Walz Changes Course, Appeals for Calm

What changed? Gov. Tim Walz has spent a week ramping up his verbal attacks on ICE and even encouraging people to protest. Now suddenly, he's calling for calm and trying to extend some sort of olive branch to the White House. Here's the tweet he sent out a few hours ago. AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto - Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 15, 2026 Turn the temperature down? Is that what Walz thinks he's been doing? Here he is calling federal agents the gestapo. During a commencement ceremony speech at the U of M, Gov. Tim Walz described federal ICE agents as "Trump's modern-day Gestapo.” - Alpha News (@AlphaNews) pic.twitter.com/D6mFIyH9Pm May 18, 2025 He later tried (unsuccessfully) to walk that back. Today, Tim Walz tried to walk back his comments comparing ICE to the Gestapo, by stating: - Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) “I said President Trump was *using them* as his modern day Gestapo." Problem is, he didn’t say that. pic.twitter.com/iVH9Ei0VTz June 12, 2025 He has also been encouraging people to go out and protest. Tampon Tim Walz says it's "a patriotic duty" to protest ICE. - Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) Only a deranged, sick individual would encourage his constituents to obstruct the arrests of criminal illegal aliens. pic.twitter.com/VyiZR4SXBV January 7, 2026 He has suggested that Minnesota is at war with the federal government. Here he is comparing anti-ICE protests to the Civil War. Tim Walz compares Minnesota’s protest of ICE to the third day at the Battle of Gettysburg and says we are in a modern day Civil War. This man has completely lost it: - Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) pic.twitter.com/uRcdjRnGFF January 8, 2026 Twice he's outright said the state was at war. Yesterday, Tim Walz declared Minnesota is at "war against the federal government." - Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) Again today, he called it "war with our federal government." This lunatic is SICK and DANGEROUS! pic.twitter.com/1WRBs1pBxI January 7, 2026 Just last night he called for peaceful protests against ICE "atrocities" and then said people should have phones ready at all times to record ICE actions to preserve evidence for future prosecutions. He's planning some kind of truth and reconciliation commission it seems. TIM WALZ: "If you see these ICE agents in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record." - Fox News (@FoxNews) "Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans, not just to establish a record for posterity, but to bank evidence for future prosecution." pic.twitter.com/V7fCMY3WZ1 January 15, 2026 I'm not sure how you get from "we're at war" to let's bring the temperature down. What changed his mind? Was it Trump's threat to invoke the insurrection act? Was it the ICE agent who was beaten by 3 Venezuelan immigrants last night? Was it the vandalism of government vehicles and the theft of weapons? Was the people surrounding and threatening people they think might be ICE agents? This is the second time I’ve seen protesters bothering someone who they thought were ICE because of the type of SUV...

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