Tim Walz Speaks in Michigan

Wow. Well, hello, Michigan. It is good to be here. And can we all agree our future’s pretty … Backstage, I was just getting introduced to Mariah, and she said, “Kamala Harris is going to change the world.” That inspiration in our young people, who we know are our future, is something else. So, Mariah, thank you for all you do.

(00:41)
Beautiful lakes, blue whales, all the things in Michigan. It’s not as if you don’t have it all, and then you have Gretchen Whitmer on top of this. She is such a dear friend, but I’ll tell you, she is so good at what she does. She has convinced my son. He’s a Michigan State fan now.

Go Greens.

It’s terrible politics for me, but he is true blue, or he is true green over there. Look, we’ve got an incredible delegation and we know some of these races are going to be close, but… thank you… thank you all. You chose to be here… so, thank you… my fellow cat owner, Taylor Swift… couldn’t be more excited to have her support. Really grateful. Look, it’s not as if I didn’t warn these guys a few months ago. You mess with cat people, and you will find out. Beautiful strategy there, picking on the cat people. But all of you are here today. How can we not start with the debate? How can we not start with the debate?

(03:03)
Look, what was so clear about it was… and again, not surprising, but there was one person on that stage who should be the next president of the United States. She commanded the room. I know all of us are incredibly proud of Vice President Harris, but let’s be very clear. None of us were surprised at what happened the other night. None of us were surprised. No one has come with more experience for this job than she has, and no one has done more damage than Donald Trump has-

That’s right.

… so we [inaudible 00:03:39]… and then from the get go, she had the upper hand. Walking in there, giving the handshake. Look, it says something about character. We talk about this often. Shake hands. And when you lose, which he did last time and which he will again, you shake hands [inaudible 00:03:58]. So I got asked right after the debate, “Do you think we should do another one?” And I said, “Hell, every day we should do another one.” Well, it’s not going to happen, because Donald Trump confirmed today, he’s not doing another one.

Boo.

You have to give him a little credit. That one left a mark. That one left a mark. Look, who he was on full display the other night. His true colors were out there.

That’s right.

Not just his make-up. I heard somebody say, “If you want to know in a debate who’s winning [inaudible 00:04:42], turn the sound down.” And you would have sworn, that was a nearly 80-year-old man shaking his fist at clouds. For what? This guy has spent his entire life focused on himself, obsessed with the past, and the thing that is unforgivable, rooting against America and America’s people which he has done [inaudible 00:05:10].

Boo. Lock him up.

He’s done a lot of weird stuff too, so I’m just going to say that. And you tell me if you had this on your bingo card: “And they’re eating cats.”

They’re not eating cats. They’re not eating cats. They’re not eating cats.

Aw, Michigan, we love you. It would be funnier too, if it wasn’t so dangerous, but I want to be clear about this guy. Last week, he did one of these fake town halls where he gets one of the Fox News people to ask him questions that he knows, and then he answers on them. But what was so fascinating about that was, in that amount of time that he was there… And you should go see this. It’s really something to see. In that little interview he did, 11 times he reassured the people there that he was not weird.

He is weird.

Yes, some of us picked up on this. If you need to remind people 11 times that you’re not weird, you might be weird.

You might be weird.

But it’s what he didn’t say that was probably the most disturbing of the night. Trump refused to say that he wants the brave fighters in Ukraine to win the war [inaudible 00:06:33].

Boo.

That’s a pretty low bar. That’s a pretty low bar when you’ve got to ask that question. The other thing he refused to say was he refused to say he would veto a national worship [inaudible 00:06:47]. We know why he refused to say it, because we know exactly what he would do. Look, they don’t trust women, and women don’t trust them. That’s what I say. But [inaudible 00:07:04] that old saying about the frog in the boiling water or whatever, don’t allow ourselves to get this way. The most damaging thing that wouldn’t say is he refused to acknowledge he lost the last election.

Boo.

He refused to condemn the January 6th criminals who attacked the US Capitol.

Boo.

But in the anger that he got into as the poise and dignity and the sharp retorts from Vice President Harris, he lost some of that composure in there. And when he was referring to the rioters… And go back and make sure, you’ll this again I’m sure. He said, “We did nothing wrong.”

