Bob Kroll, Paul Gazelka and the Truth

On Monday June 1, an eye opening letter from the union head for the Minneapolis police department Bob Kroll, addressed to his union, came to light.  It's a letter to address the union in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder by Minneapolis police and the rioting in the city in the days afterwards which left Minneapolis looking like a war zone.  The letter is chock full of insanity and I broke it down extensively in the blog post Portraits of Insanity! The Bob Kroll Letter!

I want to focus on three sentences in the 5th paragraph of the letter:

• "I've had numerous conversations with politicians at the state level.  I gave a detailed plan of action including a range of 2000 to 3000 National Guard, their deployment allocations throughout our city and St. Paul, in a phone meeting with Senate majority leader Paul Gazelka.  The Senate was going to try and run the actions that the governor displayed he is clearly incompetent to do."

WOW!  That's a barn burner! It makes the allegation that the head of the Minneapolis Police Union was working with the Minnesota Senate Majority Leader (and maybe the entire Republican majority in the Senate) to...pick your word; undermine, overthrow, usurp Governor Tim Walz's power and install themselves in control of the state, at least during the riots.  It sounds like they were planning on a coup d'état.

Almost immediately Paul Gazelka came out and insisted this was a misunderstanding, that he never was looking to undermine the Governor's power.  He never said Kroll was lying, but he clearly was throwing Kroll under the bus.

The Senator did two interviews I listened too, one on MPR Monday night, with two clips posted on Brian Bakst's Twitter feed (@Stowydad) and another interview with one of the conservative radio stations in town.  He did this interview on Tuesday morning.  I will tell you the name of the station if you ask, but I won't promote the station here.  I've downloaded the hour of the show which features the Gazelka interview.

From Gazelka's own answers, let's assemble a timeline of events:

• Prior to the George Floyd murder, subsequent protests and rioting, the last time Paul Gazelka says he talked to Bob Kroll was in late March/Early April.
• Paul Gazelka admits the first time he as Senate Majority Leader talked to the Governor during this current crisis was in a series of text messages on Thursday night.  This surprised me on two levels.  We had the death on Monday, protestors abused by police on Tuesday, and chaos erupt on Wednesday and the the first time you contacted the Governor was on Thursday night...VIA TEXT?  Okay...
• Gazelka says in these Thursday texts, when asked about why the National Guard had not been deployed, the Governor responded "call Bob Kroll."  He then says he offered to help the Governor get Bob Kroll's contact information so he could communicate with him directly.  The presumption is he contacted Kroll that evening and got the okay to give the Governor the contact info.  It's also not a reach to presume this is where Kroll said he wanted to have an extended conversation with Gazelka, something which took place on Friday morning.  
• On Friday morning Gazelka and Kroll have the conversation which appears to be the conversation mentioned in Kroll's union letter.  During this meeting, Kroll lays out extensive plans to deal with the crisis in Minneapolis.  Gazelka apparently liked a lot of the plans, but reiterated that he never once talked to Kroll about the Senate taking action to usurp the Governor's authority.  Gazelka is insisting Kroll's 'Senate' statement is false.
• Friday afternoon, Gazelka has a press conference, which for some reason he feels is a direct communication with the Governor.  It's not.  It's a press conference, and considering the chaos in the state AND the pandemic, I don't think Governor Tim Walz is stopping everything whenever Paul Gazelka speaks.
• In both interviews, Gazelka admits he liked a lot of Kroll's suggestions and put them forward as actionable items during his press conference.  He insisted he was very clear these were options for the Governor to do, but demanding the Governor do something is very different than giving him options.  Gazelka seemed to be demanding.
• The first time Paul Gazelka actually had a real conversation with Governor Walz was Saturday morning, so for the record the first time he REALLY talked to the Governor was Saturday.
• The last timeline item was Gazelka mentioning he and MN House minority leader Kurt Daudt were both in the 'situation room' on Saturday evening as the Minnesota National Guard started a far more aggressive sweep of the city.

