- 7 months ago
In remarks to the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) claimed that President Trump poses an authoritarian threat to the nation.
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00:00Governor Waltz thank you thank you again for being here I guess I would just ask
00:17you where do you see how do you see where we are what do you see about these
00:24what do you think of these events of the last week well good to have you all
00:28here some of you are runners you might know this feeling I mean you know the
00:32day after a marathon you're both feel really great and you're about ready to
00:37die yesterday I spent eight hours in front of the house oversight committee
00:43which needs to be a Netflix series by the way it is the most bizarre group of
00:48folks together in the interaction but the irony of it was and again trying to find
00:55humor in moments of real tragedy is something it was during that hearing
01:01which was supposedly on sanctuary states I was there with Governor Pritzker and
01:05Governor Hochul and they were grilling us because we have committed I guess the
01:12incredible crime of treating people like human beings and that was kind of our
01:17frame and it was during that hearing that I heard about Senator Padilla and so I've
01:23been saying it and I I am not prone to hyperbole I am prone to like popping off a
01:28little bit I know that but you know pretty like you know I got to see the facts I
01:34got to do all this I believed all along we were marching towards authoritarianism
01:39and people were telling me in December you know you're overreacting and I said
01:43the road to authoritarianism is littered with people telling you you're
01:46overreacting and and it has just been the steady state I mean this is so
01:51predictable so I would say I think we're in a dangerous time I think we're we're
01:55seeing it manifest itself the institutions appear to somewhat be
02:01holding certainly not the Congress they are not holding the courts are holding
02:05better than I might have anticipated to be honest with you even being an
02:09optimist and I think as nearest said whether they're elected officials at the
02:14national level or or below that but just regular folks starting to stand up and
02:21make the case and so it's uh I've said this we'll we will get through this we
02:28have to get through this but I think we're kidding ourselves whistling past the
02:31graveyard if we don't think this is going to get worse before it gets better I
02:34hate to say that and some of you heard me say that maybe before I I remain
02:39internal optimist because I've come through the fire of supervising the high school
02:43lunchroom and this one though I'm telling you um we have to buckle up a bit but
02:49look I'm seeing it across the country people are buckling up and uh leaders you
02:53know seeing Governor Newsom stand up is really I think hopeful and you have
02:58experience in the National Guard um a unique set of experiences and I guess I
03:06just ask you what do you think of the National Guard being deployed and then Marines
03:11being deployed in Los Angeles yeah I I don't have expertise in a lot of places I said this
03:16is one I actually do just by life experiences I spent 24 years doing this I as an enlisted
03:22soldier was deployed the National Guard has dual roles their state role and then they
03:27have the federal the governors are in charge of you when they put you into uh title 32 status
03:33and I was been mo I have been mobilized for that for flood duties tornado cleanup uh security issues
03:41and then have been mobilized under title 10 to do missions overseas which uh which is is is a normal
03:48process in this but I also had an experience when I was in Congress I served on the Armed Services
03:53Committee and I was concerned during the the first wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that the National Guard was
03:59being just called up and used you know however with very little coordination to the state when
04:04you take a National Guard unit that means they're not there for the things that you would use them
04:08for at home so you need to think about it and coordinate it and um so as a member of Congress I helped
04:15pass and create what was called the Council of Governors by law and the Council of Governors was
04:2010 governors appointed by the president five Democrats five Republicans who worked with the
04:25Department of Defense who worked with FEMA who worked with the administration to coordinate how our
04:29National Guard interfaced and how emergency services interfaced and then I had no idea when I did that in
04:352014 that I would later become a governor and be the co-chair of the thing that I created and it was
04:43I look like a like a genius but trust me it was not it was not Forrest Gump uh and so I uh so I served in that and
04:53I worked with it under uh you know putting it in when President uh Biden or excuse me President Obama was
05:00there was appointed you know to it uh by President Trump the first time he was president he had me the
05:10co-chair and then President Biden had me stay on his co-chair and then President Trump fired me on January
05:1521st this year but the whole point of that was is understanding how this works and what you're seeing
05:21while they go to historical reference points where LBJ used it in 65 or whatever there's no analogy to
05:29how this is being used here no request locally no coordination locally a federalization of the guard
05:35and the thing is about the guard they are they can be used in the civil inside the states without
05:41violating posse comatitis um but they are not a police force they they need to be accompanied with
05:47law enforcement law enforcement does law enforcement national guard does that and some of them are
05:51helicopter pilots some of them are tankers some of them are supply sergeants they do different jobs
05:56so to expect this you use them in emergencies to expect them to be able to carry this out
06:01is a very dangerous situation for them and and can be for the public if the coordination's not good
06:07so I'll just have to tell you um just a gross overreach and then we you know we can get into it
06:12whatever but the idea of federal troops on there they didn't invoke the insurrection act by the way
06:18um and I I think it's I don't know why they didn't actually by the way uh George Bush in Katrina
06:28used the insurrection act correctly in in Katrina pretends you know it's probably debatable I guess
06:33but to try and in New Orleans and then there was a fear that he was creepingly going to just continue to
06:40use it so there was a pushback in congress and myself and Tom Davis the republican congressman from
06:46Virginia reinstituted that and we put the insurrection act back in and now we're back again so uh it's it's
06:53a dangerous time it's an inappropriate use I saw the courts put a stay on it and then the appeals courts
06:59overturned it um just unprecedented dangerous um according to local officials know best totally unnecessary
07:10other than a provocative move so and what do you think people should do in this moment
07:16people in general yeah the public all of us leaders yeah well I think stay informed I mean the
07:25I'm not telling you anything not life coaching or whatever but the you know don't be doom scrolling