Right.

(07:53)
Boo.

He didn’t say “they”. He said “we”.

Lock him up.

And then [inaudible 00:08:16] and then at the end of this thing, you watch 90 minutes…

Lock him up. Lock him up. Lock him up.

You watch… Beat him at the ballot box. Beat him at the ballot box.

Beat him at the ballot box.

[inaudible 00:08:17] but he didn’t [inaudible 00:08:17], and this is the difference. And look, there’s a lot of reasons… My god, too many to list in the time here, a lot of reasons this guy shouldn’t get anywhere near the White House again. But we have a responsibility again to tell people what the alternative is, because what he did not do, he did not say one thing what he would do to make life better for the American people. Not once.

(08:45)
Remember, after he came down his golden escalator, he said, “This would be easy. This would be easy. I would have a healthcare plan on day one.” That was nine years ago. But look, it’s progress apparently. He has the concepts of a plan. I taught high school for 20 years. Every one of my kids, every one, every one my kids had a better excuse for not doing their work than that. They never told you they had a concept of a plan.

(09:25)
Look, on every single issue, Vice President Harris is standing on those issues with you and your family. It is clear, Donald Trump has no plan for you. His agenda, his agenda is about him. And the thing is, I will say this, while he didn’t articulate it the other night, they made it easy for us to know what they’re going to do, because they wrote it in a 900-page document called Project 2025.

Boo.

I keep asking this, “Who is asking for that agenda?”

… who is asking for that agenda? Who is asking except folks that want to take control over your bodies? That’s the only people asking for it. No one’s sitting around asking to give billionaires tax cuts. Nobody’s sitting around asking, said, “Let’s make insulin more expensive.” And they keep telling us [inaudible 00:10:20] this, nobody’s sitting around the bars in Grand Rapids saying, “You know the first thing we need to do, is we need to ban George Orwell’s books.” No one’s saying that. No one’s saying that. They find a lot of time to talk about banning books, but they can’t find one damn way to get weapons of war out of our streets.

(10:38)
But look, what I was most proud of [inaudible 00:10:49], while Donald Trump spent the entire time whining about himself, talking about his problems, Kamala Harris spent her time talking about you and the way forward. This guy is stuck in the past. She’s focused on the future of this country, the bright future that each and every one of us get to partake in. So look, she took him to task. We can’t say this enough, she prosecuted the case against him.

(11:23)
But why I am so proud to be proud of this ticket, I’m so proud to be in a room like this, under a [inaudible 00:11:35] by the way, on Thursday night, thinking about the direction of our country, what I am most proud of is because of all the things Donald Trump has stolen and all the things he did, what is unforgivable is him stealing our joy. So here’s the thing, Kamala Harris is bringing not only solutions that focus on you, she’s doing it with a smile and joy on her face.

(12:16)
This guy [inaudible 00:12:17] make no mistake, it’s on hers. He broke our political system. He tried to break our faith in one another. He tried [inaudible 00:12:25] the thing that makes Midwesterners stick together. We’re positive people. For God’s sake, we walk on water half the year. It’s cold as hell half the year. We don’t care. We dig our neighbors out. This guy is trying to tell you your neighbor’s the enemy. This guy’s trying to tell you that he knows best about what folks in Grand Rapids think. Well, trust me, nothing could be further from the truth.

(12:51)
So here’s the deal. We’re nice folks. We’ll dig you out of a snowstorm. We’ll say hi to you in the store. Some of us might even let you merge on the highway. We have a saying that’s “Minnesota nice” is what we call it. I’m sure you have it too. But the one thing I’ll tell you about Midwesterners that stretches across that beautiful Blue Wall of northern America here, the one thing about us is, don’t ever mistake our kindness for weakness.

(13:40)
[inaudible 00:13:41] it made me an eternal optimist, but it also made me understand, I supervised the lunchroom for most of those years, and we can have joy and we can do things and we can be nice. But I’ll tell you the one thing we’re not going to do, we are not going to tolerate a bully, in the future [inaudible 00:13:53].

