It Could Happen Here - What Tim Walz Did With Power

Episode Date: August 15, 2024

Robert walks Garrison through an abridged political biography of Tim Walz.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Call Zone Media. everything cool zone media welcome back to it could happen here a podcast about tim walls and in this episode garrison and i are going balls to the walls are you happy with that garrison what's skivvitying your biden Walls. Are you happy with that, Garrison? What's skivvitying your Biden? What does that even mean? All right, let's get going. Some fucking Gen Z bullshit, Garrison, because I won't take part in it. Yeah, I'm excited to hear about how Walls is either great or terrible or probably a mix of both. Yeah, I mean, he's a politician and a pretty successful one, so it's definitely going to be a mix of both. For J.D. Vance, I figured the most relevant thing to do was to talk about, like, what does he actually believe and where does he come from in the right? Because people had gotten pieces of that, but I feel like unless you put it all together, it's not as useful. So I hope we did that.

With Walls, he's not a guy where there's anything sinister for you to know. So I think the useful thing is kind of going through his whole political biography and just kind of talk about like, what is this guy done in his public life? Right. That's kind of what I wanted to do here so that people actually know, you know, whether or not you are making your mind up about whether or not to vote, you're voting for harm reduction, you're anti electoral. Here's this guy who may or may not wind up being the vice president. And here's what he's actually done in the past when he's had any kind of power. It's worth noting that kind of at this point here, Walls is maybe the most popular politician at his level in the country. This has happened very suddenly, but he's got something like a plus 16 net favorability among moderates,

which is insane. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, it's wild. As someone who's looked at a lot of the favorability ratings the past six months, that is astonishingly high, especially compared to where we were like two months ago with Skibbity Biden, which was- Yeah, very low. Quite dire.

He's incredibly popular with the normies because basically everyone in the country has positive memories of a guy like Tim Walls. Like whether it was like your favorite social studies teacher or your dad, there is like a kind of rotund, balding, very mechanically capable man probably somewhere in your life that you have fond memories of. And Walls dredges those up. We are a very Freudian country. Yes, yes. For an idea of how like rapidly people have gone from not really knowing who this guy is to loving him. On August

8th, a YouGov survey showed him with a net favorability rating of plus 11, which was up from plus one in a survey conducted in late July. Amazing. In the same timeframe, JD Vance has seen his approval rating steadily drop. Yeah, isn't he like at like negative points? Oh, yes, yes, yes. By any stretch of the imagination, at negative points. And if you're just kind of looking at Tim's life, which we're not really getting into because we have limited time here. It's not the most important thing I thought we could be talking about. But he has a long history of doing decent things in his personal life.

Kind of most notably in the early 90s, like 93, 94, he sponsored the Gay and Lesbian Alliance at his high school. And his reasoning was that, you know, he was a soldier in the National Guard and the football coach at that point. And he decided, you know, him sponsoring the club in particular would have the biggest impact.

And I honestly, I think that's the kind of thing that might've saved lives. Yep. Good thing to have done. Anyway, this isn't an episode about his life and background. We're not going to litigate. We're not going to waste any time litigating the attacks on his military career, which seemed to confusingly say that after extending his time in the Guard by four years to participate

in Operation Enduring Freedom, he owed his soldiers staying on even longer to fight in Iraq. I could make the point that no grunt in any U.S. war ever found themselves in the shit and said, boy, I wish the command sergeant major was here but given that jd vance was played on to stage at the rnc to a song with the refrain we gotta get out of iraq and take our country back i just don't think these attacks are worth acknowledging at all right yeah the right has already acknowledged that was a stupid war to fight in walls decided not to fight in it good Good for him. Now, when it comes to the current war that is on everyone's minds, or one of the wars that's on everyone's minds, Walls is fine

on Ukraine. But when it comes to the war that he's not fine on, the genocide in Gaza, Walls is in no way that I can find really better than Kamala Harris. But he did take a stand against the Iraq war back when that mattered, which is, I guess, a little bit of a point. But again, doesn't really matter today. And in any case, we're far afield from the subject, which is what has Tim done in politics? So Tim's, you know, political career, he came late in life to that. He was a social studies teacher for a couple of decades. He was a coach. He lived in Nebraska, then moved to Minnesota. And in 2006, after retiring from the Guard, he was elected to Minnesota's first congressional district. Now, this was a tough campaign.

