Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz revealed he warned Vice President Kamala Harris that he “can be a train wreck” with how he talks in a recent interview.
Walz, who has been holding rallies across Republican districts nationwide, spoke to New York Magazine’s Intelligencer on Monday about what he’s learned since the 2024 election. Overall, he felt Harris and the campaign weren’t “bold” enough and likely too cautious during the election because of the limited amount of time.
He used himself as an example by explaining how he warned Harris about his own shortcomings ahead of campaigning.
“I think we’re cautious by nature,” Walz said. “And look, I said this, and I told the vice president, I said I know my strengths and weaknesses. I said about 90 percent of the time, I can be really good, but about 10 percent of the time, I can be a train wreck because I’m speaking from the heart, like a teacher sitting in a teachers’ lounge or a laborer sitting at the break table.”
TIM WALZ BLAMES HIMSELF AND HARRIS FOR AMERICA’S ‘MESS’ UNDER TRUMP, TELLS MSNBC, ‘I OWN THIS’
He lamented, “I thought they would choose the district attorney and the teacher over the hedge-fund manager and the billionaire.”
Walz came under fire during the election for several false and misleading statements about his military experience as well as several gaffes along the campaign trail.
Within the interview itself, Intelligencer politics reporter Daniel Strauss had to issue a correction to one of Walz’s comments after he appeared to claim President Donald Trump advocated for “terrorists.”
“Critics keep saying, ‘Well, you’ve got to message better to them.’ Well, I’m not going to demonize immigrants, and I’m not going to advocate for terrorists [after the interview, a spokesman said Walz was referring to defending Vladimir Putin and foreign dictators], and I’m not going to do a White-power thing. I’m not going to get rid of saying, ‘Our diversity is our strength,’” the transcript read.
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As recently as March, Walz made what many considered another blunder when he mocked Elon Musk for Tesla’s stock value dropping despite more than one million Minnesotans owning Tesla shares in their retirement funds.
“Some of you know this. On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day — $225 and dropping,” Walz said at a Wisconsin town hall. “And if you own one, we’re not blaming you. You can take dental floss and pull the Tesla thing off.”
Walz later clarified that he was only being a “smarta–.”
