Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), former Vice President Harris’s running mate in the 2024 election, said losing the contest was “pure hell.”
Walz joined MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for his first interview since President Trump’s November victory, where he was asked about Trump’s first week in office and the federal funding freeze that has sparked widespread concern.
Asked about what kind of “pushback” Democrats should have in this moment, Walz did not hold back.
“You know, that overused term ‘the frog in the boiling water,’ we’ve been in the damn pot way too long … to the voters, I’m with this too, everybody’s fatigued,” Walz told Maddow. “Trust me, I get it.”
“That was … it was pure hell and the disappointment and the frustration,” he continued. “I’m, you know, soul searching.”
The Minnesota Democrat also reflected on what he, Harris and other Democrats could have done to make their case to the American people ahead of the election.
“We knew this was coming,” he said. “We knew that the implications … and they’re throwing so much at us that we’re fatigued.”
The Democratic governor said he would tell people to stay focused and not “take the bait” on the distractions.
During his first few days in office, Trump issued a flurry of executive orders, including officially recognizing only two genders, revoking federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and banning transgender people from serving in the military.
Concern and shock set in after Trump announced he’d pause the disbursement of federal loans and grants. A federal judge temporarily blocked his plan until Monday evening.
Walz’s advice for Americans is to surround themselves with people who recognize that the things impacted by the federal freeze are “basically a big chunk of what society does.”
“There are societies that function like this, where the rich and the oligarchs do everything, and there’s some fabulously wealthy people who are … above the law and the rest of us are here,” Walz said.
“And I think we have to find that voice,” he continued. “We have to push back.”
