‘I Do Think I Let Her Down’: Tim Walz Concedes He Didn’t Help Kamala Harris In VP Debate

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) said running mate Kamala Harris (D) has “every right to be critical” of his debate performance as the two ran for the highest offices in the land in 2024.

“I do think I let her down on a couple of things,” Walz told minnpost.com. “And, you know, I warned them my ‘Minnesota nice’ thing is, if somebody’s being nice to me, I’ll be nice to them.”

The moderator asked Walz, “Do you think you helped JD Vance (R-OH) win that debate by allowing him to show a more collegial side of himself that just had not been evident to people?”

“Well, I think that did do that,” Walz answered, adding, “You know in the numbers afterward, I  still went up after this.”

Walz continued:

If the vice presidential debate mattered, Dan Quayle (R-IN) never would have been vice president with Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX). But it did matter. It did matter, though. And I think in the moment we were in preparing for that. And quite honestly we didn’t prepare for him to be more cordial. The expectation was for him to do the false attacks and do some of that, but he didn’t. And I’ll give him this, they were well prepared.

But my goal was to find, getting there, and I’m saying, we’re all wanting to fix immigration, but you’re doing the dogs and cats stuff. What we’re doing is fixing the the system, adjudicating asylum claims faster. That was viewed as me trying to find common ground. And the teacher in me — and this is a nervous tick or habit that we have when you’re a teacher — when someone next to you is talking, you instinctively nod and listen. And that was viewed as, and the vice president took it that I was agreeing with things that were personal attacks on her, and it wasn’t that at all. ‘Cause when we’re teachers, we’re like, “That’s very interesting. That’s dumb as hell, but that’s very interesting.” And I was doing that.

Watch the clip above via minnpost.com.