Replies

finally, I have a first name for the “journalist” who conveniently brought up the “white supremacist” topic at Walz’s press conference - it is “TOM”.
hope someone can help identify him. he also followed up to make Harrington respond to the allegation also. have included the first excerpt to show Walz clearly knows TOM, goes to him as soon as the opening statements are made, etc.
seems TOM gets to ask all the questions!

30 May: Rev.com: Gov. Tim Walz & Mayor Jacob Frey Press Conference During 4th Night of Protests
Governor Tim Walz: (24:03)
...With that, TOM.
TOM: (24:25)
Governor, for the second night in a row, hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of Minnesotans and Americans are watching on television as fires burn, buildings are looted ETC...
Governor Tim Walz: (25:49)
We have to prioritize, we have to triage. It is a horrible predicament. I can tell you this, TOM ETC...

Tom: (29:33)
If I could ask perhaps all three of you this question four. We’re hearing reports that it’s not only the criminal element that was here the last couple of nights, but now some white supremacists have come to Minnesota and are causing some of the destruction. Can you address, are there white supremacists causing destruction in the city?

Governor Tim Walz: (29:55)
Yeah. Well, the unconfirmed reports, and again, we’re trying to get that, but we’ve got intel from all the different agencies. Of course, this is where the federal government helps us with some of this. I certainly can’t confirm personally on this. My suspicions and what I’ve seen on this, yes, it gets worse than that. The cartels who are wondering that it was a break in their drug transmissions, are trying to take advantage of the chaos that’s there too. That’s why this situation is on a federal level. You’re seeing it highly coordinated across the country, so that will happen. And I think this is the conversation we’re having with the president, that we’re having together here to be very clear with Minnesotans and the dangerous situation.

Governor Tim Walz: (30:34)
Of those who are going to legitimately grieve George Floyd’s death are going to gather here. It is a highly volatile situation. And these folks who want to do this, blend in, and when you look at those pictures as you see at night, oh, look like they’re just strolling and 8:00 coming and we’ll see if they go home. They didn’t come to stroll, they didn’t come to go home. They came, and I think asking where the guard is, how they’re responding, think about a rule of engagement in a civilized society where these people have no rules. Their one goal is that destruction or to hurt or to entice those folks to come in. And our folks are the professionals that that is not our intention. Our intention is to restore. We want them to do nothing more than go home. We don’t want them arrested. We don’t want to try and have violence on the streets, but that’s who they are.

Governor Tim Walz: (31:22)
I don’t know if John can speak any more on unconfirmed reports, but I think it’s very clear by now, when you have a situation like this across the country, elements that want to do that are certainly gathering. And then they are professionals on some of it. Like John said, we’re seeing evidence of pretty sophisticated attempt to cause problems.

Tom: (31:42)
Governor, do you have any evidence of white supremacists?

Governor Tim Walz: (31:45)
Oops, I’m sorry. John. We’ll come back.

Tom: (31:47)
Drug cartels, as the governor mentioned.

John: (31:48)
We’ve got intel reports that have been confirmed, but I cannot say that we have confirmed observations of local law enforcement to say that we’ve seen cells of white supremacists in the area. We got reports of that over the last couple of days that we were tracking in terms of threat to some of the critical infrastructure, threat to the National Guard and others. But I don’t have confirmed reports that I can give you at this point.

John: (32:17)
Speaking to the governor’s point, we also, from some national sources, also got reports on drug cartels that were directing their resources to restore their drug markets in some of the areas that had been looted and some of the businesses that had been operated by them. We’re still trying to work through that, but frankly, that’s at best a secondary or tertiary concern as we’re trying to deal with right now life and death situations on the street...

Governor Tim Walz: (39:52)
That is the moves that we will start thinking and talking about and have tonight about this plan for tomorrow. TOM?...

Governor Tim Walz: (42:40)
That’s what’s happening right now, TOM, and the answer might be no...

TOM: (46:10)
Thank you. Did we get it?

Speaker 4: (46:11)
Yeah. [inaudible 00: 10:26].
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/gov-tim-walz-mayor-jacob-frey-press-conference-on-4th-night-of-protests

looks like TOM is Tom Hauser, KSTP-TV, an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota.

don’t know if this FB is about the particular press conference, though it’s exactly the same cast of character, and the pic seems to show KSTP dominating the room! not many comments, all praising Hauser for the hard questions!

Facebook: Tom Hauser “At Issue” (KSTP)
Yesterday at 08.29
DEVELOPING: I’m in place as we await a news conference by MN Gov. Tim Walz and state law enforcement regarding the protests, riots and looting in the Twin Cities. We’ll be live at 10:30 on 5 Eyewitness News and KSTP.com
replies:
Tris Casciaro Thank you for asking the hard questions. You’re one of the few unbiased and respected journalists and reporters out there and we need you!
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=193139530755079&story_fbid=3014899251912412

can’t find mention of the drugs/supremacist stuff on his twitter page:

Twitter: Tom Hauser, Chief Political Reporter, KSTP-TV
https://twitter.com/thauserkstp?lang=en