MaddowBlog-In the wake of the shootings in Minnesota, Trump refuses to call Gov. Tim Walz

[LetMyPeopleVote]

The governor called for “leading with grace and compassion and vision and compromise and decency.” That proved too difficult for the president.

[e-mail] noted earlier this year that Trump “is at his absolute worst in a crisis,” adding, “He is not a man who is ready to meet important and dangerous moments.”

This came to mind watching Trump explain why he’s refusing to call Gov. Tim Walz. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-06-17T13:35:45.007Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-tim-walz-call-minnesota-shooting-rcna213450

Shortly after the suspected gunman was apprehended, Donald Trump was asked whether he was prepared to reach out to Walz in the wake of the slayings. “Well, it’s a terrible thing,” the president told ABC News before quickly adding, “I think he’s a terrible governor. I think he’s a grossly incompetent person. But I may, I may call him, I may call other people, too.”

Evidently, the Republican has made up his mind. NBC News reported:

Days after a Minnesota state lawmaker was killed and another injured in a ‘politically motivated assassination,’ President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he would not call the state’s governor, eschewing a traditional presidential response to tragedies.

“Why would I call him? I could call and say, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ The guy doesn’t have a clue,” Trump said, referring to Walz. “He’s a mess. So I could be nice and call, but why waste time?”

The Republican added, “I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I’m not calling him.”
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:aunpu65mdrhwfie7ynymlzeh/post/3lrskn5az4k2s

Link to tweet

......The New York Times’ David French noted earlier this year that Trump “is at his absolute worst in a crisis.” The columnist, whose observation was unrelated to deadly gun violence, added in reference to the president, “He is not a man who is ready to meet important and dangerous moments.”

The Republican keeps proving the point. When there was a deadly hurricane in North Carolina, he flunked a leadership test. When there was a deadly attack in New Orleans, he flunked again. When responding to deadly fires in California, he flunked again. In the wake of the Flight 5342 crash, he flunked again. And in the wake of Saturday’s killings in Minnesota, he’s flunked again.

Over the weekend, the Democratic governor called for “leading with grace and compassion and vision and compromise and decency.” That proved too difficult for Trump.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Mike Lee deletes posts about Minnesota lawmaker shootings after blowback

Mike Lee needs to apologize or resign

Link to tweet

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5355192-mike-lee-posts-minnesota-shootings/

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) on Tuesday deleted social media posts he made blaming the left for the fatal shooting of a Minnesota state legislator.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the posts that seemingly made light of the shootings that killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband and wounded state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife were gone from the Utah Republican’s @BasedMikeLee account.

One post from over the weekend had dubbed the killing the “Nightmare on Waltz Street,” an apparent reference to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), while the other said that: “This is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”

The move came after intense blowback from Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) publicly called on Lee to take down the posts and urged President Trump and Republicans to do the same, arguing that Lee might listen to them.

“I asked him to do it yesterday,” Schumer said at a morning press conference, calling the posts “disgusting.”

On Monday, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), a friend of Hortman’s, confronted Lee prior to a Senate GOP conference meeting about the party’s massive tax bill. She told reporters that she wanted him to hear from her directly “about how painful that was and how brutal that was to see that on what was just a horrible, brutal weekend.”

“I think too often in the Senate we talk to each other through one another and I wanted him to hear it from me directly,” she said.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. Trump is a man in age only.

He is King Taco of All the Putins!