Tim Walz Issues Weak, Reluctant Response to Radical Church Disruption

Just over a year ago, Democrats elevated Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as a man suitable to be a single heartbeat—or one reckless act—away from the Oval Office. Today, Walz can barely muster leadership in his own state.

The governor has opted not to seek a third term, as Minnesota remains engulfed in one of the largest welfare fraud scandals in state history. When federal authorities from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice stepped in to do what Walz failed to do—enforce the law, particularly within immigrant communities where the fraud was concentrated—the governor responded not with accountability, but with performative outrage. He lashed out at federal enforcement and amplified activist unrest, cheering on street protests that followed the familiar script of “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests™.”

Yet when radical activists crossed a far more serious line—storming a church service and potentially violating federal civil rights law—Walz suddenly found his voice reduced to near silence.

After being pressed by Fox News, the governor’s office finally produced a response: two short sentences.

For those who missed the episode, a group calling itself the Racial Justice Network forced its way into Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, during Sunday services. Former CNN host Don Lemon not only narrated the incident in real time but confronted church leadership over their views on immigration enforcement.

The motivation for the disruption was reportedly tied to the fact that one of the church’s pastors works with Minnesota’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office:

Lemon asserted—incorrectly—that such behavior is protected by the Constitution, arguing that people have the right to make others uncomfortable anytime and anywhere. That interpretation, however, exists only in Lemon’s imagination.

In reality, this conduct is restricted by numerous state and local laws governing trespass and disorderly conduct on private property. More importantly, it may implicate federal law. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), passed during the Clinton administration and aggressively enforced by Merrick Garland’s DOJ under Joe Biden, extends beyond abortion clinics. It also explicitly protects religious worship.

The statute states: “Whoever… by force or threat of force or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates or interferes with or attempts to injure, intimidate or interfere with any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship … shall be subject to the penalties provided in subsection (b) and the civil remedies provided in subsection (c).”

Under Biden-era enforcement, similar applications of federal law were used to threaten pro-life activists with prison sentences stretching a decade or more. Yet when a church congregation was targeted in what appears to be a clear violation of those same civil rights protections, Minnesota’s governor offered little more than a shrug.

Here is the entirety of Walz’s response, issued Monday afternoon only after Fox News inquired: “The Governor has repeatedly and unequivocally urged protesters to do so peacefully. While people have a right to speak out, he in no way supports interrupting a place of worship.”

Two sentences. That was it.

The claim that Walz has “repeatedly and unequivocally urged protesters to do so peacefully” strains credibility. If anything, his rhetoric has consistently signaled sympathy for escalation rather than restraint—an approach shaped by Democratic orthodoxy and compounded by the unresolved Feeding Our Future scandal involving Somali-run “learning” centers that allegedly funneled billions in taxpayer dollars.

That same climate of permissiveness contributed to escalating confrontations with law enforcement, including the fatal encounter involving Renee Good, who was killed after ignoring ICE commands and attempting to flee with officers in her path. The protests that followed—again encouraged by Walz’s posture—have now culminated in activists disrupting church services for attention and political theater.

The invasion of a place of worship, apparently in defiance of federal law, has become a grim symbol of a radical movement that learned nothing from the chaos of the Summer of Floyd.

Walz’s limp, last-minute response underscores a broader failure of leadership—and raises serious questions about the judgment of Democratic decision-makers who once positioned figures like him as a heartbeat away from presidential power.