Tim Walz joked about investing in a ‘ladder factory’ while slamming Trump’s border wall
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently quipped about investing in a “ladder factor” while blasting former President Donald Trump’s border wall and immigration policies.
The newly minted Democratic vice presidential candidate, 60, was trying to make the point that he believes a wall wouldn’t be able to forestall a mass illegal immigration flow across the southern border.
“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,” Walz told CNN’s Anderson Cooper late last month.
“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,” he added. “He’s not interested in that. He wants to demonize.”
Trump, 78, has long clamored for the construction of a wall across the US border with Mexico, arguing that it would dramatically beef up security.
Ironically, the Biden administration has pushed forward with the construction of some small sections of border wall in parts of Texas, due in large part to prior legislation from Congress.
But President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have long decried Trump’s broader policy push on that front.
A slew of polling has pegged the border as a top issue among voters heading into the Nov. 5 presidential election. Trump’s team has seized on it and Democrats in Washington have begun to recalibrate in response.
Walz, who is the co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s rules panel and was speculated to be a veep contender after Harris’ sudden ascension last month, acknowledged that the “United States needs to control its border.”
“And I will add the northern border, which Minnesota is on,” he told Cooper at the time. “But you can do that using the right tools.”
Walz reiterated a top Democratic counterpoint against the onslaught of GOP criticisms over the border — about how Republicans torpedoed a border reform measure in the Senate earlier this year.
Like Biden, the Minnesota governor blamed Trump for the border reform package going up in flames in the Senate.
“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,” he argued.
The Harris campaign unveiled a spot last week hitting back at Trump over the border that alluded to allegations the 45th president helped kill that bill.
Walz also previously expressed support for turning Minnesota into a sanctuary state, which means he’d scale back local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
“My position on Minnesota becoming a sanctuary state boils down to who has the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws,” Walz told CBS News in 2018.
“Congress has not given local law enforcement that same authority. The role of law enforcement is to enforce state and local laws, not federal immigration laws, and I strongly believe that they should not do so,” he added.
During his tenure as governor, Walz also backed legislation that effectively expanded benefits illegal immigrants in the North Star State could receive, such as state-funded health care assistance and driver’s licenses.
Harris announced Walz as her pick to serve as her vice president Tuesday following a rushed process to determine her No. 2.
“I am proud to announce that I’ve asked Governor Tim Walz to be my running mate. One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle-class families run deep,” she said in a statement
Both Harris and Walz are set to stump together in Philadelphia later Thursday.
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