07:32through tick tock or whatever that's not helpful at this point in time although all of mine are about
07:37dogs so it is helpful in that regard so the algorithm's working um I think it's continued to
07:43speak up and and I'm the reason I am so concerned the inability of the legislative branch article one
07:52of the constitution to to take any of their authority and to capitulate is stunning to me why would you get
07:57elected if you didn't do that you could maybe agree and to see this gross overreach what I think was
08:03important was is seeing people speak up and some of you have seen that study that said if three and
08:07a half percent of the population speaks up you'll see change or whatever I could feel it out there
08:12when when you know the past few months I started going to these republican districts after I saw the
08:16republican leader tell them don't go don't don't do these town halls because you would have to defend
08:22cuts to medicare cuts social security and you're going to have these nasty clips that are going to be
08:26out there that offended me on many levels it offended me as a former member of congress because
08:31I stood in those town halls in the summer of 2010 when the ACA was being debated and just got hammered
08:39but I was proud to stand there because I I was going to support the ACA and I voted for it
08:44I think these town halls going into these places engaging people in non-traditional settings
08:50um is the way to do it because look a lot of democrats showed up for that but a lot of
08:55independents showed up in some republicans and and I did a town hall with Beto O'Rourke in Fort
09:00Bend Texas deep red Texas or whatever huge crowd and and some of the people who showed up were
09:06anti-vaxxers and and one guy put out you know his anti-vax stuff I reminded him they had a measles
09:11outbreak we had a little dialogue but afterwards he said well I just wanted to talk to the congressman
09:16about this I'm glad you came to do it he didn't support me he wasn't there for the same thing but
09:21he was there to speak out so I think there is this movement that the public discourse the idea of
09:26free speech the idea of petitioning your government they're trying to basically criminalize that you
09:32know seeing the president say if you come and protest this there'll be bad things happen to you
09:38um so I would I'm encouraging people to to do that to speak out to go into the lane you think
09:44you need to be in and you're speaking at no kings and at no kings event tomorrow I am tomorrow in in
09:49saint paul um do you know how to do it yeah I wanted to say what a no kings event is yeah
09:59yeah I don't you should if if you have nothing else to do for eight hours go watch that hearing yesterday
10:04but somehow this got tied into billionaires in china funding this or whatever I'm like
10:11like these are these are like people in saint paul that just like to kind of do protests and stuff
10:17and that's what they do and they're they're feeling it and they organize it so I think going and making
10:23that case I think it is a good uh it is a good counter because I'm just going to say it as someone who
10:29proud of military service understands the importance of it but understands they serve us um and whenever I
10:36come out here I I take great joy in running my mall route and down around the monuments whatever
10:41and it was horrific down there today I'm just going to tell you just looks wrong feels wrong and so I
10:47think I'm going to go be with a few thousand folks who kind of have the tradition that that there is a
10:53separation there that we don't need this and this is not pyongyang on on a saturday so I'm just going
11:00to confess to it I don't might get me in trouble whatever I have never so hoped for rain in my life
11:06there you go
11:12so governor uh there's a lot of talk I think about you know you you just talked about
11:18medicaid cuts and what's happening in reconciliation and there's a there's been a robust sort of debate
11:24amongst the center left about um you know focusing on democracy and at the expense of focusing on um
11:33impact on real people of tariffs medicaid cuts um cuts to the inflation reduction act how do you see
11:41that debate how what's your how what's your take on what people on the broad center left should be
11:47doing in this moment look I'm on all the above people fill all the lanes the one thing that Donald
11:52Trump can do is he sucks up so much oxygen there's not a single person or event that can get that type
11:59of coverage and and I'm of the belief that we need people out there in all the lanes whether they're
12:04doing new podcasts whether they're doing large rallies like Bernie and AOC whether they're doing town halls
12:10in Wheeling West Virginia you know things that we're all doing I and I'm just going to name this
12:17I don't understand where the calculation yes the economy is horrible and today did you see that this
12:21was amazing and I'm sure that the Trump supporters are are once again going to show the wisdom and the
12:28vision that their president has because he said did you know there are immigrants here undocumented who've
12:36been working really hard on farms and they're and they're doing the work and if and if they don't
12:42do that work it's hurting our farms so he's going to suspend that and and maybe in the hospitality
12:50you know space of this but my take yes we should be talking about that we should be talking that
12:56prices haven't come down we should be talking about the situation in Ukraine was not over on day one and
13:01now we have an expansion that is incredibly dangerous in the middle east because nothing has been
13:06achieved there um but my take on this is how how can we then say well we're focusing on this and
13:15there's basic human rights issues because I've been criticized for for continuing to say we need to
13:21protect the trans community because they're coming for them they're going and it doesn't it doesn't
13:25weaken the argument that the economy's bad so I and look if that's my lane then I think we should fill it
13:33if there's another lane that is pushing back and giving an alternative that should be filled
13:39um and it's one of the reasons why you know that I think every time they do a press conference we need
13:45that press conference and and you know they try and make it all spooky those who know their history
13:50and things the British with you know with the shadow cabinet the shadow government or whatever we need
13:55to be making what the alternative is which which well I think we may get to this all of this is something
14:02but that's all fine and dandy but people voted for that now how do we and what are we not doing why
14:08they didn't vote for us and I would argue that the many weaknesses that Donald Trump has the most glaring
14:15one is is he is incompetent at governing and we have to be competent at governing we have to deliver policies
14:21that improve people's lives in the short run not just the sugar highs of I'm going to deport you know
14:28your neighbor or whatever it is we have to show that look this improved quality of life this gave
14:33made child care more affordable this made your school safer this fixed the roads and bridges and
14:38I'm a big believer that right now it's about competency and compassion being together
