Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee for vice president last year, has voluntarily taken the rap for the “mess” the country is in.
During a discussion about President Donald Trump’s tit-for-tat trade war with Canada on MSNBC’s All In on Wednesday, he said if he and White House hopeful Kamala Harris were able to get their campaign over the line the U.S. wouldn’t be in such economic disarray.
Walz took shots at Trump, calling him “the worst possible business executive that I have ever witnessed,” and urged the business community “to speak up.”
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Adding that the current trade war is “stupid,” Walz then took responsibility. “And look, I own this,” he told host Chris Hayes. “We wouldn’t be in this mess if we had won the election, and we didn’t. We have to make sure that Americans know it’s not just that Donald Trump is bad, but we’re offering them something better, and I think that’s what we need to work on.”
Hayes urged Walz to expand on his mea culpa, asking the governor if it was fair to characterize his party’s campaign as “safe” and “risk-averse.”
“Look, I’m conservative,” he responded, agreeing to the depiction of the Dems. “I believe that systems work for a long time, that you don’t have to break them. Are there improvements that need to be done? Yes, and I think we’re guilty of sometimes of not acting. Could the Department of Education be more efficient? Absolutely.”
It should not however, he suggested, be nixed completely. “To get rid of it makes no sense,” he said, referencing the Department of Government Efficiency having the agency in its sights.
“My point on this, and I’m probably the last person to give advice because we didn’t get it done, [is] I just think Donald Trump floods the zone with this. And I think, Chris, if you go ask the average American ‘what does the Department of Education do?’ They might not have a clear vision of it.”
“So,” he continued, “When Trump says ‘its a bunch of bureaucrats interfering with your local schools, give local control, we’ll give you the money,’ it sounds pretty good. And we have not provided what that alternative looks like.”
He said he thinks there’s “a place for disruptors” who “shake up” systems, but added that he cannot see the end goal of the tariff war, or the potential scrubbing of government agencies, like the Department of Education.
“There’s a vacuum for us [the Democrats] to fill, we should get out there and fill it! talk about what we’re going to do,” he said.
Walz had earlier thanked the The Wall Street Journal for its coverage of the economic state of play, and called out MAGA figures like Elon Musk and Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville for suggesting Americans will have to suffer.
“The Wall Street Journal, thank you. Thank you for saying this is the stupidest trade war because I’ve been saying it, and so now I can go back to my constituents, Republican constituents, and say this is the reality of what you’re facing," he said.
“So again, there is going to be pain. The richness of a sitting senator like Tommy Tuberville or Elon Musk telling us we’re going to have to endure pain. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? I think Americans have had it, I hope they’ve had it, and now we just need to do what we can do to make the case.”
He previously told Politico that his campaign, led by Kamala Harris, was overly cautious and should have taken more risks. “In football parlance, we were in a prevent defense to not lose when we never had anything to lose because I don’t think we were ever ahead,” Walz said.