(13:52)
And again, I’m going to go back to this, Kamala Harris has a lot of practice on putting bullies in their place. And the one thing I want to be clear about is, coming back to, no one should’ve been surprised by how she performed on that debate stage. From her time as a prosecutor to her time as a county attorney to her time as the attorney general for the largest state in the nation to her time as a United States senator to her time as our vice president, every single day putting the American people first.

(14:33)
She took on the predators. She took on the fraudsters. She took down career criminals and powerful corporate interests. Which, by the way, was on the stage the other night, all those things. So this time, just to be clear, that criminal being on the stage got put in his place. All those things [inaudible 00:14:59]. And I think many of you recognized she used her wonderful mind. He’s not dealing with that very well. He’s not dealing with that very well.

(15:07)
But here’s what she did simultaneously, and this is what truly you should focus on, and she says this time and time again and I love it: A mark of true leadership is not who beats people down, it’s who lifts people up. So when it’s a bully and there’s a time, she proved she can beat some people down if they need it. But for the American people, she laid out a plan for an opportunity economy. A place that’s not just a concept. Go to KamalaHarris.com and you can see what’s laid out there. Read it. Tell your friends. Send it to your relative that you dread in seeing.

(15:51)
Because you know what, they watched that the other day and I don’t hear them out there much. I don’t see them out there much. Because they’re good people. They’re our neighbors. They’re like, “Hm, that didn’t look very presidential.” Screaming about eating cats is not a solution. But what Kamala Harris was talking about is things [inaudible 00:16:14]. They might not be sitting down at the bar talking about banning books, but they might be down there talking about, “How can I afford a house? I’m working hard. I’m working hard. I want to have a house.” I mean, because a house becomes a home. Some of these folks, real estate mogul, venture capitalist, whatever, that’s just an asset to be traded and sold to whoever you want. For us, it’s a place to gather around the kitchen table to talk to our kids about what happened in school. That’s what Kamala Harris wants for you.

(16:51)
She knows that folks are being squeezed on grocery prices, but let’s all be very clear here, folks, you know this in Michigan, I’m a Minnesota guy, most of us who’ve been on farms, farmers are getting 3.90 for a bushel of corn and barely 10 bucks for soy beans. They’re not getting rich. Somebody in the middle is taking a cut, but not growing the corn, not processing the corn, not doing anything. She’s talking about price gouging. It’s illegal in 37 states already, should be illegal across the country. And this-

(17:25)
It’s absolute disgrace that folks have to ration their drug because they can’t afford them. Because, trust me, Big Pharma’s doing just fine. We need to make sure that folks get their insulin at a price of $35 [inaudible 00:17:39].

(17:39)
And you know what’s really interesting, [inaudible 00:17:49] proved it, you can see this. We did it in Minnesota. Kamala Harris wants it for the country. You take care of workers, you make sure folks can unionize, [inaudible 00:17:58]. You know what happens when you do that? The economy grows and businesses soar. She wants to make-

(17:57)
… small business, cut the red tape, give you tax cut and let you start that dream [inaudible 00:18:22]. And I’m going back, we did it in Michigan, we did it in Minnesota, she-

(18:30)
… everywhere is. We also made it against the law in Minnesota [inaudible 00:18:51] If you’re a factory worker, Kamala Harris is going to keep creating tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs right here in Michigan. And by the way, well, the Trump administration-

(19:09)
… six times more manufacturing-

(19:09)
… the hardest thing-

(19:09)
[inaudible 00:19:59] you have the freedom to make the choices about your life and your family.

… have the freedom to make the choices about your life and your family, not government.

(20:06)
… we respect our neighbors for their personal choices. We might not make them. We might not make the same choice, but we respect them. That’s for you to make, for me to make. In Minnesota, I’ve talked about this and I think this is a national golden rule because I’ve talked about it, you know how society works best, is when you mind your own damn business things work better. Things work better.

(20:43)
So we’ll continue to talk about freedom, that people make their healthcare decisions, not politicians. We mean freedom is to get a good education for a better job and a better future, not crippling student loan debt for the rest of your damn life. And they don’t want to talk about it, they want to avoid it, freedom means our kids being able to go to school without getting shot dead in the halls.