14:43everybody needs to fill these lanes with the message and again I don't think we choose between
14:50our core values compassion kindness everybody being included and highlighting that cutting social
14:55security is ridiculous Medicaid's ridiculous here's the outcome great so I'll follow up on that with um
15:01as we think through the path forward uh you just went through a budget uh experience um and past
15:09things that are solving problems you know you touched on this but just to drill down um as you see
15:16you know uh we believe very strongly in opposing what the trump administration is doing but also
15:22building an alternative agenda to give people a choice between two visions of change how do you see
15:28that um given your experience in minnesota just this week and how would you you know people ask you
15:35what we should do going forward what's your answer yeah we passed a budget at 2 a.m on set uh on
15:42tuesday night uh our session ended may 19th our regular session we don't have full-time legislators
15:48our fiscal year budget starts july 1st so we were moving towards shutdown we were moving towards layup
15:54notices when you know you get into this but here's the reason for that and the reason that i'm optimistic and
16:00i think it's a better model minnesota is truly a purple state now i am super proud that we are the
16:07only state since 1972 that have voted for a democratic candidate for president the only one because
16:14where all the rest of you got it wrong we voted for mondayland we voted for monday so but but we're
16:21divided our legislature always hinges on one or two each way as governor since 2019
16:29i have had in those six years four of them split and two of them where we had the majority and i will
16:38go to the split one where we compromise and get a budget done this one we have the most narrowly
16:43divided legislature in the country the house is tied 67 67 and the senate is 34 33 with a one vote dfl
16:51majority in there which means it was 101 to 100 and i lovingly say this because i was a friend
16:57with senator manchin every one of them thought they were joe manchin everything was a veto everything
17:02was shut down if you pass if i don't get a new dairy road in you know dairy barn in this district i'm
17:07shutting you down and so it was super complicated but here's what happened we passed a balanced budget
17:14that left a surplus on we looked over the horizon minnesota budgets in biennium budgets were
17:20constitutionally required to balance the current biennium the next two years but we did the next
17:25two years after that and then we looked out with some of the structural imbalances where there were
17:29cost drivers that were increasing too much we were able to put some curbs on those democrats curbing
17:36government growth in a responsible manner and to do so republicans voted for some tax increases which
17:43i thought hell would freeze over now there were some bad parts of it we had to compromise because
17:48minnesota's a state we were top state for health care mayo clinic top state for getting people out there
17:54we also provide and believe health care is a human right so we provided it to undocumented people
17:59and what ended up happening is the republicans said we will shut the government down and you will not
18:04get a single vote and there is no way you can pass a budget and they were unified i fought with them
18:08for months and months and months and months and at the end of the day i said we have got to leave
18:11children on and any new children coming and we compromise that next year undocumented uh adults
18:19will come on now all as all of you know it's federal law they'll just go to the emergency room
18:22they'll get less care it'll be more expensive it will be you know it's not the right way to go about it
18:28but to get that done we compromised to be able to get that done the good news is we kept things
18:33like paid family medical leave in child tax credit universal meals uh 2040 clean energy we didn't have
18:40to compromise on any of the others uh tough vote angry um had to compromise with republicans because
18:47democratic legislators would not vote for it because of that move and that's that's part of the process
18:52what i believe is though in minnesota people saw competency in government they saw us compromising
18:58without compromising our values and they see things that are improving the economy improving their
19:03lives and making a difference it feels right now there's a hunger while we did go into a special
19:09session for a couple weeks pretty normal four legislative leaders come out there democrats and
19:14republicans praise each other for working together with good you know good intentions passed a good
19:20budget and now for me i don't have to see him again till february next year which is a good thing so
19:25then we go on but i will say this i think it's important for democrats when we did get a one vote majority
19:32you know it flips back and forth when we did get a one vote majority in 2022 in the 23 session we just
19:38basically passed the new deal we did everything we even got rid of our racist flag and created a new
19:43flag we just we just cleared the house and i think that's something that's been missing when we're in
19:48there it doesn't mean we're disrespecting the republicans it means we've been compromising on you and
19:52holding this state back because we compromised we're not going to hold back anymore we're going to pass all
19:56this stuff um because because trust me donald trump has just showing you what happens when they get
20:04full control they'll go as far as they can possibly go i've been arguing we have to go as far as we can
20:09possibly go when we get the chance and we uh let's just talk about some of the things you passed uh in 2022
20:16and then also we're able to hold uh this year as people are thinking about cost of living yes there
20:23are a range of issues that you champion child child care paid parental leave other issues just
20:30give us a sense of that yeah the one i'm most proud of is child tax credit minnesota has always been a
20:35top five state for the lowest childhood uh poverty but you know during covet and the things the biden
20:41administration biden harris administration did was they extended the child tax credit which we saw the
20:46biggest drop in childhood poverty in history happened during those years because we put money back into
20:52people's pockets in minnesota we passed the most expansive one in the country 1750 dollars no limit
20:58on the number of children and we passed it so that you can get it ahead of time you don't have to file
21:03taxes at the end because many of these people don't what we saw that was is about a third reduction in
21:09childhood poverty will probably will have the lowest rate we coupled that with universal breakfast and
21:14lunches at school which by the way after doing that and expanding early childhood education and
21:21scholarships we just saw this year when we announced our graduation numbers the highest graduation rates
21:26we've seen in state history isn't that amazing if kids are stable they have food
21:32and and we're now a top state for business this is where democrats need to we take care of people
21:39but it's okay to take care of people to help grow the economy it's okay for people and businesses to be
