In August 2024, Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate ahead of the November general election. Walz immediately came under fire from conservative media outlets and Republicans for his past comments on the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
Many online spotlighted Walz's appearance in a CNN interview in late July 2024, in which he allegedly said he would help migrants cross the border wall by investing in a ladder factory. Conservative website The Daily Wire ran the headline, "Tim Walz: Invest In Ladder Company To Defeat Trump's Border Wall."
Another post claimed Walz wanted to invest in a ladder factory "to help illegals scale the border wall."
Walz did talk about investing in a ladder factory, but he did so facetiously to emphasize the ineffectiveness of a border wall as a way to prevent migrants from crossing. His comments were misrepresented online and were missing context to make it seem as though he was seriously discussing helping migrants cross the wall using ladders.
Walz appeared on the CNN show, "Anderson Cooper 360," in late July 2024. The comments in question can be found at the 7:33 mark.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1201174944254256
Cooper asked Walz about a bipartisan border bill that Democrats argued was sunk by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's efforts. The legislation that was blocked by Senate Republicans aimed to reduce the number of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border and raise the standards for qualifying for asylum. Below is the full text of Walz's comments as transcribed by CNN (emphasis, ours):
Host Anderson Cooper: You know, it seems like the Trump team is, you know, coalescing around this, you know, obviously this idea of going after [Kamala Harris] on as the most liberal, you know, trying to saddle her with all the criticisms that they were using for the Biden administration. [...] She pushed back today on that in her address. She very quickly pivoted to the [border security] deal, which the former president, which, you know, the bipartisan deal, which he told his members, his Republicans in the Senate not to follow through on and killed that deal. That seems to be what her response is going to be. Is that enough? I mean, clearly she has a record of, you know, statements she made the last time she ran for president that is going to be used against her.
Tim Walz: Yes, well, they're going to say whatever they're going to say. We just need to have good proposals. There's things that we can do. I think we need to acknowledge to folks that every nation [state] in the United States needs to control its border. And I will add the northern border, which Minnesota is on.
But you can do that using the right tools, and the Lankford-Sinema bill that [Trump] did kill would have done that. The border patrol agents endorsed it. These are folks who know what needs to be done, but he's not interested in solving the problem. What Democrats need to do is acknowledge, and he has ginned up fear, but our border can work better.
It doesn't — there's no reason someone seeking asylum, which we will always be a guiding light for, shouldn't have to wait seven years to have that adjudicated. That's why this bill would have made it 90 days and people either got it or they were removed. And I think seeing a plan that's out there talking about it with folks, knowing that he's not going to do anything, you know, he talks about this wall, I always say, let me know how high it is. If it's 25 feet, then I'll invest in the 30 foot ladder factory. That's not how you stop this. You stop this using electronics, you stop it using more border control agents, and you stop it by having a legal system that allows for that tradition of allowing folks to come here , just like my relatives did to come here, be able to work and establish the American dream. He's not interested in that. He wants to demonize.
Look, we produce most of the turkeys that you're going to eat in Thanksgiving. Those are immigrants working hard, establishing themselves here. What's he going to do? Is he going to take them all out? And how does the economy going to work?
These people — my neighbors, whether they're Republican or Democrats — don't want to demonize their neighbors. They just want a safe border. She's got a plan. The Lankford-Sinema bill was a big key to it, and Donald Trump doesn't want it. He thrives on chaos.
Walz's comments show that he was demonstrating the ineffectiveness of Trump's border wall policy by speaking flippantly about investing in a ladder factory. In the same remarks, Walz also advocated for other ways to implement border control.
Sources:
"Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees." CNN, July 30, 2024. https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/acd/date/2024-07-30/segment/01 . Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
Glueck, Katie, and Reid J. Epstein. "Democrats Rally Around Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as Their New Ticket: Live Election Updates." The New York Times, 6 Aug. 2024. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/06/us/kamala-harris-vp-trump-election. " target="blank">https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/06/us/kamala-harris-vp-trump-election.">https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/06/us/kamala-harris-vp-trump-election. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
Hesson, Ted, et al. "Republicans Call Harris a Failed Border Czar. The Facts Tell a Different Story." Reuters, 31 July 2024. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-call-harris-failed-border-czar-truth-is-more-complicated-2024-07-30/. " target="blank">https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-call-harris-failed-border-czar-truth-is-more-complicated-2024-07-30/.">https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-call-harris-failed-border-czar-truth-is-more-complicated-2024-07-30/. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
"Minnesota Governor Walz: Invest In Ladder Company To Defeat Trump's Border Wall." The Daily Wire, 3 Aug. 2024, https://www.dailywire.com/news/minnesota-governor-walz-invest-in-ladder-company-to-defeat-trumps-border-wall. " target="blank">https://www.dailywire.com/news/minnesota-governor-walz-invest-in-ladder-company-to-defeat-trumps-border-wall.">https://www.dailywire.com/news/minnesota-governor-walz-invest-in-ladder-company-to-defeat-trumps-border-wall. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
"Senate Republicans Block Border Security Bill as They Campaign on Border Chaos." NBC News, 23 May 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-republicans-block-border-security-bill-campaign-border-chaos-rcna153607. " target="blank">https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-republicans-block-border-security-bill-campaign-border-chaos-rcna153607.">https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-republicans-block-border-security-bill-campaign-border-chaos-rcna153607. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
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