Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) is personally apologizing to CNN reporter Omar Jimenez after he was arrested while covering protests in Minneapolis.
“Thank you for the professionalism, thank you for understanding, and I’m deeply sorry,” Walz said to Jimenez on Wednesday morning.
He continued, “And you can know that we’ve made other mistakes on this as far as making sure that you have access. But protocols and everything else, as we’re learning, have to change because we have to create the space for you to tell the story.”
Watch the video below:
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz apologizes to Omar Jimenez, the CNN reporter arrested on live television during last week's protests. pic.twitter.com/kMtWKc45LN
— The Recount (@therecount) June 3, 2020
Jimenez, who is black and Latino, and his crew were arrested on early Friday morning while covering protests in Minneapolis, as IJR reported.
The arrest was broadcast on live TV.
After the arrest, Walz apologized to CNN’s president and called it “totally unacceptable” and “totally inadvertent.”
He also said he “deeply apologizes for what happened.”
Following his release, Jimenez said, “It did cross my mind that what is really happening here.”
He continued, “The one thing that gave me a little bit of comfort was that it happened on live TV. When you talk within the community about, let’s just say what’s happened with George Floyd, there’s always a discussion that what’s happening isn’t new, it’s being filmed, and that speaks to the power of having something happen on camera.”
Protests sprung up around the country in the wake of George Floyd’s deaths. Floyd, unarmed black man, died after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by placing his knee on Floyd’s neck for several minutes.