Tim Walz took a jab at Chuck Schumer over his decision to avert a government shutdown, accusing the party of ceding to Republicans.
“I believe that Chuck 100 percent believes that he made a decision that reduced the pain and the risk to Americans,” the Minnesota governor said in the latest episode of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast released on Tuesday. “I see it now that we’re in a point where … that pain is coming anyway and I think we gave up our leverage.”
Walz’s comments are the latest in the chorus of Democratic backlash aimed at Schumer over the Senate Democratic leader’s support for a Republican-backed stopgap measure last week to keep the government funded and prevent a government shutdown.
Walz has long been scheduled to be a guest on Newsom’s podcast, which launched on Tuesday. But Newsom’s conversation with Walz was rerecorded on Monday, according to a person familiar with the discussion who was granted anonymity to discuss it. The original conversation came on the same day Newsom taped his episode with the campus culture warrior Charlie Kirk.
But Walz wanted the chance to address news that had happened since then, like Schumer’s funding bill controversy.
As a result of Schumer and a small group of other Democrats’ support for the funding patch, Walz warned Newsom that Democrats will face blame for any negative fallout from the bill.
“To the American public who doesn’t do this for a living and is out doing their job, they said, ‘well, they passed this budget and they agreed with Donald Trump, and now we all own that,’” Walz said. “I think you should have made Donald Trump justify why things were getting so bad.”
Walz’s remarks about the funding controversy come on the heels of his recent critiques of the 2024 Harris-Walz campaign, where he said the ticket did not take enough risks. He said he — along with other Democrats — should have made a stronger effort to engage with voters, particularly through town halls.
Walz doubled down on criticism of his party during his interview with Newsom, saying the lack of coordination among Democrats on how to approach the funding debate only reinforced perceptions that the Democratic Party is fragmented.
“I think the public saying is, ‘you guys weren’t even coordinated on that,’” he said.