(21:18)
You know it here. Oxford High School, Michigan State, we saw it in Georgia last week. Look, I’m a teacher, I’m a parent. This is the best time of year. Leaves are changing. Friday night football’s back. Our kids have a new start and they’re going in. It’s a time of excitement and hope, everything we want. That’s what we want for our kids. But too many of our kids, these first days of school are a time of sheer terror. A time that is going to stick with them forever.

(22:08)
So let’s be clear, I know guns. You know guns. I’m a veteran. I’m a hunter. Kamala Harris is a gun owner, by the way, which you found out. So look, I’m not going to take any crap about them, about the Second Amendment. We support the Second Amendment. But our first responsibility is keeping our children safe, and you can have both of them.

(22:46)
Watch how quickly they move on and they don’t remember names. Well, they remember names in certain incidents when they want to try to politicize things. But they don’t remember the names of the innocents who died. And Donald Trump actually said, when he got asked about this, he got irritated. He said, “Look, people just need to get over it.” And his running mate, Senator Vance, last week said, “Look, just a fact of life.”

(23:13)
Think about that. Now, families forever broken. Too many of us have been there. My own son was in a location where someone was shot in the head. Too many of us have this. You see it. These guys say it’s a fact of life and get over it. Move on. Do the next thing. Work on the next tax cut for billionaires, or whatever important stuff is. How morally broken do you have to be to not be able to spend any time internalizing children and teachers being gunned down in the first weeks of school? In their cafeterias, in their labs texting their parents goodbye as they’re standing there, hiding under desks, running for their lives, and to say, “Well, it happens.” For all of us, that crap does not happen in other places in the world. We are better than that. I believe in the American people. We can hold two thoughts at the same time and make sure that we say what Vice President Harris said last week, “It doesn’t have to be this way.” It doesn’t have to be this way.

(24:19)
Look, Michigan, you know it and I know it, we cannot have four more years of that nearly 80-year-old man yelling at people to get off his yard, screaming about cats and looking at for himself. We cannot go back because when he goes back this time, the one thing I do believe, I do-

(24:28)
… it’ll be much, much worse. They want to-

(24:28)
… anything about this or whatever. Here’s what I know enough about is, as a longtime football coach, you take the time to draw up a playbook, you plan on running it. And he’s going to use it. He’s going to use it. They’re telling us exactly what they’re going to do-

(25:13)
… he was-

(25:13)
… and things that we know we need-

(25:13)
… sales tax to all of us. You know what I figure? Look, who can blame him, he’s looking out for himself. And he says this, he tells you, “Oh-”

(25:13)
… and you know-

(25:13)
… Donald Trump’s plan is to remove those people and install his political lackeys. That’s what Project 2025’s going to do. So in a health emergency, like in Minnesota, instead of being able to depend on the CDC and people from the Mayo Clinic, we can listen to Donald Trump about drinking bleach and trying to find a way to stick a UV light in ourselves. We’re in the middle of a pandemic with our neighbors dying and this guy is undermining the responses. Take that across all of government, that’s Project 2025.

(27:40)
So look, again, wouldn’t answer the question on banning abortion. He will ban abortion across this country, whether Congress is there or not. Be absolutely clear about it. And when asked, who do you admire, who respects you? Because to be very clear, the Vice President was right. I’ve traveled to our friends and our allied countries, whether it’s Australia, whether it’s Great Britain, whether it’s France, whether it’s Canada, whether it’s Mexico. They’re laughing at this guy. They don’t trust him. He’s weak. He’s weak and can’t follow through. But when he was asked who looks up to him, Victor Orban, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-Un. This stuff would be unbelievable to have as a political attack ad if it hadn’t come out of his mouth on a debate stage and he was proud of it. He was proud of it.

(28:37)
Kamala Harris was able to, within a matter of a few seconds, use this guy’s inflated ego and narcissism to bait him into melting down on a national stage in front of 60 million. You don’t think Vladimir Putin could do that? You don’t think Xi Jinping could do that? You don’t think that folks who are looking to flatter this guy as he shakes down our allies likes it’s some kind of racket operation, rather than standing with our allies?

(29:17)
I had the opportunity in June to be at the 80th commemoration of D-Day, and driving down those small French roads to the Normandy beaches were French flags, American flags, British flags, Canadian flags. Free people standing together in the defense of democracy. Donald Trump knows nothing about it. It’s why he would turn his back and tell Vladimir Putin, “Do whatever the hell you want in Ukraine.”

