Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will have to defend draconian decisions and glaring errors he made as a state leader in the COVID pandemic after being selected by Kamala Harris on Tuesday as the 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate. Walz, 60, was one of several Democratic governors accused of “ massive overreach ” in wielding executive power to shutter schools, businesses and churches during the once-in-a-generation pandemic.
The Minnesota governor in 2020 even set up a hotline through which law enforcement received more than 10,000 emails from residents snitching on neighbors ignoring lockdown measures during that first year of the pandemic, Alpha News reported . In selecting the Minnesota governor, the Harris campaign on Tuesday touted his dedication to countering Republicans who want to “roll back Americans’ rights” — saying he had “stood up for fundamental freedoms” in the past. But that’s exactly what lawmakers and civil liberties groups accused him of not doing during the COVID years.
“From overseeing the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country, to asking neighbors to tattle on one another for violating lockdown mandates, to forcing hospitalized COVID patients back in their nursing home facilities — Tim Walz proved during the pandemic he does not have the competency to lead in times of crisis,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told The Post. “Like the rest of his tenure as governor, Walz’s pandemic response was a complete and utter.