Tim Walz Fears a Fort Sumter Moment in Minneapolis

""I mean, is this a Fort Sumter?" he mused today in an interview in his office at the state capitol. The island fortification near Charleston, South Carolina, is where Confederate forces fired the first shots of the Civil War in 1861. Now it's federal forces that are risking a breach. "It's a physical assault," Walz told me. "It's an armed force that's assaulting, that's killing my constituents, my citizens.""

"Walz bowed out of his reelection race earlier this month. The 2024 vice-presidential candidate said that he didn't want politics to interfere with his work amid an intensifying federal probe into welfare fraud in his state. Two days later, his phone rang, and it was Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis. Renee Good had been shot and killed by an ICE officer, one of thousands of federal agents deployed to Minnesota as part of what the Trump administration declared the largest immigration-enforcement operation in history."

"Barely two weeks later, federal agents shot and killed a second Minneapolis resident. Walz still doesn't know the names of the agents who unloaded their firearms into Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse. State authorities were blocked from investigating both killings. Instead, the governor was placed under federal investigation along with other Democratic officials. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is demanding access to Minnesota's voter rolls, couching the extraordinary election-year request as a quid pro quo for restoring "law and order.""

Governor Tim Walz warned that escalating federal actions in Minnesota risk causing a national rupture comparable to Fort Sumter. He withdrew from his reelection bid amid a federal probe into welfare fraud. Federal agents were deployed in the largest immigration-enforcement operation in history, and an ICE officer shot Renee Good. Two weeks later, federal agents killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti. State authorities were blocked from investigating both killings. The governor and other Democratic officials were placed under federal investigation. The Justice Department demanded access to Minnesota's voter rolls, framing the request as a quid pro quo for restoring 'law and order.'

Read at The Atlantic