Selective editing behind Trump praising Walz audio
Media outlets running selectively edited clips from a 2020 call between former President Trump and various governors on George Floyd riots
This past week, media outlets running selectively edited clips from a June 1, 2020, call between former President Trump and various governors on George Floyd riots with varying headlines implying Trump had praised Walz’s response.
For an example, see this ABC News report.
In a way, Trump did - but after the fact and in kind of a backhanded way. The full audio shows Walz actually thanking Trump for his guidance; confirming that he and Trump had communications on the matter and that Trump had pressured him to send in the full guard.
On a recent show, Megyn Kelly plays the full audio from the portion of the call that media is reporting on and lays out how it was edited to make it sound like Trump had praised Walz’s response.
She plays both the edited version being circulated by the media and then the full version of the remarks, which paints a very different picture.
Here is the timeline Kelly lays out:
May 25 - George Floyd dies during an arrest; we later find out he was overdosing at the time.
May 26 - Protests start and riots burn down 1,500 businesses
May 27 - More riots, looting and burning. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye asks Walz to send in the guard and Walz doesn’t do it. Minneapolis Police chief sends written request for 600 troops to Walz.
May 28 - Frye takes to Twitter to plead for the public to stay peaceful and makes a written request to Walz for National Guard troops. At around 2:30 pm that day, Walz finally issues an executive order activating the guard, but he only sends 90 troops in and the 3rd Police Precinct building burns to the ground.
May 29 - Trump tweets for Frye to get his act together or he will send in troops himself and says he has already talked to Walz. Under Twitter’s former ownership, the second tweet was flagged and censored as “glorifying violence.”
May 30 - Walz finally activates the full compliment of Minnesota’s National Guard, which is successful in restoring order.
June 1 - Trump has the call with his advisers and several governors, including Walz.
More To The Story
This call is not new.
In fact, media at the time seemingly ignored the call and instead used timestamps from Trump’s tweets to try to discredit the idea Trump had pressured Walz to send in troops.
Outlets never bothered to find out of Trump had contacted Walz behind the scenes (which he had, given the full audio from the June 1 call), even months later.
Instead, media went full “Captain Literal” and ran with stories that the governor’s called in national guard troops, not Trump.
For examples of what I’ve just described, check out this Sept. 2020 NY Times article and this July 1, 2020, CNN report.