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Former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said it's been "pure hell" and admitted his party is "fatigued" after losing the 2024 presidential election to President Donald Trump in November during an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Tuesday (January 28) night.
“You know that overused term, ‘The frog in the boiling water?’ We’ve been in the damn pot way too long,” Walz said while addressing the "average people" who oppose Trump's agenda during his second term in office. “I think it is speaking up. It’s thinking about your neighbors. It’s writing and putting those members of Congress – look, there is no spine amongst those folks – but this is real.”
“To the voters, I’m with this too. Everybody’s fatigued. Trust me, I get it,” he added. “It was pure hell, and the disappointment and the frustration, and I’m, you know, soul-searching – what could we have done to make the case? Because we knew this was coming. We knew the implication. And they’re throwing so much at us that we’re fatigued."
Walz then addressed an incident in which billionaire Elon Musk, who he mockingly referred to as "President Musk," was accused of giving a "Nazi salute" at Trump's inauguration rally last week.
“Of course he did, but that is a distraction from what, I think you said it, this is ‘game on’ stuff right here,” Walz said to Maddow.
“And I am worried with these federal employees because look, they’re in a tough spot, that some of these folks, especially those that are doing good work around environmental concerns, around justice for people, around, you know, criminal justice reform, all of the things that make our society better.”
“So I would tell people stay focused. Don’t take the bait on the distractions. Surround yourself with people who understand this, and recognize the things they went after today are basically a big chunk of what society does, and people like to have clean water, and hospitals, and safety, and roads, and airports, all the things that they are going after… We have to find that voice. We have to push back. We have to be organized,” he later added while discussing the pausing of federal grants made by the Trump administration.
Walz's interview with Maddow was one of his first on a national scale since former Vice President Kamala Harris' loss to Trump in the 2024 election, having spoken to several local Minnesota outlets in December.