21:45successful just pay your taxes pay your fair share and i'm proud of this we keep hearing that well
21:50minnesota is a a high tax state you know what minnesota does rank first in in taxes we are the
21:55most progressive and fairest state which means if you make less than a certain amount of money like
21:59seventy five thousand dollars you will pay less taxes than you would in florida because they just
22:03hide it they tax you for clothes they tax you for everything else it's more expensive so we do have
22:09a progressive tax rate and what that's done is is it's been able to grow the economy and now we're a top 10
22:14state um for business development we're fifth i believe in in fortune 500s per capita that are
22:21there because we've created a headquarters economy that people know guess why people move to places
22:25not because it's 40 below sometimes which it is um they move there because they've got good schools
22:31safe neighborhoods they've got now uh 12 weeks paid family medical leave they've got earned safe and sick
22:37time and we're a state that we set 2040 as a carbon free electricity generating and everybody says
22:44you'll never make it they're right we're not going to make it we're going to make it in 2035
22:48so it moved up now all of a sudden think about that when we talk about clean energy yeah i said the
22:53problem we have with issues like homelessness and clean energy reset and this is good aspirational
23:00goals but no one truly believes we're going to get there now all of a sudden we talk about we're going
23:06to have 100 carbon free energy electricity in minnesota now it's 10 years away where it's
23:14seems reasonable to be able to do that we did the same thing around homelessness we're going to
23:19become i believe the fourth state or fifth state that will totally eliminate veterans homelessness
23:24we're down to 211 veterans i think we know who they are we track them but there's a model there for
23:29all homelessness that the first and foremost is all 211 of those have a name and we know who they are
23:35and they veterans the advantage with veterans homelessness is they come with services they get
23:41health care they have a stipend for housing potentially and all that if you apply that then
23:46to others you start to tackle that issue and uh again we're making none of these things are radical
23:53and it's really interesting to me that the business community is like oh we have a healthy
23:59happy uh well-educated population that that works better okay uh we're going to go to audience
24:06questions in a minute uh i am uh i'm going to ask my last question before we go to the audience just to
24:12reaffirm uh if you have a question and let's really focus on a question uh and it should be brief to get
24:20more people in and you should identify yourself so my last question will be um uh i can't i don't think
24:27we can leave uh this discussion without just asking you broadly about um what happened uh last night uh
24:34very eventful day on money scores but the fact that uh we have israel striking around and uh you know in
24:43uh escalatory i think would be an understatement so what are your thoughts on that yeah um
24:49um deeply concerned i i think we know anything in the middle east and look i i know there's a lot of
24:57folks here and across the country um the situation in gaza is is intolerable and it became a central
25:03focus in the campaign and i would say rightfully so it human rights issues how we're going to uh
25:10how we're going to you know to try and attempt to get a two-state solution where we can allow folks
25:14to live peacefully and coexist and have their own self-control or self-determination
25:19the issue now in the spreading of this and i have to be candid with you i was there during the
25:23debates and i voted for the iran nuclear deal i think it was one of the uh the most well and and
25:29i said in there just to be clear with the russian ambassador with the french ambassador um you know
25:36with our negotiators with everybody who was there to bring about the capacity to stop iran's nuclear
25:41capacity uh but in a way that was not so punitive that we would hamper some of their economic growth
25:48um i i truly worry now i'm you know i'm sure there's great strategic thinkers in the trump
25:55administration that have now have now said how is this going to you know a a tweet from the president
26:02today said i told them i told them they should have done something and now here we are yeah here
26:08we are with the with the middle east back on fire in a way that has now expanded um with i don't iran
26:16has to retaliate in their mind i'm sure and now who is the voice in the world that can negotiate some
26:23type of agreement in this who holds the moral authority who holds the ability to do that because
26:29we are not seen as a neutral actor and we maybe never were i don't want to tell anybody that i think
26:34there's a lot of people say you always lean one way in this but i think there was at least an attempt
26:39to be somewhat of the arbitrator in this we saw president carter do it with with began and sadat we've
26:44had certain wins along the way that were were actually mutually beneficial both ways now i ask who that
26:51is and i mean consistently over and over again we're going to have to face the reality it might be the
26:58chinese and and that goes against everything they say they're trying to do in terms of the
27:04balance of power so i i would just have to say my heart goes out for this ukraine continues to go
27:09on gaza continues to be a humanitarian disaster and now it's expanded even further um well i definitely
27:16rest easy knowing pete hegseth as the secretary of defense so i shouldn't share this you know he's a
27:21minnesotan we just we can't we can't pick the middle prince he's hegseth we get you know all right
27:32questions anyone with questions uh over there again if you'll identify yourself hi my name is rachel
27:40dewitt i work for ocean conservancy um and just wanted to say thank you for always finding common
27:46ground and continuing to speak across the aisle um it's something that our organization does but it's
27:52becoming increasingly difficult um as we watch votes get taken um that are um taking funding away um
28:02undoing the ira that sort of thing um so my question is how do we continue to find that common ground
28:10um how do we continue to have those conversations because i think the ability to make progress is broken
28:17down when that ceases to happen yeah no it's it's a great question and i i considered i my time in
28:24congress i represented a very rural uh district had one other democrats since 1892 and i found myself
28:30being one of the 10 most bipartisan members of congress i had my values but i was trying to make
28:36sure where we found common ground i i do i'm very proud minnesota that through the negotiations behind
28:42closed doors there was a cordialness that i had not experienced for quite a few years and yesterday
28:48there was glimpses of it there was in in the committee i was in which is i said no i said the
28:55one thing that came out of yesterday is i no longer fear going to hell i have seen it i've seen it
29:00that's it that's my personal hell and i'm going to be there but there was there were republican
29:05members that we had worked together there and said i have differences with the governor
