--:-- [Sound of applause]
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Here's a fun one. We took Today Explained on the road this past weekend to Austin, Texas for South by Southwest, where we spoke with Governor Tim Walz. Remember Tim Walz?
--:-- Tim Walz: Yeah, I'm here.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: These are weird people on the other side. Minnesota nice teacher, coach, hunter, husband, father, Kamala Harris, running mate. And I got to tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy. That is if he's willing to get off the couch and show up.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So we spoke about 2024, how many votes do you think Liz Cheney won? You guys, yeah, I not enough. Um, say that so obviously it's not enough. Look, I think...
--:-- Tim Walz: ...but also what a year 2025 has already been and even a little 2028...
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today on the show, we're going to bring you a condensed version of our South by Southwest conversation.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Support for Today Explained comes from Adio. Adio is an AI-native customer relationship management platform that Adio says is built for the next era of companies.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: A powerful data structure adapts to your business model, syncs in all your contacts in minutes, and enriches your business with actionable data. Adio says it also allows you to create those email sequences, those real-time reports, those powerful automations, which they claim can help you build what matters most, your company.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can go to attio.com slash todayexplained to get 15% off your first year. That's attio.com slash todayexplained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Support for this show comes from strawberry.me. Be honest. Are you happy with your job? Or are you stuck in one you've outgrown or never wanted in the first place?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Sure, you can probably list the reasons for staying, but are they actually just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from strawberry.me help you get unstuck.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your corner. Go to strawberry.me slash unstuck to claim a special offer.
--:-- [Sound of applause]
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Hello, everyone. This is Today Explained live at South by Southwest on the Vox Media Podcast stage. I'm Sean Rameswaram, and you know who this is. Governor Tim Walz. Good to be with you, Sean. Thanks for coming out, everybody.
--:-- Tim Walz: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I was mentioning him. These are the folks that didn't get the Michelle Obama tickets. So welcome. I'm told she's next week. They're here for you. Yeah, yeah. All right. I want to ask you a question about weird. Do you think these guys are still weird? These guys? No, these guys. Those guys. Remember those guys?
--:-- Tim Walz: Oh, those guys. Oh, hell yes.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Look, obsessing with choices people are making about their own lives that has absolutely zero to do with you, that is weird. That might be too soft. That is really unnecessary.
--:-- Tim Walz: You were presumably chosen partially because of that moment, because you seemed to be particularly good at messaging.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I was scrolling through your Twitter over the past few months, and I saw one tweet that I thought was indicative of you still being better than your average Democrat at messaging. You said, Elon Musk is a terrible president.
--:-- Tim Walz: He threatened to sue me after that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: No, he didn't. Did he really? Yes, he did. He threatened to sue me.
--:-- Tim Walz: It was that, and I called him a Nazi, and that did not help.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So that might have been overboard, but no, it wasn't.
--:-- Tim Walz: Did you watch the joint session this week?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah, parts of it I did.
--:-- Tim Walz: I felt like the messaging from the Democrats was muddled at that joint session. Some didn't show up at all. Some left early. Some wore pink and held up these feeble signs that said, you know, false or this is not normal.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We all saw Representative Al Green protests stand up. I served with Al Green. That is a good man.
--:-- Tim Walz: But there wasn't a unified message.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Did you want to see something more unified from your party?
--:-- Tim Walz: Yes, yes. Other than bidding on an antique tea set or whatever was happening. So, yes, I wanted something more than that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But look, I think for all of us, it was, you know, Will Rogers made that case in the 30s that I don't belong to any organized party. I'm a Democrat. And the herding cats piece of that.
--:-- Tim Walz: But what I know is, and at least I'm hearing it from my constituents in Minnesota and I'm hearing it across the country, there's a primal scream of do something. Do something. Now, I have the advantage as a governor. I can do something.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We can put up firewalls against them. You're not going to demonize our people. We're going to continue to make sure our children are fed.
--:-- Tim Walz: We're going to. I called the premiers of Ontario and Manitoba and said, look, the official policy is theirs, but we like you. We like Canadians. We like what we trade together.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And so that message of how to do it. And I'm making the case.
--:-- Tim Walz: Look, when I get asked this, what should we be doing? I'm probably the last guy. I didn't get it done and we needed to win.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And that's where we're in this pickle because we didn't win. But I'm being reflective of what I could have done better, what I should have done better.
--:-- Tim Walz: I don't have a big solution. But what I think for all of us is, is what's encouraging to me, these town halls, the kind of organic folks bringing up, there's not going to be a charismatic leader ride in and come up with this just perfectly delivered message that's going to get us out of this.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's going to be a whole bunch of people who don't want to see kids go hungry, who don't want to see health care ripped apart, who don't want to throw Ukraine under the bus on the side of Russia.
--:-- Tim Walz: Those folks are going to stand up and make a difference. So yes, in answer to your question, Yes, it's frustrating, but it's hard.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can't get things done. And look, I came from a very, I was, since 1892 in the congressional district, I was at two Democrats won that seat.
--:-- Tim Walz: I got reelected in 2016 for the last time, and I had the same positions or whatever. Now, I'll acknowledge to you, it has shifted dramatically.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I probably couldn't win that congressional district having the same positions.
--:-- Tim Walz: And what's happened with that is it eroded to the point where you don't have the crossover.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And as a governor, I can do things. I don't want to hold up a bidding paddle when President Trump is lying about what the future is going to hold for us.
--:-- Tim Walz: James Carville said in a New York Times op that the Democrats should sort of roll over and play dead let the Republicans have their way with the government anger voters to the point that they repulsed by their policies and then go for a shot in the jugular.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What do you think of that strategy?
