Kibbe: Tim Walz's COVID authoritarianism killed George Floyd

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Matt Kibbe and his wife had lived safely and peacefully on Capitol Hill for over 20 years when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Then everything changed.

- YouTube youtu.be

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Upon the numerous declarations of mayors and governors ordering civilians to quarantine themselves at home, Kibbe “headed straight out to buy thick plywood to board [his] windows and new security bars to reinforce [his] doors.”

Obviously such “draconian precautions” would do nothing to keep the virus out, so what was he so afraid of?

“Riots, looting, and violence,” he says, which indeed ravaged the country during the early stages of the pandemic.

“George Floyd lost his job at Conga Latin Bistro when Governor Tim Walz locked down the Minnesota economy, prohibiting bars and restaurants from serving customers.”

— (@)

Just a few weeks later, Floyd was killed, and the chaos that would torch cities across the nation began.

“Unchecked power can take away your livelihood. Unchecked power can kill,” Kibbe says, making the point that George Floyd’s blood isn’t just on the hands of a cop but also on those of Tim Walz whose shutting down of the economy laid the groundwork for Floyd’s death.

It’s been four years, and the government has yet to answer for the egregious crimes it committed in the name of COVID-19. But stagnating the economy is just one of the atrocities it must answer for. There are also the matters of unconstitutional censorship, vaccine coercion, mask mandates, and gain-of-function research that demand answers.

Kibbe has been on a mission since the outbreak to expose COVID lies and solve its long list of mysteries. In his docuseries “The Coverup,” he takes you along with him as he meets with some of the true experts who were silenced during the pandemic for their refusal to comply with the approved narrative — people like Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford University and an author of the Great Barrington Declaration. He also meets with Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the only senator who’s remained relentless in his pursuit of answers — especially when it comes to COVID’s number-one wolf in sheep’s clothing: Anthony Fauci.

If you haven’t already, check out episode 1 (available for free on YouTube) before watching episode 2 on BlazeTV. If you aren’t already a subscriber to BlazeTV+ join today and get $30 off your first year of BlazeTV+ with code FAUCILIED.

REVEALED: How Tim Walz let Minnesota BURN during George Floyd riots

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Blaze Media national correspondent Julio Rosas was on the ground in Minneapolis during the George Floyd riots of 2020 — and he remembers what Tim Walz allowed to happen in his state quite well.

Not only did he take no action, but he refused to deploy the Minnesota National Guard to the focal point of the destruction to save his constituents.

“It was unlike anything I’d ever covered,” Rosas tells Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson of “Blaze News Tonight.”

The Minnesota Police Department had been ordered to evacuate from the third precinct, because that’s where Derek Chauvin was originally assigned out of.

“They had besieged that station for the entire week. The riots had broken out for that entire week,” Rosas explains. “The BLM rioters scored a major victory, by forcing them, by forcing the mayor, to give the order to evacuate.”

“The rioters many times expressed their desire to set the building on fire with the officers still inside, so if they hadn’t evacuated for probably another 10 minutes, things could have been drastically worse,” he adds.

“The governor of the state of Minnesota in fact bears responsibility because he refused to get off his duff and send any help,” Peterson chimes in.

“There was a big mistake in the thinking from the mayor and then I think ultimately the governor,” Rosas agrees, explaining that he thinks the major mistake was that they believed the decision to give up the police station would give the rioters what they wanted and calm them down.

“But that’s not what happened,” he adds.


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Kamala Harris supported group that bailed violent rioters out of jail in 2020, but media now obscuring that fact

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The mainstream media continues to gaslight Americans about the truth regarding Vice President Kamala Harris and her track record of supporting far-left causes.

As Blaze News previously reported, many outlets have tried to say that Harris was never the designated border czar of the Biden administration, even though she tweeted in April 2021 that Biden had asked her "to lead our diplomatic work with Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras" and "to address the situation at the southern border."

The supposedly nonpartisan government accountability group GovTrack also scrubbed a page from its website listing Harris as the "most liberal" member of the U.S. Senate in 2019, when Harris was still a senator from California.

Harris and the Minnesota Freedom Fund

Now, some outlets are attempting to obscure Harris' record once again, this time about her support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund, a nonprofit that posted bail for violent rioters in the wake of George Floyd's death in 2020.

"If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota," Harris posted on June 1, 2020, to her personal account on the platform then known as Twitter.

The tweet has never been taken down, and a similar post to Harris' personal Facebook account likewise remains active.

CBS News claimed former President Donald Trump recently made 'misleading' statements regarding Harris and the fund. The Minnesota Recorder said Trump was 'distorting' the truth 'to attack Kamala Harris.'

Two weeks after issuing those posts, she hinted on an appearance with late-night host Stephen Colbert that she knew many protesters had engaged in violence but that she still supported their actions. "Everyone beware because they're not gonna stop," she told Colbert. "... Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they're not going to let up — and they should not. And we should not."

"This is a movement."

But four years later, now that Joe Biden has dropped his bid for a second term in the Oval Office and Harris has all but locked up the Democratic nomination for the 2024 presidential election, the media is once again running interference on behalf of Harris, trying hard to nuance her support for the Minnesota Freedom Fund.

CBS News claimed former President Donald Trump recently made "misleading" statements regarding Harris and the fund. The Minnesota Recorder said Trump was "distorting" the truth to "attack Kamala Harris."

