic communities. We brought in folks from the disability community to make sure that all kinds of voices were heard.

And one of the voices that I heard most clearly was the need for community healing and community health. And so one of the recommendations that we have put forward, we still think is it was important before, but I've never seen it as acutely as important as it is right now is for community healing.

The question that we asked and that I asked here with you is, how does the community recover when its heart has been ripped out? That's --

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commissioner, remember the code that we're asking here over and over again why isn't the officer or officers in question being held in custody during this investigation? A lot has asking on law enforcement why at that?

HARRINGTON: We are working with the county attorney, who is the charging authority to make sure that we are following their guidance as we move forward in seeking criminal prosecution.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard that in the last few days.

HARRINGTON: That is still the reason. And we're still in the middle of an ongoing investigation. And so I can't speak too much more than that other than the past practice for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and most police departments has been in these kind of cases, they work with the county attorney to make sure that they have checked all the I's and all the T's and made sure everything is in order before they make an arrest or before there's a charging decision.

And we have been following that protocol with County Attorney Freeman in this case. We have him history with County Attorney Freeman in terms of past cases, some successful some not successful depending on what your perspective is so.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's has been a discussion about this case is different regarding (INAUDIBLE).

HARRINGTON: We are aware that there is certainly a sentiment that it's different. But from the point of view of the law, we have a man whose life has been ended. We have the pursuit of trying to find out what were the facts that are surround that and to be able to create enough probable cause or enough basis for a criminal charge or for an arrest.

[12:40:13]

That is -- that's pretty much Cop 101, that that's what you have to have. And that's what we are working toward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have quick COVID related questions here.

WALZ: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The state have spent hundreds of millions of dollars helping businesses with COVID. Are you ready to respond to the businesses in Minneapolis that have been affected by this and offer them some state --

WALZ: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And number two. We've been moving people out of detention because of COVID. If there are significant arrests, do we have a place to push holes because of the --

WALZ: Well, yes, I mean, you'd listen to law enforcement on this one. These are great questions. It's ones that we came up with too that what's going to happen. And my hope is and again, hope is not a plan, you need to execute that.

But I think with Minnesotans understand what's at stake here and getting back to the focus of George Floyd and our community issues, that tonight needs to be different. And when I say that it needs to be different in the questions you're asking. I'm stepping into that breach, and this is the responsibility that states responding.

We'll use what we have. We'll use the tools. And so hopefully on that side, I'll ask John if he wants to on arrest?

(INAUDIBLE)

WALZ: Sure, I think this is certainly something we still did not finish our work in the regular session. I think we're coming back on the 12th probably and working with the legislature. I think there's a great desire to figure out how to do this. The tragedy of this, as I said, again, is a community that that felt this tragedy, a community that believes that they were that this has happened to a community.

When we say sometimes I hear people sometimes say that the system is, the system is broken. And I'll know communities of color will say, oh, no, the system is working just fine for certain people, not us. And I think for us right now, we need to take a really hard look about reinvesting, bringing light street back, making sure we're hoping that there is insurance for these folks, different things that we can do. But I think certainly getting our vitality back is one.

(INAUDIBLE)

WALZ: We'll come back.

LT. GEN. JON JENSEN, ADJUTANT GENERAL, MINNEAPOLIS NATIONAL GUARD: So the first question, are they armed? Yes, they are currently armed. A little background on that yesterday afternoon, we received what I assessed is a credible threat, specifically to the Minnesota National Guard.

That credible threat was made available to us by the FBI. I shared that with Governor Walz, along with my recommendation that I felt as though it was a credible threat and as a result that we should arm the Minnesota National Guard. Governor Walz concurred with me and authorized me to arm the Minnesota National Guard.

Now, what are the limits of their use of force? We traditionally don't talk about the use of force because it's an operational issue, but I will tell you this. Our guardsmen maintain the right to self defense. And I think that's where I'm going to leave it as it relates to the use of force for the Minnesota National Guard. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, I think heard General -- Colonel Langer talk about protecting the state capitol. Were they referring to the state capitol building and are you concerned that that building needs to be protected and then as a follow up, when will you make a decision on a curfew for tonight?

