Minnesota business leader warns over Walz's 'really disturbing' record: 'Most painful' period in state history

Opposition to vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his soft-on-crime policies during the violent protests in 2020 has become a focal point for local Minnesota business leaders.

"I was stunned when he was chosen as the vice presidential pick," Minnesota Private Business Council President Jim Schultz said Thursday on "America’s Newsroom."

"And the fact that he could be in the Oval Office embracing the kind of hard-left policies that he's embraced here in Minnesota," he continued, "I think it's really disturbing to consider what he might be like in the White House."

Schultz gave scathing testimony before the Senate on Capitol Hill on Wednesday about Walz’s record on crime and the handling of violent protests and riots that broke out across Minneapolis and St. Paul in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.

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He expanded with Fox News’ Dana Perino on what it was like to watch businesses burn and how the events have left a lasting impact on small businesses, which play a key role as the backbone of America’s economy.

"I'm a fifth generation Minnesotan," Schultz started, "and it was the most painful period I can remember in our state's history. So much of our state burned, so much of the businesses, the homes, so many people were harmed in so many different ways."

"It was an incredibly painful period in Minnesota, and particularly those three days when Tim Walz failed to call up the National Guard," Schultz said.

The state business leader claimed owners and operators were calling Walz’s administration directly and "persistently," requesting some source of protection of their establishments.

"And he refused to call up the National Guard during that period, but they were continually trying to reach him. People did their best to," Schultz noted, "but they kind of shut down a lot of communication as they were trying to get a handle on the situation. And, of course, incredibly failed immensely in that."

To this day, local businesses are reportedly "still suffering" the consequences of the crime and destruction.

"Minnesota is at its slowest point of economic growth in its modern history, in part because of that violent crime from 2020 that still persists. And for the governor to say that he's proud of his actions there, I mean, if that was success, I would hate to see what failure looks like," Schultz said.

The Minnesotans facing their biggest hurdles today, the business advocate argued, are those "ordinary" people who have "borne the brunt" of Walz’s policies.

"[It’s] the folks in greater Minnesota, some of which are dealing with serious issues around fentanyl... the average person who doesn't live in this nice gated community, doesn't live in a spot that has great public safety and so forth, and doesn't have the resources to move or to otherwise protect themselves," Schultz said.

"Minnesota is [in] a fundamentally different spot in our state's history than we ever have been. And it's courtesy of the failures of Tim Walz."

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Walz eventually deployed the Minnesota National Guard on May 30, 2020, with the state’s National Guard saying at the time that it was "'all-in' to restore order."

The riots plaguing the Twin Cities were "no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd," Walz had said at the time.

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Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.