Gazelka went onto say (in both interviews) he never once talked with the commander of the MN National Guard until Saturday night.  And during the MPR interview, where he acquiesced much more than he did on the conservative station, he added it was foolish to think the Senate Majority leader has the power to do anything of that nature, the governor is the Commander and Chief and Gazelka insisted that never thought he was trying to usurp him.

I'm paraphrasing a little bit, but this is basically what happened.  Clearly Gazelka seemed more interested in talking to Bob Kroll directly than to the Governor.  Gazelka definitely liked a lot of Kroll's ideas, even incorporating them extensively into his press conference, and Gazelka is steadfast that he never had any intent of undermining the Governor's power.

That's it!  Case closed...well outside of one little nugget Gazelka himself shared on Friday night.  

Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka himself admitted to trying to undermine the Governor's authority!!!

PRIOR to having a voice conversation with Governor Walz, Gazelka rushed to every media outlet he could late Friday night and early Saturday morning and bragged about calling the White House directly.  Quote: "I said Minnesota needs you.  Our Governor is not able to keep the peace. And we need help before our city burns down."  Full story from the Star Tribune here (but most news outlets have a version of the story, or live coverage from that night featuring Gazelka): https://www.startribune.com/walz-bolsters-guard-troops-after-4th-destructive-night/570882282/

Gazelka himself says he never asked the Governor if he should call the White House, that the only communication during this crisis he had with Governor Walz prior to attempting to call Trump were some text messages on Thursday and a press conference, which once again is NOT direct communication with Governor Walz, but rather Gazelka blabbing into cameras (with no guarantee Governor Walz actually saw the press conference).  It sounds like Gazelka took this action on his own.

Gazelka tried to go over the Governor's head and bring in the Federal government to wrestle control from Walz.  He begged for them to come here, insisted the Governor was failing, and that unless Trump interceded, the city would DIE!!!  Indeed, that does sound like an attempt to overthrown the elected governor of Minnesota.

Let me put out a completely hypothetical scenario:

• Kroll and Gazelka did talk about taking control of the state on Friday morning.  Gazelka might not have have the full Senate on board, but he might have insisted if push came to shove, he could get all the Republican Senators to go along with it.
• Their plan kicked off with the press conference, with Gazelka demanding many of Kroll's ideas to be put into action.
• Kroll and Gazelka knew the Minnesota National Guard would never go along with them (considering they are loyal to Minnesota, and Gov. Walz was a member of the MN National guard for 24 years), so they decide to directly appeal to Trump himself.
• Kroll and Trump are on friendly terms, something we know from the October 2019 rally, so he probably has contacts at the White House which might get Trump on the line with Gazelka.  Kroll needed a high level politician on his side if he had any hope to pulling this off. 
• The idea is simple; get Trump to send in the US military, Trump would tell Walz to step aside, Gazelka would offer himself as an interim leader, and Kroll would take over cracking skulls in Minneapolis.
• Gazelka was not able to talk to Trump directly.  My guess [hypothetical in a hypothetical] is that someone at the White House informed him the only person who can request Federal troops is the Governor himself.
• Gazelka, in a last ditch effort, runs to every media outlet he can late Friday/early Saturday to let everyone know he tried to call in the military, as Walz had failed the state.  By the way, Walz had a press conference very early Saturday morning where he said enough is enough and made the plans to put in the final strategy, which was implemented with success Saturday night
• Finally, after realizing there was no way to go around him, Gazelka conceded on Saturday morning and FINALLY calls Walz directly, telling him he's the one in charge. 

Like I said, a hypothetical; pulling it out of my caboose, but it does explain Kroll's letter comments, and no on can deny Gazelka tried to do an end around on the Governor with Trump on Friday night. 

I'm calling for a full investigation.  We should not take a (potential) attempted overthrow of an elected Governor lightly. 

If my hypothetical scenario is at all true, Kroll and Gazelka are idiots, as neither of them understand the structure of state/federal governmental power, nor do they understand the power of the position they so desperately wanted to occupy. Once again, IF my hypothetical is true.  One thing that is undeniable, neither of them have the intelligence or leadership of Governor Walz.