WALZ: Hopefully around 2 o'clock, Tom. I'll try and give you that so, you know, give us a little bit of time as they're finalizing on this. But I think that's one of the questions. Yes. The -- and we had brought up the Capitol Building before of that, these very symbolic targets that people had talked about the folks who had some of it was online, you saw the thing that came in.

That's the one request that I made of the National Guard and the mission that I'm asking for specifically on our troops that came in before the cities needed to ask for what they needed was the preservation of the capitol, and then the capitol grounds. And so that will still maintain, that will still be enforced, we.

(INAUDIBLE)

WALZ: They are and they have been. Yes, that's exactly right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Walz, last night (INAUDIBLE) claimed that he believes the agitators are not from Minneapolis or St. Paul's are there any evidence to that? And if so, where do these people were coming from or (INAUDIBLE) most of the people that are burning down buildings (INAUDIBLE) Minneapolis and St. Paul.

WALZ: Yes. I certainly think and I'm not going to speculate we'd ask them. I think probably the assumption is there's folks that come in. But as I said earlier, we need to make sure that we own this. The thing that sparked this is a homegrown Minnesota thing, the event that sparked it --

[12:45:04]

(INAUDIBLE)

WALZ: No. I don't know that. I think we can't tell that right now. But I think much of how a lot of this happened, certainly all of the things that have led to this. This is Minnesota. I think we need to find out. I don't think it changes the calculus that much how do we got to this, how do we respond to it?

(INAUDIBLE)

WALZ: Yes. I'm taking ownership board, it's ours. We own it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, in the leadership, are you classified the leadership of Mayor Carter the same classification as the lack of leadership that you --

WALZ: No. I'm not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- for Mayor Frey.

WALZ: No. I didn't say Mayor Frey on this. I said my issues --

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- lack of leadership --

WALZ: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- I mean, we talked about Mayor Frey.

WALZ: In Minneapolis Police Department. And again, like this and I will assume responsibility if the issue was is that the state should have moved faster. Yes, that is on me, whether it's the forces that were underneath.

So I don't think a lack of leadership, I think the lack of coordination and the lack of understanding what we needed to ask for. And again, that's in retrospect, that same, I think that same criticism could be said to us, but the way things are lined up, that was their responsibility at that point. Now, it's our responsibility to do that.

And I think we've been in contact with the mayors. I think they are doing everything they possibly can in a situation that is unprecedented. I don't think again, that's a cop out of saying, it's just unprecedented that doesn't mean you can't do anything about it.

But I think they're responding accordingly. I think we're learning a lot as I said. These situations were planned for the RNC and 18 months of planning and hundreds of millions of dollars. This came about after the killing of George Floyd on Monday night. It started to ramp up when the video came out on Tuesday. It accelerated into Wednesday and Thursday, and here we set. On the back, Peter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just to follow up on what you said earlier about charges and arrest, I think what people don't understand is the difference between two types of crimes, meaning Mr. Floyd is not going to be released on the street pending an investigation and subsequent charges.

Why if you have seen what you have concluded from your eyes to be a murder, isn't someone arrested, pending the completion of investigation and ending charges have the authority to arrest and hold and in charges?

WALZ: Typically, in a situation where you have actually witnessed a crime and you are -- you have the immediate -- you are immediately able to apprehend the suspect. It would be not unusual to have made an arrest, brought that person in and then offered to the county attorney what you were able to cobble together in terms of information to seek a criminal charge.

If there was no criminal charge because you did not have sufficient information, then the person is released pending further investigation. In this case because there was a lag time between when the video -- when the event occurred, when the video came out, and when VCA was then brought into this. There was not that same immediacy.

And so a criminal investigation was initiated by the VCA very quickly, working in coordination with Amy Sweasy from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office to follow the protocols that County Attorney Freeman has outlined that he wants us to follow in terms of a officer involved death case.

So we are following the protocols that that were established. We continue to follow those protocols. We continue to meet with the county attorney. We continue to meet with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney as we continue to seek justice and to seek what can we do and what are we allowed to do in bringing this case to a conclusion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lieutenant General Jensen, quick one, do you have -- do the guardsman have authority to arrest and detain?

