"The road to authoritarianism": Tim Walz says the time for "sternly worded letters" is over

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was testifying before Congress about his state's handling of immigration when he learned Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was forcibly removed from a Department of Homeland Security news conference Thursday.

The irony, he told the attendees of the Center for American Progress’ “Listening to Lead” event Friday, was in lawmakers grilling him and his colleagues, Govs. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y. and JB Pritzker, D-Ill., over the “incredible crime of treating people like human beings” as FBI agents tackled a sitting senator to the ground and handcuffed him in Los Angeles.

“I am not prone to hyperbole. I am prone to, like, popping off a little bit. I know that,” Walz said, prefacing his argument that Americans are living in a “dangerous” time. “I believed all along we were marching towards authoritarianism, and people were telling me in December, ‘You know, you're overreacting.’ And I said, “The road to authoritarianism is littered with people telling you you're overreacting.”

Walz shared the anecdote and warning Friday during an hour-long conversation at the Center of American Progress in Washington, DC, moderated by CAP President Neera Tanden. The former vice presidential candidate spoke to a crowded room and cohort of virtual participants about a range of topics, spanning the cuts to Medicaid and the Inflation Reduction Act to his approach to immigration as a Democratic governor and constructive criticism of the Democratic Party.

Democrats look for a quick message to address conservative voters, whom they accuse of voting against their own self-interests, to inform them of an issue like the impact of tariffs and solve a problem, he argued.

“Our message has to be more diverse,” Walz said. “You can't just say they voted against their own self-interest because they're telling us, for some reason, something in there motivated them to do that.”

The debate over immigration is an example, he said. Walz referenced his arguments during the House Oversight Committee hearing on sanctuary states and cities with him, Hochul and Pritzker as an example of the kind of messaging Democrats should lean into to best seize on the impact of Republicans’ policies.

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The governors, he said, spoke about complying with federal law in contacting DHS over immigrants arrested and convicted of felonies — but also how they wouldn’t contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement if someone hadn’t yet received due process.

“I think, as Democrats, striking a balance between doing immigration according to the law and keeping our humanitarian values in place shows that we do care,” said Walz, who earlier in the week said he would sign a recently passed budget bill that would end state-funded health care for undocumented adults. Walz, for his part, said Friday that the move was a compromise with Republican state lawmakers who he said threatened a government shutdown.

Still, the Republicans have capitalized on and taken the Democrats’ kindness for weakness, Walz added. He said that Hochul and Pritzker are examples of leaders who rose up to protect less fortunate Americans in their respective states and don’t allow the Republicans to bully their residents.

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“I think there needs to be a more robust Democratic Party, and I don't think all these sternly worded letters get it done,” he said, adding. “We have to have a robust strength of morals, value sticking up for those less fortunate — that's why I think it's a mistake to focus just on economics and allow trans children to get bullied.”

“I think they have to go in, and we look weak if we don’t do it,” Walz added.

Walz said that when facing a president who “sucks up so much oxygen” and dominates the news cycle, people and leaders on the center-left of the political spectrum should be working to fill in “all the lanes” whether it be by joining podcasts, hosting large rallies like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., or holding town halls in places like Wheeling, W.Va.

He also encouraged fellow Democrats to take a play out of his book, recalling the success of the heckling he started by calling Trump and his allies “weird” during the 2024 presidential campaign as well as his “full blown feud” with tech billionaire Elon Musk.

“We're going to have to be better at it,” Walz said about hitting Trump and his allies back, referencing the gap between the working class and the wealthy. “We have to single them out.”