Tim Walz grilled for comparing ICE agents to 'Nazi Gestapo'



During a Thursday hearing, former Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) was brutally grilled by Republican lawmakers for his past comments likening Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to the "Nazi Gestapo."

Walz appeared alongside Democratic Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York to testify on sanctuary cities before the House Oversight Committee. During the hearing, Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) confronted Walz for comments he made during a commencement ceremony in May where he said, "Donald Trump's modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the street."

'Inflammatory rhetoric such as yours ... is responsible for putting a target on the back of every ICE agent who is risking their life to protect our communities.'

The insinuation Walz made is that federal law enforcement agencies under the direction of President Donald Trump are like the Nazi secret police deployed by Adolf Hitler.

"When you said the words 'modern-day Gestapo,' you were referring to ICE agents," Emmer said. "Gestapo, by the way, sir, was the official secret police of Hitler's Nazi Germany. So you're calling ICE agents modern-day Nazis."

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Governor Walz’s comments comparing ICE agents to the Nazi Gestapo is SICKENING.

ICE agents put their lives and safety on the line to arrest criminal illegal aliens let into our country. https://t.co/wUH9hilTRZ pic.twitter.com/QdxkxmQqcW
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 12, 2025

"Given the attacks on ICE agents that took place in Los Angeles over the weekend, don't you regard your dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric as a problem?" Emmer added.

As Emmer pointed out, recent ICE raids in California have been met with violent riots, which he says have been incited by the extreme rhetoric of Walz and other leftist politicians. During these riots, ICE agents and other members of law enforcement have been attacked with rocks, have dealt with arsonists, and have even had details about their location leaked, compromising their safety.

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Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Walz stammered at Emmer's confrontation and failed to address his past comments.

"It saddens me that you refuse to express regret from comparing ICE to Nazis," Emmer said. "ICE agents are brave Americans who get up every morning, leave their families, and put their lives in harm's way to protect our country, sir. You, at the very least, owe an apology to these dedicated public servants."

"Inflammatory rhetoric such as yours, and the other governors on this panel, is responsible for putting a target on the back of every ICE agent who is risking their life to protect our communities."

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Red states get it: Economic freedom beats blue-state gimmicks



After enduring state and local COVID policies that wreaked havoc on the economy, followed by historic inflation that delivered a resounding election victory to Donald Trump, you would think that state and local politicians would learn some economic lessons.

Apparently not. Politicians from blue and red states seem to be getting their lessons from very different schools.

If blue states don’t begin to understand how economics work, they are going to continue to see their power centers dwindle.

In red states, politicians want to enable economic freedom. Property taxes, which impose a heavy, lifelong burden on real estate owners, have been a subject of several politicians looking to improve the opportunity to participate in the American dream of home ownership. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is looking at a state constitutional amendment to potentially eradicate property taxes in the state.

Reviving the American dream

Cliff Maloney, CEO of the strategic grassroots organization Citizens Alliance, explained to Blaze News the significance of this lesson:

When you think about it, you never truly own your home. If you miss just a few tax payments, they’ll seize your property that you saved for and worked so hard to make a home. That’s not freedom — that’s essentially just rent to the state. Our internal data shows that out of the 510,000 Americans we’ve talked to, more than 82% said property taxes are a major concern. They're infuriated that while they're being forced to cut their own budgets to survive in today's economy, local governments refuse to do the same.

While not going quite as far as DeSantis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) is also trying to deliver some tax relief to property owners, with others in the state working to figure out how to get rid of property taxes in the long term.

Maloney also mentioned that Citizens Alliance's door-knocking and advocacy efforts in New Hampshire “led to abolishing 14 taxes and fees, which has produced a dramatic influx of businesses moving to the state from other nearby states that have a higher tax burden.”

All of this stems from smart economic lessons. Lessons that very blue states have failed to learn.

Democrats haven’t learned anything

After witnessing the inflationary effects of COVID-era stimulus checks — a result that was highly unpopular politically — one might assume politicians would steer clear of repeating the same mistake.

That’s not the case in New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is laughably handing out “inflation refund” checks, a move even other Democrats are calling a political gimmick — not to mention a bad economic move.

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Carsten Schertzer via iStock/Getty Images

In Virginia, former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, now running for governor, has pledged to raise the minimum wage to $15, another form of market intervention that creates barriers to employment and increases costs.

In Minneapolis, city leaders are considering adding a 2% fee to hotel rooms in an effort to boost tourism — because, apparently, making hotels more expensive is always a good way to get more people to your city.

The people have spoken

Given the importance of the economy to Americans, it’s no surprise that Americans are moving from blue states to red ones. Maloney shared:

We've had the unique opportunity to talk to a lot of new residents during our door-knocking campaigns, and in doing so, our data uncovered that 69% of new residents moved for financial reasons. In 41% of these cases, this was because they were no longer able to afford the skyrocketing cost of living in blue states, while 13% were because of new, better-paying job opportunities.

If blue states don’t begin to understand how economics work, they will continue to see their power centers dwindle. Math doesn’t lie. People are taking their capital and spending power to the states where the math works.

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