Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a failed vice presidential candidate in last year’s election, blurted out a deflection when pressed on Sunday about President Joe Biden running for re-election until a fumbling debate performance and pressure from within the party pushed him out of the race.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” anchor Jake Tapper asked, “Don’t you think your party needs to acknowledge that President Biden was not up for the job of running for re-election and that this was a major mistake by the —”
Walz interrupted, exclaiming, “He made that decision!”
Tapper: Don’t you think your party needs to take responsibility for running Biden when he was clearly not up for the job?
Walz: We may have made a “mistake,” but let me tell you about Trump. pic.twitter.com/cShWilmbV8
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 6, 2025
Tapper said, “I know.” He went on to explain: “You all went along with the idea that he was up for it. And he wasn’t. And everybody saw it, and the country rejected it.”
A brief pause ensued before Waltz shrugged it off.
“Yea, well, I — look, history will tell us to go back on that. That very well could be the case, Jake. What I’m concerned about is learning from those lessons. I would hope we would never do it again, make a mistake. Make sure we go through and get someone. But I don’t know where it helps us going forward.”
Walz then went on to criticize President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
After the debate, Biden left the 2024 contest amid pressure from allies concerned about his age, mental acuity, and fitness to lead. Vice President Kamala Harris took Biden’s place on the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket, and Walz became her running mate. Together, Harris and Walz lost every battleground state and the election to Trump.
Walz recently made some public appearances in which he said said the Democrats got into a “mess” for not being “bold enough” in explaining and defending their “woke,” immigration, and DEI policies.
Pressed on his critique, Walz defended the party line on immigration as being one for reaching a bipartisan consensus, but he also said the Democrats became overly “timid” and did not “pass things that improved people’s lives” when in power.
Walz later acknowledged, “I don’t know if I’m the best spokesperson to do it after just losing an election.” Walz also said that when he criticizes the Democrats, “I’m criticizing myself. I own this. I’m part of the ticket. And somebody has to come up with a strategy.”