JENSEN: No. We do not have that authority. And so I typically in our missions will always have a law enforcement officer with us. So we have that support immediately available. But no, we don't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've talked a lot about aspirations and plans here. Are you saying here right now (INAUDIBLE) that we're not going to see a repeat of the unrest last night, tonight, or for the rest of the weekend?

WALZ: I can't assure you but the responsibility to ensure it doesn't happen falls upon me and I will do everything in my power to do that.

As I said, I spent myself 24 years in the National Guard. I'm surrounded by good people. We're pulling the assets in. I'm going to need the help of Minnesotans like we do on a lot of this. I'm going to need folks to cooperate to get this through I want to acknowledge again that pain that people are feeling, the need to get justice.

I'm going to -- I'm just going to respond to Peter's question to on this, Peter, because it was an excellent question, asking about the charges and things. For those of you who don't -- I am not an attorney. I listened to them. And they're very that that the Governor has to be very careful about what they say about prejudice and in case. We want to make sure everybody gets justice and it gets done.

[12:50:23]

But the questions that Minnesotans and the outrage they're feeling, I'm feeling them. It is taking all of my willpower to maintain that point of being asked. But the way I'm able to get them justice, is by making sure that I put things in place that civil order is maintained, that we make it clear that there is an expectation that justice is moved forward.

And as Attorney General Ellison says, this is a point in time that we cannot forget. We cannot forget, George, we cannot forget the aftermath of this as if we would but we have to get back to that point of what caused this all to happen and start working on that.

So the anger and the frustration, and the wondering why this is, this is a community that year after year, decade after decade and generation after generation hears this. So right now I know there's a lot of folks out there listening, that their answer should be, I'll believe it when I see it. I believe it when justice is carried out. I'll believe it when equity actually means something. I'll believe it when the policies change. I'll believe it when my child gets the same education as your child, and that that color didn't matter.

So I get it right now, we're asking an awful lot can be based on faith. And that has not panned out. But I do want to say, this is a state that we, again, I think we are coming to grips with the good that we have and that that's not there. But it's always been about trying to strive to be better, trying to do more.

I'm not trying to sugarcoat this just much like COVID-19. I've had to stand in front of you and tell you that it's going to get worse before it gets better. This is not going to be an easy journey. But the one thing that we have to ensure that civil order is maintained, so those changes we want to see. None of us can live in a society where roving bands go unchecked and do what they want to do, ruin property.

And that the expectation is, where are the police? Where are the police? And this is the conundrum. Where are the police, in the first place, got us in this situation Monday night. And where are the police last night is it? And I heard from numerous people, I'm super nervous about the National Guard being brought in there. It's a flashpoint.

This took me, I understand that. I heard from some of those same people at 2 o'clock with a different tone, where is the National Guard? Where is the National Guard? So, over these next 24 to 48 hours, work with us to get the situation controlled and I want to talk to those mayor's who are up 24/7 in Minneapolis and St. Paul. It's not about calling out someone on lack of leadership. It's about an issue as it developed and all of us figuring out how we get there. This is volatile.

This has been building for decades. This flashpoint came to us. And now what are we going to do about it? And it happened in the middle of an unprecedented global pandemic. So it gives us a chance. We're going to get to pick our paths very quickly here. How are we going to be seen by the world in the coming days? How are we going to be seen after that? How are we going to respond to one another? And then what are we going to do about it?

And again, if I were everybody in these communities listening, I'd say, well, I'm going to believe it when I see it. So the first task at hand is, get civil control back, get justice moving quickly and fairly, and start talking about together. How do we rebuild? How do we rebuild trust in the police? How do we rebuild those stores? How do we rebuild a society? How do we send that face to the world that sees us for so many positive things? But we need to recognize this is what they're seeing. And we need to take a hard look and figure out how do we change that.

So I want to thank you all. Again, I'm going to close because of the importance I've said with the press, deepest apologies to the to the reporters that were out there, expectations that that, again, that cannot happen. We will do our best today.

And I would ask all of you, as the ongoing mission to make sure that we have peace and security today is making sure that that story is told. I'm asking our team to make sure that press credentials, the ability to move you and protect you safely needs to be out there so this is covered.

Please let us know quickly on that. Please make sure that that's happening. Please show the world everything that's happening here, through that lens of professional journalists, who asked the questions you're asking today. So thank you all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:55:02]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Remarkable press conference led by the Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz there, an hour and 20 minutes plus, discussing what he called 48 hours of anarchy, 48 hours of anarchy.

