(The Center Square) – Minnesota’s governor fired up South Carolina Democrats against Donald Trump, saying they should “bully the s— out of him back.”
In a Saturday morning state party function in Columbia, the second half of a failed presidential ticket from last fall said Democrats should be meaner. Gov. Tim Walz’ speech was laced with profanities in a state where Republicans are in both U.S. Senate seats, seven of eight U.S. House seats, seven of the eight state executive office seats including governor, and hold General Assembly majorities of 34-12 in the Senate and 88-35 with a vacancy in the House.
“Maybe it’s time for us to be a little meaner, a little bit more fierce,” said Walz, the vice-presidential half of the Kamala Harris ticket scrambled together following former President Joe Biden’s July exit from the race. “The thing that bothers a teacher more than anything is to watch a bully. And when it’s a child, you talk to them, and you tell them why bullying is wrong. But when it’s an adult like Donald Trump, you bull the s— out of him back.”
Walz said the president is a “weak, cruel man.”
The opportunities afforded Walz and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore in Columbia are considered something of an early litmus test for Democrats and their 2028 ticket.
Walz was a consideration but not a favorite to be chosen by Harris last summer. Most politicos had him behind, in no particular order, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, then-Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly. Early on, others such as then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were considered more likely to be chosen than Walz.
The campaign season was unkind, with accusations of stolen valor an albatross. Walz was found to have regularly used a flawed military record in campaign stumps for the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 2007-19. U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., a former Army Green Beret, told a Pennsylvania campaign audience on hand for J.D. Vance that it was unlikely Walz never received final paperwork committing his unit to a deployment in Iraq just before he quit, and it would be impossible to misspeak on such matters.