29:10governor but i will talk about those behind closed doors rather and i was like
29:15holy smokes it was pretty now the others didn't adhere to that um but i do think we have to model
29:21that and i think it was really important and and i will say very contentious issue this and we were
29:26there on immigration by the way trying to help the very contentious issue on on undocumented health
29:31care which i again think it's a human right i think it makes economic sense as well as moral sense to
29:36deliver it um but the republicans weren't going to get it and the republican leadership
29:42um understood that they weren't going to be able to get the votes but i will say this in minnesota
29:46in minnesota at least several approached it with compassion and i would argue that's why we still
29:52have children staying on it and they conceded that new children could come on which i thought was a big
30:00concession because their whole argument was this is a magnet for illegal immigration why people are
30:05coming here and they left in place that new children could come look if you're crossing out
30:12of gualamuala to save your children you're going to go where you can do the best i don't necessarily
30:17think you're looking and deciding that you know international falls you know minnesota in the winter
30:23because we do this i do think there's an argument to be made that people probably do think about this
30:28places where i'm not going to be demonized and i'm going to be treated like a human being
30:32so i don't totally dismiss this idea but it's not about a magnet it's about making yourself
30:36attractive for folks who want to and our whole argument yesterday was we fully agree with you
30:42that we need immigration enforcement that's why we asked you to pass the bipartisan bill that did it
30:47humanely and created a path towards citizenship instead of going in and taking gardeners off the
30:52streets or raiding and setting at a school we want you because they continue to tell stories
30:57about someone who's undocumented creates a horrific crime i don't think you'll find a single person
31:04in america who thinks that's okay it's horrific the problem is federal government's job is to stop
31:10that not the state's and by giving people things like health care or driver's licenses i never understood
31:16the opposition to this and i'm really proud that like the sheriff's association said oh my god
31:22you got to get people licensed and trained if they're going to be on the road because guess what
31:26they will drive whether they have that license or not and so i think finding the common ground i
31:32think i'm not you know pie in the sky it was a brutal uh just you know debates we had but they were
31:38done with more dignity and collegiality than i would have expected and i think to be candid i think for
31:46republicans very difficult to be partisan right now because they don't fear losing to a democrat they fear
31:52primaries and and i had legislators in minnesota stand up and do the right thing and they may get
31:58primaried for it but it's the right thing great over here right right over here
32:06hi yeah thank you so much for coming my name is annabelle i'm a student at duke university
32:10and i was wondering it feels like in the past decade or two there's been this drift of rural working
32:16class voters kind of drifting away from the democratic party so thinking about 2026 and the
32:22democratic party kind of becoming more of an elite educated yes party how do we kind of attract those
32:28people back yeah well thank you and uh your uh data would support your conclusion and and look i i've
32:36said this i school teacher never planned on running the district i won had one democrat since 1892
32:43very conservative district in 2008 i won that district by over 30 points in 2016 i won it by
32:52less than two but donald trump won it by like 18 i think and there was a there was just this shift
32:58and this drifting away republicans very clearly separated us you know real america versus the big
33:05cities run by liberals it's yeah and then they tell people it's so dangerous there so now you have
33:09folks who are born in cities are afraid to go to small towns small town people are afraid of the
33:14cities and he successfully divided us and i take this especially in you know we call it greater minnesota
33:21rural areas where i grew up i they paint me as elite i grew up in a town of 500 people
33:2724 classmates 12 cousins went to state school and
33:32and i can't they they don't see me they sided with the billionaires which i think is the history's
33:41going to write about this how how middle class and working class folks believe that the problem was
33:47other poorer folks are poorer than them that caused this rather than a massive shift of wealth
33:52unprecedented in human history just simply asking for a fairness that would that would truly benefit
33:58folks we have got to make it clear like when i was growing up you knew this democratic party oh yeah
34:04they're the labor they're the labor folks and the workers republican party they're the country club and
34:09the business owners not a total you know certainly it's a little over generalization but not too bad
34:16now when you ask they asked a woman down in georgia how did you describe the democratic party and she said
34:22deer in the headlights and she's probably not such a bad one so i think for us it's delivering on those
34:28middle class things showing that we can competently and compassionately govern getting results and i
34:33do think there's a little bit of this and i'm taking a little heat over it um i think the republicans
34:39have capitalized and and taken our kindness for weakness and there has to be a little more standing up
34:45that's why i think and it's not like you know their thing i had this like seven foot dude who like a
34:51he's like a retired professional wrestler like challenged me to a fight and i'm like
34:55like no you know but what i mean being tougher is is what we need to do is like you saw governors
35:03pritzker and hochel stand up and say yes we protect those less fortunate in new york and illinois and
35:09we're not going to let you bully them we will stand there that's what i mean i think there needs to be a
35:14more robust democratic party and i don't think always sternly worded letters get it done and so that's why
35:21i'm i'm convinced we got to do a we everybody's got to do what they can do but they've taken this
35:28weird like almost physical strength thing with you know ufc wrestling you know all this kind of stuff
35:34we have to have a robust strength of morals values sticking up to those less fortunate that's why i
35:40think it's a mistake to focus just on economics and allow trans children to get bullied or something
35:45i think they have to go in or we look weak if we don't do it so great question uh we're gonna go
35:52to an online because i do want to say we have uh tons of people online i just i did want to specifically
35:58follow up on this question um because i wanted to kind of delve into one of part of your answer in
36:04which you said you know this is kind of a a crazy con right then um where people have been convinced
36:11and i think i guess one question i have for you is if you step back and look at the policies of the
36:16first five months when you combine the tariffs and the reconciliation package um you know just to