His opponent in this race was a six-term Republican incumbent, Gil Gutnecht. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Gutnecht? Gutnecht. I'm guessing his family were knights, and it used to be like good night or something like that, like G-U-T-K-N-E-C-H-T.

But I don't know enough about ancient German to tell you if that's really where his last name came from. Yeah, yeah. But Walls came in. He kind of goes against this guy who had promised not to run for another term and then decided, actually, I don't want to give up power. Not a thing that's ever happened again. And Walls kind of came in both when this guy had violated his promise to not run again and near the peak of disillusionment and exhaustion with neocons, right? This is kind of the twilight of the Bush years.

Even conservative Americans are pretty fucking tired of the Republican Party right this second. And Walls exhibited a notable ability to connect with rural Americans who mostly voted red. He did so with basically no funding or larger national operation behind him. From a write-up in the New York Times, he had no money, no nothing, said Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, who that cycle worked on House Democrats' recruitment team under their campaign chief Rahm Emanuel. He had a grassroots campaign that he had put together that I just knew was going to be dynamite.

So I went back and I told Rahm Emanuel, this guy's going to win. He's great. And Rahm looked at me like I was crazy. Walls was a dark horse candidate and would claim around that time that his whole inspiration for getting into politics was when he tried to take two students to a rally for President George Bush, and they were kicked out because one student had a John Kerry button. Now, I found a blog by the Republican staffer who kicked them out where he admits he made a dumb call. He was kind of trying to be a dick.

He had seen Walls out protesting against Bush like the day before. And he knew he was going to kick them out of the rally. But he made them stand in line for a long time before he kicked them out. And he was like, I shouldn't have done that. he kicked them out. And he was like, I shouldn't have done that. But his angle was that Walls wanted to get denied and kicked out so that he could make a big deal about it and use it as a line on the campaign trail. That's probably what happened. Regardless, this is a very funny little domino leading to big domino. Everyone likes Walls who tends to meet him. Joe Biden, for the last year or two, his team's been trying to get him to do more events with Walls just because he put Biden in a good mood. I think that's a big reason why Kamala picked

him. He just seems to be a very likable guy, but he's very okay with lying to get what he needs. I mean, he's a politician. He's a politician. Another good example of this would be his DUI, right? When he was 31, he got a DUI, and he has at times claimed basically that's why I decided to like, I stopped drinking, I changed my life, I moved, you know, I got my shit together. But his campaign manager made a statement recently, oh, he wasn't drunk. He just couldn't hear the cop. I don't know who to trust politician or cop in this case. But the cops attitude is like, well, I would be fine if he had just like fixed his shit up, but he definitely was drunk. And I don't have any trouble believing

that a man in rural Nebraska, a football coach in rural Nebraska drove drunk once, right? No, that is not the most surprising thing in the world. So I think he's a guy who's certainly he's not naive political actor, right? He's not one of these guys who's so so good and pure that he's not willing to like fudge in order to make shit work for him. And that's probably what he did at this Bush event, right? Now, that said, it would be hard to overstate what a difficult task he picked for himself in trying to unseat Gutenecht. At the time that Walls ran, Minnesota's first district had been held by one other Democrat in the last hundred years. So he was the second Democrat in a century to win in that district. And as soon as he left, by the way, a Republican took back over.

During his six terms in Congress, he was one of the more interesting legislators in that district. And as soon as he left, by the way, a Republican took back over. During his six terms in Congress, he was one of the more interesting legislators in the country. Walls was a risk taker, supporting liberal votes on major issues even when he was politically vulnerable. He opposed Republican legislation to make doctors vulnerable to criminal penalties

for performing abortions. He supported a climate cap and trade bill on greenhouse gas emissions that failed. And this really pissed some folks off. He supported the climate cap and trade bill on greenhouse gas emissions that failed. And this really pissed some folks off. He supported the Affordable Care Act. And kind of one of the more notable things about him is there's stories of when he was running for reelection, he would do town halls in southern Minnesota. And he would get attacked by these red voters who had supported him early on for backing the Affordable Care Act. And rather than like backing off, he would lean into

it and argue with them and try to like convince them. And, you know, his numbers with conservative rural Republicans got worse and worse every cycle, basically. So you could argue how good he was. But it is worth something to me that he didn't back off. He didn't do the, well, this might, you know, fuck up my chances of reelection. Like, he's never really been that kind of guy. There's things that he believes, and he will just kind of like jam his flag into the mud over them. That said, Tim was a pragmatist. He voted for a resolution calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq within