(29:38)
You think they’re stopping in Ukraine? You think he’s stopping in Ukraine? You think China’s not watching, when they watch this? Of course they are. That’s why we need the strong leadership that was displayed

… displayed by Kamala Harris to make sure that we put dictators in their place and this country stays firm.

(30:12)
Look, our allies are worried, but they’re also hopeful just like you. They’ve seen the leaders stride onto that stage, so they would maybe say, “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” but just like you’re doing it, we’re channeling it into joy and action. We’re making sure that we have that rare chance in this election to turn the page on this guy, to end it once and for all. So look, we can choose a new generation of leadership, a positive, joyful, all-encompassing future that this great nation had been founded on. We can do that.

USA, USA, USA, USA.

And what is so beautiful about that and about Kamala Harris, we were on the bus touring some of these states and we were getting off at a rally where there was supporters there, like this, and they were holding up signs. On the other side of the street, they were not supporters. They make it easy because they all wear the same hat. A group of independent [inaudible 00:31:21].

(31:11)
No, but that’s me. Kamala Harris’ first instinct was, and this is the first time we were on a bus together, my wife Gwen, Vice President and Doug were there. Doug and Gwen, I want to give them a big round of applause.

(31:11)
We’re walking off this bus and that’s the scene in front of us and she turns to me and she said, “Tim, don’t ever forget.” [inaudible 00:32:04].

(31:11)
Can you imagine Donald Trump saying we’re going to look out for those folks? [inaudible 00:32:09]. Because this [inaudible 00:32:15].

(31:11)
… we get the opportunity to decide in 54 days, what type of country [inaudible 00:33:55].

(33:55)
… I’m here and don’t ever close that yearbook. I was looking, when I came in, the first thing I do is read the local paper and catch up on things and I saw this [inaudible 00:34:12] guy wins 14-12 last week. Big game here. And then I look up because this gives me an opportunity to say it as being part of a state championship team, Forest Hill Central is playing [inaudible 00:34:25].

(34:29)
I got to tell you, the people who kind of dismisses whatever, look, life isn’t about hoping you win. Life isn’t about I wish this would happen. It’s great to have aspirations, you have to, but how you get things done is you have a plan and you execute it. The plan to win this thing is, is we’ve got the best candidate that we could ever have in Kamala Harris.

(35:04)
We’ve got that desire to win. But I said this as football team. There’s not a football team in the state that doesn’t want to win the state championship, and every year they start out thinking that, the difference is who gets it done. And it takes a lot of things to get it done. It takes a team to get it done. We need to lift up for her right now and get this thing done. So look…

(35:25)
I know, I know. My God, you came on a Thursday to listen to a guy from Minnesota while you stood under a whale way in the back of the room. Again, because you love the country, because you know you’re part of this. It’s not hyperbole. The presidency of the United States and the future of our democracy could very well go right through this room in Grand Rapids. That’s how important Michigan is.

(35:56)
So look around. Let’s commit to get this thing done. Let’s bring one more person in. Let’s do one more volunteer shift. Let’s make one more phone call. People are picking up the phone now. I’m going into these offices. They want to talk about it because once again, our politics is fun and hopeful and gives us something to work for. So for each of us, don’t buy it that she won because she won the debate. [inaudible 00:36:32], if these elections were about having the best ideas and the best candidates, we’d win every damn race. We all [inaudible 00:36:41] this, but that’s not what wins races. What wins races is people who care enough to get on the ground to get the work done and take that debate performance, take those resources that have been out there, take that energy and funnel it down into voter contact. Get out the vote efforts and ballots. And ballots.

(37:06)
Well, I’ll tell you what. Last time I was in Michigan, we were in Detroit and there was a massive crowd in the hangar and Donald Trump said, “Oh, no, that was just AI.” I’m sure he’ll say the same about this. AI whale. Okay, I’m obsessed with the whale. I love it.

(37:25)
But look, what I say is, let him say it. Let him try and tell that. We’ve got 32 field officers over here and tens of thousands of volunteers out working. We’re doing the work.