Gov. Tim Walz (D.) acknowledged the offer as he announced that he was mobilizing the entire Minnesota National Guard. He did so after several nights of rioting in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody this week in Minneapolis while handcuffed and on video.

Walz downplayed the significance of the Pentagon’s offer to send U.S. armed forces, saying that “this has happened before” where groups from the 82nd Airborne Division and other parts of the Army are put “on readiness.”

“They’re not talking about mobilizing the entire United States Army,” Walz said. “We’re probably talking about in the neighborhood of several hundred” soldiers.