36:25nerd out here uh if you look at the distribution um this is a set of policies that tax working class
36:34people in losing their health care um and uh working class people will bear the burden of the
36:41tariffs disproportionately when costs go up they pay for it and the tax cuts are obviously very skewed to
36:48the wealthy so i also think and all the services shrink yes and you know 16 million people will not
36:55have health insurance that would otherwise have it after this reconciliation package if it passes
37:00so is that a new opportunity for us how do we focus on that how do we make that case of who
37:07we're standing for and who they're standing for yeah you talked about the great con on a local level
37:12you see this especially in small towns the budgets get really tight and they have to make some decisions
37:16and i saw one that they had to decide you know and the people who were elected to this said we're
37:21going to make a tough decision we're going to have to close the municipal swimming pool
37:25you know who doesn't care about that people who have a swimming pool in their backyard
37:28and trying to make that connection so i think we have a problem with this
37:32in that the tendency is to jump to what's wrong with these people they voted against their own
37:37self-interest i approach it as a teacher a little bit when i would teach a lesson and half the class
37:43wouldn't get it i didn't just jump to the conclusion half the class wasn't very smart i assume that they
37:47don't learn the same way maybe they were auditory learners maybe they were kinesthetic or maybe there was
37:51a different intelligence at work and i might have to differentiate how i'm delivering that lesson
37:57i'll make the argument that i think the democrats look for a quick message or whatever to teach to
38:01one group and get it fixed our message has to be more diverse you can't just say they voted against
38:06their own self-interest because they're telling us for some reason something in there motivated them
38:11to do that but i don't think we can let it stand because it's now that is a highly unpopular bill
38:18like in my state i i partnered with the largest hospitals i partnered with advocacy groups i partnered with
38:24aarp i partnered with children's defense you know all of these groups and we went out there and just
38:29laid it out in a non-partisan manner and what came out of that was republican legislators sent a letter
38:37to republicans in congress and said don't vote for this it'll hurt our communities
38:41legislation bill correct yes correct and now all of a sudden you have a change of dynamics where it's
38:46becoming much more personal and now democrats need to seize upon what would we do about that and i think the
38:53immigration debate is a good one on this i i believe we lead with our hearts we lead with compassion
38:59but we let them own that issue and it was fascinating yesterday that i think the three of us the governors
39:04of new york illinois and myself making the case we comply with federal law if if someone is arrested
39:12and convicted their convicted felon before they are released we call dhs that doesn't make us horrible
39:19people that has us following federal law but what we don't do is when someone has not had due process
39:25yet we don't call ice we don't call dhs because they haven't gone through the process yet and if we
39:30do call dhs and they don't come we don't we're not going to hold them forever waiting for you to come
39:37because they've gone through their due process they've served whatever they needed to do in minnesota
39:41and so i think as democrats striking a balance between doing immigration according to the law
39:48and keeping our humanitarian values in place shows that we we we do care because they the whole thing
39:55yesterday was telling these horrific heartbreaking stories about crimes that were committed against
40:01people all of us hate that we need to seize that moment back but then to highlight what donald trump so
40:07eloquently did today and saying some of these people are good people and probably should stay
40:12here and work and we should make them citizens and stuff really we've been saying it but but here's my
40:18thing is he's a master at this that message is going to be well received it's going to be well received
40:26in communities like mine that have a lot of protein plus you know processing plants where we have a lot of
40:31first generation folks working at hormel and jbs and jneo that's going to be well received all the
40:37sudden that you know what he's going to create a path to citizenship he won't do it though by the way
40:43just to be clear he will not do it but the message is out there i'm not losing sleep over donald trump
40:50creating a path to citizenship um but i hear you uh online we have an online question uh there's a
40:57question from uh jonathan online if the president succeeds in cutting research funds as deeply as requested
41:03can the u.s innovation economy survive and recover uh no is the answer on that and i say this i'll be
41:09going to boston on monday where they have the uh the biotech conference many knows uh my competition for
41:16uh biomedical medical alley is between the twin cities mayo clinic medtronic 3m uh eco lab and boston which
41:26boston scientific by the way is in minnesota just so you all know um but that innovation economy is
41:33everything to us medtech we we go and we we do the trade missions and we were in the netherlands a
41:38while back and working with philips and now philips creates a factory in in minnesota and it's the it's
41:44the all of you in this room you know it it's creating that and it was the investments over time
41:49at the core of all that is the university of minnesota and the research dollars and the federal
41:54government 3m you know minnesota mining mature came right i mean that came right out of the university
41:59minnesota as many do and so the attack on higher education the attack on foreign students the attack
42:05on the innovation the attack on that we're very proud we're one of the highest patent areas in the
42:10country and we do that we're not going to do it with white scandinavian people alone we're old and
42:15birth rates are lower we do it by attracting immigrants to the community we do it by attracting
42:20talent globally and what they're doing and then couple that with nih grants going um a place like mayo i
42:28i don't know the exact number but it's hundreds that they have working on the world's greatest
42:33medical institution and while they have resources to do some of it states and mayo alone can't do it
42:39without the federal government and so yes it's going to have catastrophic i don't think i don't see
42:44any way if we close our doors i just saw somebody correct me if i'm wrong on this i just saw that the
42:48entire governing board of fulbright resign is that correct yeah well there you go that'll work out well
42:53so and then the targeting of the universities as well absolutely uh question here and just identify
43:02yourself hi my name is eli goldstein i'm a student at american university here in dc thank you for
43:09coming my question is currently there's a lot of debate about abundance versus popularism uh do we start