Minnesota Freedom Fund and the murder of Luis Martinez Ortiz

But of course, the Minnesota Freedom Fund did ultimately collect some $41 million, a small percentage of which was used to bail out protesters, violent or otherwise. According to Fox News, the vast majority of the group's funds were actually spent bailing out other violent suspects, including a man with a criminal record who went on to murder a man just a few weeks after the fund sprang him from jail.

On August 5, 2021, George Howard, a then-48-year-old man with a criminal record, was arrested in connection with an alleged domestic assault. Thanks to bond money from the Minnesota Freedom Fund, however, Howard was back out on the streets less than a week later.

By August 29, he was back behind bars, this time for gunning down 38-year-old Luis Damian Martinez Ortiz following a road-rage incident that took place along I-94 in Minneapolis. Howard later pled guilty and is currently serving a 15-year sentence.

In September 2021, Minnesota Freedom Fund acknowledged on social media its role in releasing Howard from jail on the domestic violence charge. "We are aware of reports of the tragic and fatal shooting in Minneapolis earlier this week allegedly involving George Howard, an individual the Minnesota Freedom Fund had previously provided with bail support," the group wrote.

"MFF believes that every individual who has been arrested by the law enforcement is innocent until proven guilty, and if a judge deems them eligible for bail, they should not have to wait in jail simply because they don’t have the same income or access to resources as others."

That tweet thread has since been deleted.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund also denies that Harris has ever been heavily involved with it. "We have no connection to Harris or her campaign beyond this four-year-old tweet that is occasioning all of this additional interest in our organization," spokesperson Noble Frank told MPR News.

The Harris campaign declined CBS News' request for comment.

A direct connection with ActBlue

As of Friday afternoon, the link in Harris' posts about the Minnesota Freedom Fund is still live and directs users to an ActBlue site with the title "Kamala Harris for the People" emblazoned across the top. Any donations made to the page "will help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota," the website says.

ActBlue is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that describes itself as "a powerful online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, progressive organizations, and nonprofits."

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'Let’s start a riot': Illinois man sentenced to nearly 9 years in prison for setting Minneapolis store on fire after posting his crimes on Facebook



An Illinois man has been sentenced to nearly nine years in prison for setting a Minneapolis cellphone store on fire during the riots following the death of George Floyd. The man tipped off law enforcement by posting his crimes on Facebook.

Matthew Lee Rupert, 29, was arrested in Chicago at 2:21 a.m. on May 31, 2020, according to WBBM-TV. He was arrested for violating Chicago's emergency curfew order that was implemented by Mayor Lori Lightfoot after the protests escalated into violent riots.

Law enforcement scoured Rupert's social media and found incriminating evidence that he had posted himself.

Before he was arrested in the early morning hours of May 31, 2020, Rupert posted multiple videos on Facebook of him in Chicago, where he can be heard saying, "Let's start a riot" and "I'm going to start doing some damage."

On May 30, 2020, Rupert posted on Facebook indicating that he was traveling to Chicago to "loot 'til 2:30," according to the federal criminal complaint.

On May 29, 2020, Rupert, who is from Galesburg, Illinois, broadcast a two-hour Facebook Live video of him committing crimes in Minneapolis.

"Rupert announced that he came 'to riot,' and is depicted handing out artillery-shell fireworks, encouraging violence against law enforcement officers, actively damaging property, breaking into buildings, and looting businesses," according to the Department of Justice.

Rupert was purportedly caught on video saying, "They got SWAT trucks up there . . . I've got some bombs if some of you all want to throw them back . . . bomb them back . . . here I got some more . . . light it and throw it."

The video reportedly shows Rupert asking for lighter fluid before entering a boarded-up Sprint wireless store in Minneapolis. Rupert entered a backroom of the store, knocked boxes into a pile on the ground, and splashed them with lighter fluid, according to the plea deal. Rupert then instructed a juvenile, which he brought with him from Galesburg, to light the pile on fire, according to the document. Rupert reportedly fled the building and yelled, "I lit it on fire!"

Rupert then allegedly went to loot a nearby Office Depot, where he is seen on video taking items from the store.

On June 1, 2020, Rupert was charged with civil disorder, carrying on a riot, and possession of unregistered destructive devices. In April, he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of arson. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported, "The resulting fire totaled the store, according to the feds. Liberty Mutual, which insured the property, had paid nearly $4 million to repair the building and replace lost rental income as of July, and Sprint lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory, they said."

Acting Minnesota U.S. Attorney W. Anders Folk said, "Matthew Rupert chose to drive more than 400 miles from his home in Illinois to Minnesota to engage in violence and destruction, all while broadcasting it for the world to see. Peaceful protest was not on his agenda. Arson, looting, property damage, and the glorification of it, will not be tolerated. Today, justice has caught up with Mr. Rupert as he must now account for his crimes."

Michael Paul, special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis field office, said, "Mr. Rupert made his way to Minneapolis for the express purpose of instigating lawless behavior on our local streets. He demonstrated no purpose other than endangering peaceful protests by actively encouraging violence against law enforcement and personally destroying community businesses."

Acting Special Agent in Charge Jon Ortiz, St. Paul Field Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, said, "This sentencing will send a message to anyone who considers conducting these types of violent acts that they will not be tolerated."

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