90 days. But when that failed, he voted in favor of continuing funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tim also received an A from the NRA during much of his time in office, voting against gun control based on what seemed to be a natural inclination to firearms and hunting. Walls may have been the best shot in the Minnesota National Guard during the time when he was there. He's apparently a very good shot. He is an avid and skilled turkey hunter,

and if you talk to people who want game in the U.S., turkey is one of the more difficult game to hunt. He developed a reputation as a guy who wouldn't apologize for voting with liberals, but who would go across the aisle when it mattered. During his time on the Veterans Affairs Committee, which he ultimately chaired, he voted with Republicans to make it easier for the VA to fire employees, even with union opposition. And he also pushed through changes to improve GI Bill college access for veterans post 9-11. One of the things I find interesting about his record is that in 2018, he voted against most of his party, opposing an overhaul of the VA's healthcare system. He agreed, everyone agrees, that the system needed to be overhauled, but he argued the proposal in place would force the VA to cannibalize itself, basically starving the organization to try and fix it.

And his attitude was, well, it needs to get fixed. I'm not going to vote for a change that might be worse than what we currently have. While chairing this committee, Walls made strong connections to Nancy Pelosi, who, like basically everyone, really came to like Walls. And she's going to be one of the people who's one of the strongest voices for picking him as VP. And we will be to be one of the people who's one of the strongest voices for picking him as VP. And we will be back to talk about more of that. But first, Garrison, you know who else loves Nancy Pelosi?

Probably these products and services if they come from San Francisco. If they're based in the Bay Area, she will break their kneecaps if they don't like her enough. Hola mi gente, it's Honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities

artists and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything,

from music and pop culture, to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, El Te Caliente and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires.

From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though.

I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough, so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts.

Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian.

Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami.

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ah, and we're back. So, one of the big shifts for Tim during his time in Congress was away from the NRA.

This started after, in 2017, after the Las Vegas mass shooting and then after the Parkland mass shooting. And then in February of 2018, he writes an op-ed supporting what he calls common sense gun reform and donates the NRA contributions to his campaign that cycle to some sort of, I think, gun control cause. Walz's common sense gun regulations include an assault weapons ban, and he is currently in line with the Democratic Party on that, if you were curious. That same year, 2018, he launched his campaign for governor of Minnesota. By this point, Walls had bled much of his ability to win rural red votes. It is accurate to say he was only really good at this during his early years in Congress.

His margins grew a lot narrower over time. And once he hit the governor's office, his support was largely in the cities. Now, it's one of those things where I think there's been debate, like some people have argued, well, he's maybe not the best VP pick because he actually isn't all that good at getting these red rural votes. But I just don't see that as where the election's coming down to. Walls has great favorables with like suburban white people and particularly suburban like moderates.

And that is like one of the most important demographics to win. So I don't believe the fact that he's kind of bled his support with rural conservatives is really necessarily a mark against him in an electoral sense. One thing I do appreciate about Walls is how direct he is to people I dislike. He decides in 2018 to run for governor. And during that run, he has a meeting with a bunch of business leaders at a luxury hotel. The president of a machining company asks if Walls felt corporate taxes hurt workers, and Walls replied, we're not taxing people, we're taxing corporations. And I want to quote from a CNBC write-up. For Jeff Baker, it was a bit of a no shit moment. That's not what I wanted to hear, said Baker, president of McFarland Truck Lines. There's a lot of stories like that. He's been

very willing to tax the wealthy and to tax corporations to pay for things like children's lunches. This is a consistent Walls move, and it's something that he absolutely is unapologetic about, and I think that's fine. Minnesota currently taxes corporate income at 9.8%, the highest rate in the nation. Walls did not back down on this during his time in office. In fact, that CNBC report found that, quote, Walls' policy battles have a common theme. Walls supported either higher taxes on the rich or businesses and corporate leaders fought back. One of their fights was over a 1% surtax on passive investment income over a million dollars. Another was a tax on the wealthy Walls signed into law that limits standard and itemized deductions