43:16cursing do we what do we do to like these all these focus groups on how to talk to people like how how would
43:22you suggest like talking to young people to get them back on the things we saw like a 40 point shift
43:28towards trump harrison you still won by a lot but yeah how do we and just versus the whole how about you
43:35what's your position on all these different strategies that are being focus grouped and all these other
43:40weird strategies that i don't think is going to work but what is your position and do you support the
43:47whole idea that we should start politicians should start cursing and how do we develop that with
43:51with professionalism the politicians should have well it's a great question and um and i didn't take
43:57it personally on the cursing and stuff yeah you know that's the thing about we all know that the catch
44:04word and everybody's been talking about this for a long time authenticity being you know authentic or
44:08whatever uh i don't totally dismiss this idea i think research matters i think understanding where people
44:14coming from but i don't think you're going to find a quick answer in that my son uh who by the way
44:18graduated from high school this last week so we're super happy happy with him he told me said dad a lot
44:25of like especially young minnie said they don't they're not really voting on the policies they're voting
44:31because it's just kind of like fun on the other side and it's like and and i i'm not telling you that we
44:36should turn our politics into a circus but the circus is working a little bit on the other side to a
44:43certain degree we have to have a reason to pull people in we have to have a reason and i think
44:47the argument i've made is what donald trump was so successful as is he understands in a in a more
44:53impersonal society a society that's disconnected more than connected by technology he understood
44:59kind of that sense of being part of something and i i as a high school coach i i didn't care i wanted
45:05him to play football but i also did the plays and we also wanted him to be in concert choir and speech and
45:10debate anything that kept somebody involved in their community high schools are a microcosm of
45:15what our communities and society look like and people want to be something we lost a lot of people
45:19i think a lot of young men in this disconnect or whatever are trying to find a home trump gets this
45:24he provides them a uniform you know red hat stuff flag or whatever provides them some of the talking
45:30points they're on provides them a mission provides them a sense that they're being part of something
45:36and that's why i come back to how do they think that about the democratic party do they feel like
45:40there's a place for that and and so you know my political consultant gus walls tells me uh they're
45:47movable history will show us this though and i think the data shows us this they vote a certain way
45:52a couple times it gets a little harder gets a little harder but his point is is right now you guys have
45:59to be a little something and look i don't i don't believe doing a joe rogan podcast would have won this
46:04election i have said i think you've got to fill every space though i think if you leave the void
46:09they will they will fill it and so um i think my team booked me with theo vaughn this week and so
46:17i'll go talk to him i don't and i don't think you're gonna win it's like going out then it's weird if
46:22you go with them and you start pretending hey you know and you try and understand what gen z language is
46:27or whatever you look stupid and pandering um but i think you go to them and understand what are we
46:33offering you and what i would say the young people here answering questions somebody needs to tell you
46:37this this is the worst time to be your age it was so much more fun at a time before this it was it was
46:43it was less stressful it we weren't super politically engaged in a way that we had to watch the news
46:50every day because every day wasn't a damn crisis and you didn't have to be there and we didn't live
46:56through a pandemic and we didn't get shot in schools and so you're in this mode where it feels like
47:01everybody has a trauma score and everybody's on high anxiety we as democrats have to provide
47:07things different things that make it easier and less stressful and i think that's where you go back
47:12to these policies we have north star promise for all families who make eighty thousand dollars or
47:17less they can go to any school in minnesota tuition free they go free and i've heard families
47:22come up and say my senior year was just so much better i didn't have to pay for food at school my
47:28family had a little more money i know i can go to school next year it's paid for i don't have to
47:31get a student loan it's interesting how all of a sudden now that was so personal and it was so fast
47:37it wasn't generation before i guarantee you in minnesota young people are going to vote dfl because
47:42they know who passed these things and i would argue to you we've got to do that it's going to be different
47:47elsewhere um i just worry though it would be totally understandable if young people became cynical and checked out
47:55because this is a hellscape of politics right now but what i think and this goes back to my my optimism
48:01in this they're not turning away they're super engaged they are connected enough that they want this
48:09crisis lifestyle to end that's what i find so interesting how do you think these people in the
48:14trump orbit live their regular lives is every day like crisis i i people want some stability they want
48:21some predictability they want to know some of you in here know that like the my happy place is
48:27remembering where you wouldn't even hear about the president for like three weeks in a row oh what's
48:34he doing now that's that's i thought that might have been my strongest closing argument during the
48:38campaign if you elect us you won't have to see everybody on tv every damn day and stuff will be done
48:44by professionals who are there because of their expertise not because they can yell at somebody else so
48:50i still think there's an option i think we need to listen to folks um i think we need to give them
48:55a vision of a better future because i'm really worried it i mean imagine someone who was born
49:02i mean this group that's that's 25 or so that that watched their parents go through the you know the
49:07great recession watched the first trump presidency watched covid witnessed you know the murder of george
49:14floyd and you know the rise of of us trying to come to grips with inequities um and then the rise again
49:22of this and then you're watching la you're watching senator padilla you know it
49:29that's that's a lot and i think the rest of us need to figure out a way to give them a better path
49:34forward that you can only watch so many apocalyptic movies and then you want to watch like you know
49:40a dog coming home movie and a happy one i want us to be the dog coming home movie
49:51way back over there yeah what that you're going totally wrong direction
50:01um hi governor walls thank you for being here my name is logan mcdonald i work at cap um and you kind
50:07of touched on it earlier um you have continued to be a thought leader in this discussion post-election
50:13and everything and as someone who works in this space has worked on elections and identifies as queer
