May 17, 2021: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced he has reached a bipartisan budget agreement. (Nikolas Liepins/Official Governor’s Office Photo)
George Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, and his death was ruled a murder. Ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was
found
guilty in April 2021 of second- and third-degree murder, as well as second-degree manslaughter.
Philonise Floyd continued to praise Walz for having attended the funeral of Duante Wright. Wright was killed after former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter fatally
shot
him during a traffic stop after she mistook her handgun for a Taser.
“For him to take time out of his day to speak at the funeral, I gotta give him kudos,” Floyd told the outlet. “He showed what unity was. He’s a family man with a good heart.”
Philonise Floyd’s praise comes as Walz has faced criticism and accusations of “stolen valor.” A recent video shared by the Harris-Walz campaign showed Walz
claiming
that he had carried weapons “in war,” though he has never served in combat.
I spent 25 years in the Army, and I hunt … I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can do CDC research … We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.
The Harris-Walz campaign
issued
a statement on Friday stating that Walz “misspoke.”
Walz has also faced criticism after the biography on his website had listed him as having a higher rank than the one he had when he retired from the military.
As Breitbart News
reported
:
Walz served in the Minnesota Army National Guard and retired at the rank of master sergeant, or an E-8. However, on his official website bio, he lists a higher rank that he served at for a short period that ultimately was rescinded, as he did not complete all the requirements to serve at that rank. However, his bio implies that he retired at the rank of command sergeant major, or an E-9.
On Thursday, the Harris campaign
removed
the reference to Walz being a “retired command sergeant major.” The campaign
updated
the biography to note Walz had “once served at the command sergeant major rank,” according to
Politico
.