for households with gross incomes over $220,000. Due to Republican control of the legislature, Walls' first term was not hugely eventful up until the COVID-19 pandemic. This is because Republicans retained control of the state legislature and were able to stop much of his planned reform. We did get to see more of the politician Tim Walz during COVID when he stood up against Republican resistance for common sense

pandemic safety regulations. He earned a lot of hate from the right for some of the more extreme COVID restrictions in the country, which were put in place in Minnesota. In particular, Walz threatened citizens with up to 90 days in jail during the shelter-in-place period and threatened $25,000 fines for meeting in public. Minnesota instituted a COVID hotline where people could inform on their neighbors if they saw rules being broken. And I get why the right is uncomfortable with this. I'm not fully comfortable with this kind of stuff either. But given what was going on at the time, I'm not going to slam the man for trying to save lives in a very uncertain and desperate situation.

You know, it beats the nothing that a lot of state governors did. So I guess that's kind of where I stand on that shit. Not long after the pandemic lockdown started, George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis. Walls mobilized the National Guard after three days of riots, earning praise from President Trump on June 1st, who said what they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened quickly. And this is, you know, the National Guard do a lot of very violent shit coming into crackdown on these protests. I know a lot of people who were the ones cracked down upon.

It's one of those things where, yeah, he's a governor. You know, I think pretty much any governor in this situation would have sent in the National Guard in that sort of situation. Especially after the burning of the third precinct. Especially after the precinct got burnt, which doesn't excuse it. It's just like, well, yeah, he's not he's not an anarchist, right? Like he's not he's not your communist, like revolutionary hero. He is the governor of Minnesota.

I'm just really not surprised that this happened. It's, you know, a pretty normal thing for a guy in his position to have done. Yeah. Now, like every other dim in creation during the height of the uprising, Walls voiced support for a wide host of police accountability reforms. He even voiced some degree of support for ending qualified immunity. But this did not last long, and as the backlash against police reform swelled up after the election, Walls joined many Dems in pulling back and even quashing moves for greater police accountability. When he ran for re-election, he did so as a tough-on-crime, law-enforcement-friendly Democrat, right? Many such cases. Now, he did push through some accountability measures. He used $15

million in COVID funds to pay for grants for community violence prevention. He pushed through some accountability measures. He used $15 million in COVID funds to pay for grants for community violence prevention. He pushed through some requirements to increase data sharing from the Police Licensing Board. He pushed through a demand for state law enforcement to share footage of police killings with the family of the victim within five days. These are, I think we can all say, minor accountability moves. Very, very, very minor uh he said of these moves they build trust in police they build trust in the systems they build trust among communities and they provide the community with some basic closure and understanding for families nothing builds trust like a video of your cousin getting shot in the back yeah if the

biggest accountability thing is that you get first look at the murder video. I don't know, man. Okay. Like, yes, I do think you probably have to legislate that because otherwise police just won't give it up at all. But like, yeah, I wouldn't hang my hat on that. It is ignoring the main issue at play here, which is the fact that we have murder videos. It's like, come on. Now, there were some bigger reforms, including limitations on no-knock warrants,

although, again, not like a ban or anything. But it lacked a lot of the stuff that activists in the state had pushed for, including limits on police stops of motorists. And Walls had agreed that there needs to be more movement in this direction, particularly after the murder of Philando Castile. It also left out an asked-for end to the statute of limitations

for wrongful death cases against officers. Walls had personally voiced support for a ban on officers with white supremacist gang affiliations, but this was also left out, ultimately. State Rep. John Thompson said to Walls at the time, You have the power to do something, and all I've been getting from your office is lip service, and I mean that. We don't need a news conference from you, Governor. We need a leader.

So, you're not going to get a lot of police reform under Tim Walz. That's just a pretty consistent reality of the guy. That said, he can be forced to do some things if you scare him enough. So, you know, keep that in mind, I guess. First, keep in mind these ads, and then we'll talk about the environment and stuff, which is a happier story for Walls. of Latin culture, música, películas, and entertainment with some of the biggest

names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations

with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes

that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity community and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries don't miss out on the fun el te caliente and life stories join me for gracias come again a podcast by honey german where we get into todo lo actual y viral listen to gracias come again on the i, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast.

And we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible.

Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry

and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean.

He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian. El mean, he looks so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian.

Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him.

Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're back.

