Tim Walz Straight Up Suggests China Has More ‘Moral Authority’ to Negotiate Peace Than the U.S.

Neera Tanden, the president of Democratic-aligned think tank the Center for American Progress, spoke with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) at an event on Friday and asked the 2024 vice presidential candidate to weigh in on Israel’s attack on Iranian nuclear sites the night before.

“I don’t think we can leave this discussion without just asking you broadly about what happened last night. A very eventful day on many scores, but the fact that we have Israel striking Iran is escalatory—I think that would be an understatement. So what are your thoughts on that?” Tanden asked.

“Yeah, deeply concerned. I think we know anything in the Middle East— and look, I know there are a lot of folks here and across the country—the situation in Gaza is intolerable. And it became a central focus in the campaign. And I would say, rightfully so. Human rights issues, how we’re going to attempt to get a two-state solution where we can allow folks to live peacefully and coexist and have their own self-determination,” Walz replied, adding:

The issue now is the spreading of this, and I have to be candid with you, I was there during the debates and I voted for the Iran nuclear deal. I think it was one of the most— well, and I said in there just to be clear, with the Russian ambassador, with the French ambassador, with our negotiators, with everybody who was there, to bring about the capacity to stop Iran’s nuclear capacity, but in a way that was not so punitive that we would hamper some of their economic growth.

I truly worry now. I’m sure there are great strategic thinkers in the Trump administration that have now said, how is this going to— you know, a tweet from the president today said, “I told them they should have done something and now here we are.” Here we are, with the Middle East back on fire in a way that has now expanded with, I don’t…

Iran has to retaliate in their mind, I’m sure. And now, who is the voice in the world to negotiate some type of agreement in this? Who holds the moral authority? Who holds the ability to do that? Because we are not seen as a neutral actor. And maybe we never were. I don’t want to tell anybody that. I think there are a lot of people who say you always lean one way in this, but I think there was at least an attempt to be somewhat of an arbitrator in this. We saw President Carter do it with Begin and Sadat. We’ve had certain wins along the way that were actually mutually beneficial both ways.

Now I ask who that is, and I mean, consistently over and over again, we’re going to have to face the reality it might be the Chinese, and that goes against everything they say they’re trying to do, in terms of the balance of power. So I would just have to say, my heart goes out for this. Ukraine continues to go on. Gaza continues to be a humanitarian disaster, and now it’s expanded even further.

Notably, China has long been accused of human rights violations, including ethnically cleansing its Muslim minority population – the Uyghurs. China has forced Muslim minorities into reeducation and labor camps, while also cracking down on Christians and Falun Gong practitioners.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.