Tim Walz isn’t laughing.
The former vice presidential candidate and current governor of Minnesota stopped by CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, taking a moment to criticize former running mate Kamala Harris over comments she made last week.
Speaking at the Leading Women Defined Summit in California on Thursday, Harris played the role of an in-the-know adviser whose advice wasn’t heeded.
“There were many things that we knew would happen. I’m not here to say ‘I told you so,‘” the former vice president said. “I swore I wasn’t going to say that!”
Speaking to Jake Tapper, Walz let loose on the former vice president. He noted that she was the face of the Democratic Party’s massive loss, saying she should own up to the result.
“When I criticize, I’m criticizing myself,” Walz said. “I own this. I’m part of the ticket, and somebody has to come up with a strategy.”
Tapper said that Harris’ warnings were not “compelling enough to win,” a sentiment that earned agreement from Walz.
Walz said that Democrats shouldn’t be in the business of barbs and snark for the next four years. He called on the party to do some soul-searching and figure out why their message wasn’t resonating with voters.
“I do think the challenge for Democrats—and this is, I think, a structural problem that’s going to take a lot more thinking—why, with all of that out there, did they not think we were any better than that?” Walz said. “And I’m very concerned with the folks who stayed home, and these are folks that I’ll say once again—Donald Trump has identified their angst.”
Walz said that the president has captured a group of voters whose “economic future is so precarious it could slip out from under them” and charged the party with crafting a message that grabs those people.
“It should have been a slam dunk,” Walz shared. “We’re the party that’s going to protect Social Security and Medicare…We didn’t do that. So, I’m concerned.”
Walz’s solution seems to be a digestible message and a defined identity for Democrats.
“When I was young, it was easy to know what a Democrat was. They stood with the working class and labor. Republicans were…for the rich,” he said. “Today, you ask people, they don’t [know].”
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