So Walls ran for reelection under the slogan One Minnesota, and he managed another solid victory. Up to this point, you would say he'd been a pretty standard dim governor in a swing state. But something happened in the 2022 midterms that changed the course of Walz's career in maybe the nation. The Democrats won a slim majority in the state legislature. As David Schultz, a political science professor at Hanlon University, told CNN, Walz's message immediately jerked away from one Minnesota to damn the torpedoes and fuck the Republicans. Quote,

That agenda included codified protections for abortion access, restored voting rights for felons who've completed their sentences, driver's licenses for people regardless of their legal status, a state child tax credit, free public college for families making less than $80,000 annually, protections for gender-affirming care, a paid family and medical leave program. Walsh signed legislation to move the state towards achieving 100% clean energy by 2040 and to establish a universal free school meal program that provides breakfast and lunch. And that is a real solid spate of shit for a governor to get done. And all of this is about in a year, right?

Like most of the shit that Walsh has gotten done as governor has been very recently because the Dems had just in a year, right? Like most of the shit that Walz has gotten done as governor has been very recently because the Dems had just taken back control, right? And it's very narrow control. Amy Koch, a Republican and former Minnesota Senate majority leader, said Walz definitely had not governed like a moderate and unlike other governors with trifecta control, had not emphasized making deals with Republicans. Everything that went forward was signed, she said. I'm not sure what that says about him,

but it definitely puts a dent in his argument that he's just this moderate Democrat from the Midwest. And this is why progressives, many of them, are excited about Walls, is that when he actually had the opportunity, he was willing to say, fuck the Republicans, let's get some shit done. I don't care that we only have one vote, right?

Yeah. Now, Wall walls has stated that in his opinion political capital exists to be spent improving people's lives and this is an area where you can say that he's put his money where his mouth is right this is how he actually governed now it's worth noting obviously he also promised to burn political capital on major police reform and he gave that up so you know the fact that he says he's going to do something, like any politician, not a guarantee it's going to happen. Well, and some of the more kind of upsetting things, but not surprising things, is now that Kamala has basically secured the nomination, she has rolled back many of the progressive

policies that she ran on in 2020, when those seemed to be more popular. Right. You know, that's not necessarily walls, that is, that's Kamala, but they're running on the same ticket. And again and again like it's not surprising that she's not advocating for medicare for all now that she's the actual nominee right but it still is you know disappointing for people who are like hey her actual policies four years ago were actually relatively progressive yeah and now they are slightly more kind of in line with like the mainstream democratic party views on you know most of these issues right and again

one of the reasons maybe for a little bit of hope is that Walls has not really been that guy during his time with executive power. Right. And kind of the area where he's been best maybe actually is climate change. Right. This is the thing Dems seem to like to compromise on the most. And Tim's history here is interesting to me, particularly because he's got he doesn't have a perfect record,

but it's genuinely pretty positive. His major achievement was a policy passed in 2023 that required Minnesota to have a carbon-free electric grid by 2040. Now, this is the kind of legislation that could just be virtue signaling, but Walls didn't just say, yep, we'll get it done by 2040 when I won't be the fucking governor anymore. He backed it up by approving a historic amount of state spending on energy. The legislation included rebates on climate-friendly technology like air source heat pumps and electric vehicles, as well as spending to improve home insulation and $100 million for city extreme weather preparedness. Walls also signed a bill to cut red tape for wind and solar farms and transmission lines, and to speed up permitting for infrastructure needed to replace coal and gas plants.

So it was not just a, yeah, we'll definitely do this. It was a, well, there's certain things that need to happen for this to be possible, and I am going to work to make it easier to do those things. I'm going to make sure that we're passing legislation that makes it easier to do those things. And that shows me someone who sees this as important as not just a thing that's virtue signaling, but as we need to figure out what the actual concrete steps are to make this doable.

And that's something that gives me a little bit of hope. The more questionable side of his environmental history is the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline, which he and state regulators approved in 2020. This angered a lot of local environmental groups and several indigenous tribes in the area. The pipeline was argued to be necessary because the old one was corroding and a spill risk. And of course, when the new pipeline was constructed, workers punctured multiple aquifers. This seems to have been a case of Walls being the politician that he is. Trade unions supported the project because jobs.