The governor of course talking about the riots in Minneapolis and St. Paul, those riots to protest the death at police hands of George Floyd earlier in the week. The governor saying, quote, we have to restore order and he said, I am asking you to help us, asking the African- American community and acknowledging there is great distrust in that community for the police department and he said even for white leaders like himself. He said he needed help to restore order. He called this one of the darkest chapters in Minnesota history. He also talked a little bit about the collision of these crises, demonstrators in the street at a time of a global pandemic. Demonstrators close together at a time he says the state needs to continue its progress against the coronavirus.

Also at one point apologizing for the arrest of a CNN crew and correspondent last night, the governor says that's on him. It should not have happened and he took responsibility for that. Also said it's possible he will impose a curfew tonight as Minnesota State Police now the National Guard have taken over security on the scene.

And he said a tweet from the President of the United States overnight, saying when the looting starts -- the shooting starts was not helpful. The governor saying that A, it was not helpful and there are ways to do this without inflaming it.

Let's discuss what we just heard here with. Omar Jimenez is our correspondent on the scene. We're also joined by Josh Campbell, our law enforcement correspondent, Charles Ramsey, the former chief of police in Philadelphia and D.C.

Omar, I want to start with you on the ground. You're there covering this story. You heard the governor getting into the complexity. It is now the Minnesota State Patrol and it is the National Guard. He says he understands people in the community might not make the distinction, might not separate them from the Minneapolis P.D. that they do not trust.

It seemed to be the big question would be an hour or two from now. He will tell us whether they will impose a curfew on those streets tonight.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the bottom line from that press conference, he was hitting a lot of main themes. When you talk about the 48 hours of anarchy that he was talking about, he said that is not going to happen tonight. And whatever the framework that was in place in previous days, they seem to feel like they made the necessary changes.

And the dynamic behind you seems to be what the dynamic is going to be for the foreseeable future. We heard him say the National Guard will be assisting local and state patrol here in Minnesota until further notice, at this point.

So we are going to see again, how forcefully these protests continue based on these new protocols. And then he laid out three steps for trying to get there or I should say, the long journey back to normalcy here in Minneapolis saying, you have to start with getting control back. I think that is the first step we are witnessing here. Then getting justice as we await to see if any charges are filed by either Hennepin County or out of the U.S. Attorney's Office here. And then the final one is rebuilding trust.

And that one, he says is going to be trickier because it doesn't just stem from this week. In his words, he said it comes from generations have episodes of mistrust between law enforcement and the people here in the community.

KING: An important point, Omar. The governor saying he wanted swift, timely, and fair justice. He also asked for patience as prosecutors make their case.

Chief Ramsey, I want to bring you in here, number one, from your perspective as being the chief of police in a major city that had to deal with stress like this. Now, if you listen to that press conference, it was clear there was a moment yesterday afternoon into the evening, where it became unclear who was calling the shots or who should have been calling the shots in both Minneapolis and St. Paul.

From what you heard there, the governor saying, I'm in charge now. This is a state issue. Did you hear a clear plan that you think makes the citizens of Minneapolis and St. Paul safer tonight?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, I don't know how that could have happened. I mean, the local police chief from both cities and their operational leaders should have had a plan with precise information provided to both the National Guard and the state police as to what they wanted them to do.

The head of the Department of Public Safety refer to it as missions. And that's exactly right. I don't understand why that was not done. When I was watching last night to third precinct and all the rioting was going on and burning, I couldn't understand why there were no police there. You have to move in. You cannot allow that sort of thing to take place.

Once that first window goes, you got to start breaking up that crowd. It only grows larger and it only grows more violent. So there was a lack of planning apparently in the state is taking it over it.

Now, we'll find out tonight, just how well the plan that they put in place works. But one thing I can tell them is that, they need to not only secure obvious places that may be, you know, a focus of protests, you know, City Hall, places like that. They've got to have mobile platoons because what happens in a lot of these protests, they use social media to go where the police aren't.

And they'll target areas, they'll gather real quickly, and they'll do what they need -- what they do in areas that aren't as well protected.