Minnesota Gov. Walz on Biden’s debate performance and Democratic concerns

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• Amna Nawaz:

  For more on President Biden's debate performance and what's at stake this election, we're joined by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. He's a surrogate for the president's campaign.

  Governor, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

• Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN):

  Thanks for having me, Amna. Glad to be back with you.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Let me ask you about some of the reaction to the debate, because former Senator Claire McCaskill, who I know you know and has long been a strong surrogate for President Biden, as have you, said after the debate that the president had one thing to accomplish. That was to go out and to prove to people that he is up to the job at his age. And, in her words, he failed at that last night.

  Do you agree with that assessment?

• Gov. Tim Walz:

  Well, I do agree he had a poor night. I don't think that's for debate.

  But what I do know is that the totality of the president's work, especially at the crisis time coming out of COVID and some of the things, as a governor, we're at the tip of that spear and we see it. So I don't think you judge a person's — their body of their work on one night.

  I have done dozens of these myself. They don't always go the way you want to. I have confidence in the president because he's delivered. And to be very candid, Amna, the thing that I was disappointed last night and quite concerned because of what Donald Trump said.

  He was very articulate in his belief that he should deny women reproductive rights. He was very articulate that he did nothing wrong with January 6. That worries me, because a Trump presidency is something almost unfathomable. And I think, when we saw a poor performance out of the president, that makes that a little bit more of a reality.

  So I certainly won't defend the performance on this, but I will defend the record.

• Amna Nawaz:

  I do want to ask you about former President Trump's performance in more detail, but back to President Biden for just a moment, because in terms of what's at stake, his record is one thing, as you and other of his surrogates have said.

  But when voters are looking at the next four years ahead — and, as you well know, some 44 percent of Democrats have already said they believe he is too old. Doesn't that performance at a debate like last night's, doesn't that matter in proving to people he's up to the job for the next four years?

• Gov. Tim Walz:

  Yes, I think it does. I think now this puts a little more pressure on the president. He's down in North Carolina today. And I think one of the things I'm hearing from folks who are texting me is, why wasn't that guy there last night?

  That's kind of the way things go, that you have the ups and downs. The president made the case. Look, he's not a young man, but he's an honest man, and he works hard for folks. And he's got a team around him that are able to deliver. We're right in the middle of massive flooding out here in Minnesota. And his teams out here. He took time Wednesday. He wasn't preparing for the debate.

  He was calling out here to see how the flood recovery was going. So, yes, I think it's a valid point. I'm not going to gloss over the fact that, look, this was not a great performance, but I'm still seeing the president do this job. I'm still seeing him be responsive to crisis situations and putting out policies that are going to make life better for people, unlike Donald Trump that is horrifyingly misleading last night.

  But more than that is just blatantly cruel in his policies. So we see a Supreme Court decision in Iowa today restricting reproductive rights. Donald Trump wants to expand that even more so. So, yes, it's a concern. But I am still confident in the president's ability, confident in those that are in his administration to move us in a positive direction.

  Look, this is a binary choice, Donald Trump's Mad Max America and one where the wealthy extremists get everything, and the rest of us are left with the scraps. I'm not interested in that. And Joe can get us there.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Well, I know a key part of the Biden mission and Biden campaign mission is to draw that stark contrast, not only between these two men's vision for America, but who they are personally.

  As you noted, last night, former President Trump, he was calmer than usual. He was confident. He did deliver a steady stream of lies and baseless information that went largely unchecked. So, to your mind, for viewers watching last night, do you think that contrast was clear?

• Gov. Tim Walz:

  Well, I hope so. It was terrifying to me. You're right. He was calmer. And I will give him credit. He was articulate and loud and forceful in his declarations that he is going to destroy women's reproductive rights. He was clear that he sees nothing wrong with the attempt he made on our democracy.

  He was clear that he has no intention of doing anything to help public education or working-class people. So, he was articulate last night. He was articulate in a terrifying message that he's going to put in. And I think what most Americans — you never hear Donald Trump talk about them. You hear him talk about himself, how he's been wronged, how — his list of grievances.

  And at the core of this, when we decide in this binary choice, you have a decent man in Joe Biden who at times isn't able to articulate as clearly as he might want to, but has delivered time and time again. They continue to underestimate him. We're seeing the golden age of infrastructure. We're seeing a resurgence of chip manufacturing. We're seeing clean energy jobs and just the things that people are excited about.

  And, look, I know Americans are smart enough to know inflation is a tough one, prices at the stores. But they look around and understand that this is a global issue that Joe Biden has navigated better than any other world leader. And so you see a Donald Trump more than happy to side with Vladimir Putin. Those are going to be decisions that they're going to think about more than just one night in June and a bad debate performance.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Governor, as you know, last night's debate has also sparked discussions on whether or not Mr. Biden should be the nominee moving forward.

  And as you well know, there has been some polling over the last year that's shown there are other Democrats who would perform basically the same as Mr. Biden's polling against Mr. Trump in hypothetical matchups, among them, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Vice President Harris.

  Do you believe there are other Democrats who could defeat Donald Trump?

• Gov. Tim Walz:

  Oh, yes, I think there's a lot of folks who could, just like Joe Biden has defeated him. He's the guy who actually did it. And I think he will do it again.

  Our bench is deep. We are not a — look, we don't all wear red hats and chant in unison. We have a lot of diverse ideas. And these governors — now, look, I'm biased towards governor, as the Democratic Governors Association chair. But we have got leaders across the spectrum. Inside the president's administration, there's fabulous folks.

  And I think the American people understand that this president has delivered. There's a lot of folks supporting him. And we're out here making the case that look we need these policies to make sure in our states that we can deliver.

  So it's a discussion that I'm not really having now. Those names you mentioned, I think one of them will be president in '28 after we get the president over the finish line here, finish out the work that he started and then hand that torch.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Do you believe the President Biden should debate again in September? And will he?

• Gov. Tim Walz:

  Yes, I don't know if it — I will tell you, I told my team I didn't want to debate.

  It's really something when you sit on there. I get in debates with folks about my military service. I do 24 years, they do zero, and somehow they're the ones who are the heroes. And so they're frustrating for candidates. I don't think they're real life. I think they're performative.

  I think way too much emphasis is put on them, because it's the governing, it's the record, and it's the delivering of the things that make a difference. So I'm in no rush to ever do them. They're — in this day and age, you can convey your message in a lot of different ways.

  The debates, I'm not sure, are really that conducive to good governance.

• Amna Nawaz:

  All right, that is Democratic Governor from Minnesota Tim Walz.

  Governor Walz, thank you. Good to speak with you.

• Gov. Tim Walz:

  Thank you.