‘He’s an excellent guy’: Resurfaced audio finds Donald Trump praising Tim Walz for his handling of the George Floyd protests

Donald Trump‘s campaign is working overtime to find something, anything, negative to say about Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Tim Walz.

They’re coming up painfully short. “Laughing Kamala” isn’t much of an insult — so she’s a happy person, what a crime — and they’ve yet to even mastermind an attack on Walz, because, even to the warped minds of Trump and his cronies, the Minnesota governor is practically untouchable. He’s simply too pure to criticize, and that was made abundantly clear when old audio was rediscovered, exposing Trump’s true thoughts on America’s dad.

The far-right is bending over backward to find a single negative angle on the hardworking, charming, and affable Walz, and they’ve zeroed in on one standout — his response to the Black Lives Matter protests, which initiated in his state following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Walz was slow to interfere with protests, even after they took a turn to the violent, due to his stance that military interference would only escalate matters.

Republicans are working to paint this decision as an “abject failure,” a move that prompted the rise of “Make America Burn Again,” an attempted attack on Walz’s cautious response. Due to the lack of military presence, several Minneapolis buildings burned in the wake of Floyd’s death, and MAGA is doing everything in their power to make this criticism their defining attack against Walz.

That effort was just kneecapped by the Orange man himself, however, after resurfaced audio exposed Trump’s true thoughts on Walz. A two-minute clip sees the former president praise the Minnesota governor as “an excellent guy,” claim he “totally agrees with the way [Walz] handled it,” and even adding he “asked him to” respond in the way he did.

Meanwhile, Walz was reinforcing the “legitimate anger” that led to the widespread protests. He was emphasizing that, while the National Guard eventually became necessary to tamp down escalating tensions, the people of Minneapolis were angry for a reason. He was immediately focused on finding the proper avenues to allow peaceful protests to continue, while also protecting the lives and property of other Minnesota natives.

The clip throws a major wrench in the Trump campaign’s efforts to smear Walz. They were just destabilized, by their own candidate, in their efforts to make “Make America Burn Again” stick, since Trump himself was once in full support of Walz’ response to the protests.

There’s no doubt an effort to spin the narrative underway, and it will be interesting to witness how Trump’s team aims to twist the narrative on this one. The man is a master class in dodging responsibility, so he’s certainly got the experience to back it up, but it will be hard to erase those kind words he had for “Tampon Tim.“