Minnesota Business Owner Attacks Walz for Leadership of COVID and BLM Riots: ‘Total and Complete Failure’

A Minnesota business owner who was forced to close his doors after suffering financial losses due to the coronavirus pandemic and crime delivered a withering rebuke to vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Gov. Tim Walz, a Minnesota Democrat, calling him a “bad person” for his handling of COVID-19.

“Walz is an absolutely total and complete failure,” Greg Urban told America Reports on Wednesday. “He’s an incredibly divisive leader. He’s shut down the state for almost two years. Anyone who goes against his rules, even opening a coffee shop, would go to jail for a long time.”

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Urban, owner of Wild Greg’s Saloon, said he was forced to close his Minneapolis bar when it failed to recover after COVID-19 lockdowns were eased.

Urban’s facilities in Austin, Texas, Pensacola, Florida, and Lakeland, Florida, bounced back relatively quickly, but “there was no game plan” for Minneapolis, he told Fox News’ John Roberts.

“Minneapolis was a failed city and it hasn’t really recovered. We were losing money every month while every other city was recovering very quickly from COVID, and as a business owner, you can only lose money for so many months in a row before you have to pull the pin,” he said.

In his first term as governor, Walz oversaw Minnesota’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and advocated for strict restrictions, including lockdowns and mask mandates. The Walz administration also set up a hotline to report residents who violated COVID-19 orders, as FOX 9 Minneapolis reported then.

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“Walz was a complete dictator during this entire period. A really bad person, more than a dictator,” Urban said. “He actually made it illegal for families to gather for Christmas and Thanksgiving. So people, if they saw their neighbor taking out a turkey leg on Thanksgiving, they could call the hotline and Walz could send his COVID police to take them to jail.”

Walz’s handling of the pandemic has come under fire after Democratic nominee Harris named him her 2024 vice presidential running mate. Critics also point to Walz’s response to the Minneapolis Black Lives Matter riots following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, calling it a failure and the worst moment of his first term as governor.

Walz sent in the National Guard to stop the violence, which included setting fire to a police station. But GOP lawmakers said both the governor and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were slow to act.

“He stood by. He had all the means to end the riots very quickly, but he didn’t want to do it. He stood by. He allowed the arson, the looting, the protests to continue for days, and it was just a terrible thing for this city, and the city still hasn’t recovered.”

Urban said customers were afraid to come to the center, criticizing Walz for allowing rioters and criminals to run wild.

“They were terrified of the crime. A lot of people were getting mugged,” he said. “Their cars were stolen, their cars were broken into, there was no police. You call the police, and if there’s no murder, they might not even respond or (it could) take an hour or two. It was a very disturbing time, and Tim Walz refused to provide any state resources, state police, things that other cities — like Austin, Texas, for example — have gotten some help from the state. Here in Minnesota, Tim Walz has provided no leadership to help Minneapolis.”

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He said he had heard people compare Walz to Gov. Gavin Newsom, a California Democrat, but he disagreed with that simplistic characterization.

“I heard a comment yesterday that Walz is Newsom with less hair and a flannel. The truth is Walz, in my opinion, is more radically left-wing than Gavin Newsom,” Urban said. “In a state of 5 million people, I think it gets lost a little bit, but Tim Walz was an absolute dictator.”

Urban also criticized Walz for comments he made at a rally with Harris on Tuesday about personal liberties.

“In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make. Even if we wouldn’t make that choice ourselves, there’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business,” Walz told the crowd.

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Urban said Walz should follow his own advice.

“The idea of ​​‘mind your own business’ certainly didn’t occur to him,” he said.

Walz’s office did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Chris Pandolfo of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.