50:19really seeing the targeting of the trans community by leaders in our space is so disheartening
50:27yeah they are turning our back on us and the people who uplift them so what is your message to
50:32the us and the party who identify somewhere in the community or our allies and then what is your
50:38message to those leaders who are turning their backs on us yeah and i've said it and gotten trouble
50:43for it that i i said shame on any of us who turn our backs on folks um i think we have to name it and
50:49recognize this might be the most dangerous time especially for the trans community um dangerous in
50:55terms of uh just uh the mental health challenges that are on that we know that we know that the
51:01the suicide rates are much higher but violence amongst and then those who will say you focus
51:09too much on this and look that ad that donald trump did was despicable but i i myself think because the
51:18target group he was going for every football game i watched on sunday afternoon if i could catch one
51:22was on there donald trump's for you they for their them and i i always approach this the basic humanity of
51:30it but i thought i still think the best message on this is the queer and trans community just want
51:37to live their lives and be left alone and it goes back to me not being flippant and saying how difficult
51:42is it just to mind your business they'll mind theirs and that's where we're not in the space where it's
51:49they say don't make it a top priority and i'm like saying well somebody's life's a top priority it
51:54matters to them they're seeing where i think it's ratcheting it back down where we were getting to
51:59that point and the republicans figured out that it was a good attack they brought it back
52:04they they first you know they moved through everything the lgb you know they moved through
52:08that community and then all of a sudden everybody's like well you've seen this you've seen this with
52:13republican legislators well you know my niece is my niece is uh is a lesbian so i'm okay with it now you
52:21it takes me coming into the family well it became more people saw it i think they saw the trans
52:27community because of the you know the smaller number as an opportunity to attack so i think for
52:33us is to first recognize it's a dangerous time i think it's beholden to states that can to create
52:38all the safety net they can both legally policy wise help everything else and i think it's important
52:44for leaders because it has a real effect in their communities to stand up and say something because
52:49i hear that from folks saying look all i need to do is hear that but um they're not going to stop at
52:56it because it still works for them and they they believe it and i don't know i haven't seen the
53:00numbers i just anecdotally on that ad i think it was pretty devastating and and i think it might be
53:05more devastating when you're silent about it silence feels like complicity to me and and i think complicity
53:11we lose the issue and we look weak so continue to speak up know the communities there know that people
53:18see you hear you love you um but a recognition of we understand the stress you're under okay i think
53:24we have time for one last question right here thank you thank you governor thank you miss tendons
53:30sanjeev barry public interest advocate you know it seems that trump and the republicans are really
53:34good at punching down we've been talking about that blaming people without power for perceived
53:38challenges in america what would it mean for democrats to be really good at punching up
53:42yeah that was i'm testing that out i'm testing it out i got to be honest with you of all the weird
53:50things that happened to me was not on my bingo card that i would be in a full-blown feud with the
53:54richest man in the world when and and i'm telling you i'm going to take a little bit of credit for this
54:01that guy's kind of out of sight now a little bit when he was involved in that wisconsin uh supreme
54:07court race i was over there just beating him doing everything i could pushing back saying this
54:12you know using profanity towards him yes i did but but doing what i said and i got a bunch of heat
54:18yesterday because i'm inciting violence because i said we should bully the crap out of donald trump
54:24because as a teacher you talk to children about bullies you tell them why it's wrong or whatever when
54:29it's an adult and someone like donald trump the only thing he knows is the same stuff coming back and i
54:35watched them kind of wilt it wasn't it wasn't just like luck or we're you know trying to just be
54:44flippant i thought instead of making him a scary authoritarian wannabe who is incredibly dangerous
54:51which i believe he is i just thought what a weird dude doing some of this stuff then all of a sudden
54:55people are like yeah that's just strange and that started to move and they got i knew that was working
55:00he gave an interview one time like a 20 minute interview 11 times he told the interviewer why he
55:05wasn't weird and i'm like yes they're going into that so i i think this one of punching back making it look
55:18the guy is a billionaire surrounding himself by billionaire and he went to les mis
55:22he was like come on america come on you kind of feel this uh but that i think pointing at it and
55:31again i think there's a fine line here that i think democrats are in a bit of a bind that we're seen as
55:37the anti-success party that it's somehow not okay to create some personal or generational wealth for
55:44your family we can't be that we just have to be the party that says we're for that but you greedy guys
55:51need to pay your fair share and start pushing back and because they always say oh you're you're
55:56creating class warfare no no you're winning the war you're winning the class war because you have
56:02somehow got us fighting each other while you take all the profits and stand on the edge so we're going
56:08to have to be better at it we have to single them out we have to know why they have these things
56:12and and let's let's be honest um i think musk is the example that it worked um it started to hurt him
56:20personally look of course i want you know i i mentioned about tesla um go back and work tesla
56:26go back and do that don't come and cut my mom's social security don't don't make a child in africa
56:32not be able to get hiv treatments if they need it don't don't do that but i'm all for you doing this
56:38the idea is is you don't get to do both you don't get to gain wealth game the system and hurt people
56:45and i think that was a successful one where it started to hurt financially it started to it started
56:51to make an impact he started to get the blowback and driving the wedge so i think at the end of the
56:57day again you people smarter than me know this this transfer of wealth is really at the key to most of
57:04these problems that has gone on there i think senator sanders has been highlighting that but we have to
57:10bring it down to a level that is makes more sense to people they feel it more and it doesn't feel
57:15like we're against success in general we're just against greedy gaming the system people so excellent
57:22that's a great way to end it's a really great conversation
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