And it's also worth noting this is 2020, so the Dims do not have a majority in the legislature. And there's just a lot less of a stick available to walls at this point. So you know, maybe he would have ruled differently. Or maybe he would have acted differently, you know, had he been in a more friendly situation. Yeah, I reported on this back in 2021. Yeah, we did a two part series on stop line three, where I traveled to the pipeline yeah like it's it's not it's not surprising especially with pressure from trade unions to to approve this pipeline from what i've seen he did not have much to do with the police crackdown on protesters i i've seen that alleged and i'm not finding much to back that up there's a lot of like county sheriffs and other task forces working directly with the pipeline company like you know walls never used national guard against these people i i don't see much from him

being personally involved in suppressing these protests beyond the fact that he's the governor like he is he he's he's the top guy in charge he could shut that all down if uh but he also doesn't need to be like actively involved for that to happen. Right. Police will do it themselves. Right. And that seems to be mostly what took place. Yeah, that seems fair to say. And most of the extreme charges that stop line three protesters were getting, like felony theft for locking down onto construction equipment, mostly have since all been dismissed in the courts, or at least taken down to a lower, more appropriate charge. Yeah. So again, like with everything about this guy, he's not perfect. He's not without some fucked up things in his background. He's a politician.

But on balance, a better history on environmental stuff than most governors in the country. I should also note here, under walls, Minnesota passed the nation's most comprehensive ban on PFAS chemicals, a category of industrial compounds that do not break down and run off and have been associated with a bunch of cancers and other health risks. It is a ban that rolls out over an eight-year time frame. So, you know, maybe it's not like who knows how well it will actually get executed, but literally no other state has passed a ban this strong. So I'm putting it in the ups for Walls category. has passed a ban this strong. So I'm putting it in the ups for Walls category. Now, that is kind of what I had to say. I did want to end talking a little bit more about Palestine because again, Walls has a very mixed record here at best. While he was in the House, he received AIPAC's

endorsement and spoke at the group's 2010 conference where he said this, Israel is our truest and closest ally in the region with a commitment to values of personal freedoms and liberties surrounded by a pretty tough neighborhood. You know, I might quibble with most of that. Well, except for with our closest ally in the region. That's kind of hard to argue with. After October 7th, he ordered state flags flown at half staff and condemned the Hamas attacks. In early March, he began endorsing calls for a permanent working ceasefire. A few days after Harris called for a six-week ceasefire, he's made statements about how

the uncommitted protesters should be listened to. Same thing about college protesters. But he is not backing an embargo, right? He's not, you know, pushing any kind of like stick to actually force Netanyahu's hand in any way. You would not say he's the worst Democrat on Gaza, but he's not, you know, particularly good either. He didn't lie about volunteering with the IDF as a teenager. He did not lie about volunteering with the IDF as a teenager. That's one thing we can say. But unfortunately, the bar is quite low these days. Yeah.

So, you know, that's Tim Walls, a political biography. I hope you now can walk away being like, OK, that's that's more or less who Tim Walls is. I do. I do feel it's important to end with one more kind of anecdote about Tim Walls that I learned this morning. OK. Is that on, I believe, his first date with his soon-to-be wife when he was teaching geography,

he took her to see the movie Falling Down, the 1993 Michael Douglas masterpiece. Incredibly based. Which I feel like every single politician should be forced to watch. I would make it a mandatory part of graduation. You know, that was an important movie for me it is a pretty funny first date movie it's not the worst you know it's not like it's not like american psycho which is also a great movie but you know it is it is a curious first pick

but i think it is important that whoever is sitting in the white house is uh familiar with falling down yeah as it as it kind of displays american male violence it predicted a kind of guy who was just starting to like yeah creep up into public consciousness when the movie came out and who now commits a mass shooting every four weeks yeah yeah so i think that is a very funny anecdote watch falling down folks it's a great date movie you know maybe double pair it with event horizon and really really get some action christ all right gary that's the end of the episode how you feeling pretty good pretty good honestly well you know not great you know actually actually the whole situation uh politically in the country is kind of a nightmare it's it's fine it's fine

somehow i feel slightly better than i did two months ago i'm gonna tell you this is the best it's been in a while and maybe maybe the best it'll ever be again which also just points to how low the bar is at the moment yeah yeah it's fine look best case scenario matt walsh is is mad is is is a little further than mad we'll see we'll see if we can get like a welfare check over at his house anyway that's the end of the episode good night and good luck carl walls it could happen here as a production of cool zone media for more podcasts from cool zone media visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening.

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