Proud to Be A Democrat

Dave Weigel has a longer interview, at Semafor — mostly, in Semafor style, sneakily questioning whether it wouldn’t be more sensible for us Democrats to just shut up, roll over, enable the GOP. Walz, IMO, is good at rebutting / redirecting these tired tropes:

David Weigel: You told [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom that Senate Democrats should have ‘made Trump justify what he’s doing.’ How could they have made that happen?

Tim Walz: I’ve said this on budgets and stuff. I voted, at times when the Republicans needed another vote on the debt ceiling, to get it done. And I voted with George Bush. But I also think that we have to recognize this is so different. I think, as a governor, seeing the disruptions that it’s causing, seeing the system shut down, we can’t get reimbursement — I understood that the argument was, if we did a shutdown, if we fought Trump that way, it would cause pain to people. The pain is already here.

I will try and cooperate with anybody, but I’m not going to compromise on core values, whether it’s human rights or other things. The first time, with Trump, I tried to cultivate a relationship to a certain degree. He even praised me a few times. My idea was to keep my head down, not draw a contrast to Minnesota, and do the best we could. That’s not going to work this time with this guy. It’s not going to work for anybody. It’s certainly not going to work for Minnesota. So I said, I’ll follow the law, but if he issues unlawful orders, we’re not going to do it.

What did Chuck Schumer not do that a different leader could have done?

All of us on this could have had a clearer vision. We knew this [continuing resolution] was coming. I think there could have been, like — what are states doing? We were prepping for a shutdown, right? My team prepares for a shutdown. How do we hold things down? How do we use rainy day funds? What can we do? I think there could have been those conversations amongst us.

And look, I don’t want to question Sen. Schumer. He’s an expert at this. He’s been there a long time. He also, I think, has great compassion for what would happen with the shutdown. What I would say, if there would have been more communication with all of us: That pain is already in the states, and it’s not going to get any better. And I think the issue is, it muddied the water on who’s to blame for this, and it’s clearly Donald Trump…

One of the premises of this Republican campaign for the [Wisconsin] Supreme Court is that the Trump vote can come out for someone who’s not Trump. Looking ahead: Could JD Vance do it? How much of this Trump coalition do you think he can hold on to?

I don’t know. I think there’s something unique about Trump. Look, the people bought what he was selling. He seems to have a way to do this. He’s entertaining, or whatever. I’m not sure that there’s someone else who does that. Does that somebody else hold his 77 million voters? Probably. Does that person then alienate people, or not do enough, when all those other voters come out to beat him? Because you could easily bury them. I keep telling people, I don’t think you should be hoping that we get a charismatic Barack Obama [to] roll into the scene and get us out of this. I think it’s these things, these town halls, that does it.

And a little affirmation for us jackals!

Walz proposes a "shadow government kind of thing" where "every day there's a press conference opposite of them."

"How, in God's name, Wisconsin, did we let Sean Duffy off the hook for planes crashing?"

— David Weigel (@daveweigel) March 19, 2025