Tim Walz Fears a Fort Sumter Moment in Minneapolis
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What concerns does Governor Walz express about the current political climate?
I'm Anne Applebaum. Over the past year, as I watched Donald Trump demand unprecedented new powers, I wondered, don't he and his team fear that these same powers could one day be used by a different administration and a different president to achieve very different goals? Well, maybe they are afraid. And maybe that's why they're using their new tools to change our institutions, even to alter the playing field in advance of midterm elections later this year, to make sure their opponents can't win.
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This week, Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor he considers a political enemy. The call was something of a minor concession in a week of minor concessions. The killing of Alex Preddy by federal agents looks like a turning point. Trump started hearing objections from everywhere, including people who normally support him — Republicans, gun rights advocates, celebrities, athletes. So the president made some moves. He ushered Greg Bovino out of Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security said they put the two agents involved in Preti's shooting on administrative leave. And Trump called for a, quote, big investigation into the shooting. I'm Hannah Rosen. This is Radio Atlantic.
In this episode, an interview with Walls.
I was out reporting in and around Minneapolis. And this interview with Governor Walz had been set for 3 o'clock, so make my way over to the Capitol.
Atlantic staff writer Isaac Stanley Becker interviewed the governor on Wednesday to get a sense of whether he thinks the promises Trump is making will make a difference on the ground in Minnesota. Isaac, welcome to the show.
Thanks, Hannah.
So going into this interview with Tim Walz, what was the main thing that you were wondering about?
I think I had some practical questions for him about how much he knew about certain really basic details, or I guess details that one would assume under ordinary circumstances the governor of a state would know, such as what exactly are federal agents doing in his state? How many of them are there? What are they up to? And then also, what are the names and the identities of federal agents who had just killed a resident of his state? And just right off the bat, one of the striking things was that he had little information, and in the second case, no information about these questions. So that was a rather striking finding, and I think... Part of what I then wanted to understand from him related to that is what that's like, what that's like for a governor in this moment to be in that kind of situation.
So you said that Minnesotans don't let their guard down. It seemed for a moment like there was a real risk that things were unraveling in terms of what's unfolded here. Have we kind of gotten past that? Have we moved into a somewhat better place? Or is there still a risk of things really spinning out of control in your mind?
Well, I think that has a lot more to do with how the White House and President Trump responds. Look, I think there's a little downturn here, but I don't think anybody in America thinks this downturn was because Alex was murdered or Renee was murdered or the chaos that's on the streets here, I think it's because there was bad politics for them. And I've talked to the White House, talked to the president, talked to Tom Holman, talked to all kinds of people over the last few days. The interesting thing was the only thing they never talked about, they never mentioned Alex's name. They never mentioned Renee's name. They never asked how the families were. I've been talking to them. They didn't really even ask me how Minnesotans were doing in this.
They said, what can you do to help us? What can you do to cooperate more?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What concerns does Governor Walz express about the current political climate?
0:00–5:34
2
How does Governor Walz describe the impact of federal agents in Minnesota?
5:34–9:41
3
What practical questions does Isaac Stanley-Becker have for Governor Walz?
9:41–15:55
4
What is Governor Walz's perspective on the risks of violence in Minnesota?
15:55–16:34
5
How does Governor Walz view the response of the White House to recent events?
16:34–25:54