--:-- Tim Walz: Well, I don't agree with it. And I don't agree with it in this, that, well, first, this idea that people need to feel the pain, I'm going to do all I can as governor. What I said, it's going to be painful. But I said to my team is that we protect the most vulnerable, we protect our gains. That's what we're going to do.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Now, I know that what James is saying is when somebody's digging a hole, let them keep digging. Don't get in. I'm kind of the adage, especially with these guys, let's help them dig and get this hole done faster so people start flipping and we can start fixing this thing quicker.
--:-- Tim Walz: So I don't think just setting back and letting the policies that are go for it. This isn't simple disagreement on tax rates, simple disagreement on how much we should do on defense spending versus domestic or whatever.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This is an all out assault around Article one of the Constitution.
--:-- Tim Walz: And again, I don't want to overreact, but I said this last week and I stand by this. The road to authoritarianism is littered with people saying you're overreacting.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I think that piece of it, of speaking out, matters.
--:-- Tim Walz: Since you understand how Congress works, you were there. What would you be doing if you were there right now? It seems like Democrats, you know, they don't have power. They can't do much.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: James Carl was saying, great, you don't have to. Let them mess this up.
--:-- Tim Walz: But if you were sitting there right now what do you think you would be doing or saying?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah, it's hard and the thing about Congress some of the the folks with less hair in here to remember this remember that I'm just a bill sitting on Capitol Hill that's total bullcrap it doesn't work that it doesn't work that way.
--:-- Tim Walz: But look it was relationships it was things that you could do I'm not there so this is second guessing and again if I'm criticizing anybody in Congress they are rightfully to say oh says my son did this and I'm giving him wisdom from a father.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And in the middle of that wisdom lecture, he said, oh, yes, that's the guy who got his ass kicked by Donald Trump.
--:-- Tim Walz: And so I'm like, okay, fair enough. So I don't, I don't, I don't, you know, want to be the guy to lecture them, but I don't think you give them a single vote on these unqualified members of the cabinet.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I think you make it clear that the American public, you're voting for them.
--:-- Tim Walz: Okay. I got, I got one more practical question about Congress and then we'll move on.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But But funding for the federal government is set to run out on Friday. How do you want to see Democrats navigate that one?
--:-- Tim Walz: This is the really difficult question. And this is where it's going to sound like a bit contradictory on my part, this idea of not wanting people to suffer or whatever.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This is one of those cases, though. This is their responsibility. Things like the debt ceiling. Just be very clear. Nobody, when your party has power, it's your responsibility to raise the debt ceiling.
--:-- Tim Walz: And that's to pay the bills that have already been done. That's not increased spending. And every single time, people don't want to do that because it's like bad messaging.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But you've got to do it. When Barack Obama needed it to rise the debt ceiling, I voted to do that.
--:-- Tim Walz: So I'm part of doing that. I would argue we're in a different time and what's happening right now.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I think if the Republicans can't pass a budget with the presidency, the House and the Senate, you let them figure that part out.
--:-- Tim Walz: And if the government shuts down now, here's what I worry about is I care deeply about the shutdown because it will have an impact. It will have an impact on states.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I can only backfill so much. But I think if you don't do that and if you give them the votes to pass this horrific budget just to avoid a shutdown, we're only prolonging the pain.
--:-- Tim Walz: We're going to have to go through this and we're going to have to get it done. So I would hope they make the Republicans pass this and own it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Have they done anything you liked? They've done a lot. Have they done anything you thought, well, that's helpful. That's a fair question because I know, yeah, I don't want to be that guy.
--:-- Tim Walz: It sounds like there's plenty you don't like. Yeah, you're right. Man. Okay, two things. And especially today. Two things.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I'll mention this, especially today, tonight. I think I come down on Trump's side on daylight savings time.
--:-- Tim Walz: So we started talking about that. I'll give you that. Someone over there, too. I'll give you that one.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So I'm pretty fiscally conservative. So here's the thing. I heard Donald Trump talk about this, and I'm with him.
--:-- Tim Walz: I think we should get rid of the penny. I think it's outlived its thing.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So, yeah, the world's melding down around us, but Donald and I are solving the penny crisis. So I am bipartisan.
--:-- Tim Walz: It costs three point something cents to make. It doesn't make any sense.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Governor Tim Walz, we're going to talk about what we can learn from 2024 on the long, long, long road to 2028. And we return on Today Explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Support for Today Explained comes from Built Rewards. These days, it seems like everybody has a rewards program. You swipe your card and you get one cent on the hundred dollars.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But with your rent, frequently, you just pay month after month. You never get anything from it other than that roof over your head. Not anymore, says Built Rewards.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Built Rewards says it lets you earn points on your rent. By paying rent through Built, they say you can earn flexible points that can be redeemed toward hundreds of hotels and airlines, perhaps a future rent payment. Your next Lyft ride, and so much more.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Your home isn't just where you sleep, it's your community, and Built wants you to go out and do things in the community. You can eat at your favorite local restaurants, then earn more points.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can get VIP treatment at certain fitness studios. You can enjoy exclusive experiences just for Built members every month.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: When you're ready to travel, they say Built points can be converted to miles or hotel points all around the world. You can earn points on rent and around your neighborhood wherever you call home by joining built.com slash explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Let's talk about 2024 for a minute here. Not because I want to dwell on the past, but you brought it up that you guys didn't win. I want to better understand why not.
--:-- Tim Walz: You guys didn't swing a single swing state in your direction. A lot of people were stunned by that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Were you surprised? Were you stunned?
--:-- Tim Walz: Yeah, and I tell you this that when you in this business you got to be just you know steely and cold about where things are at.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I spent my time in about seven swing states and felt like I was getting down to where folks were at. Obviously not.
--:-- Tim Walz: And I think the soul-searching that comes with that is, is why did our message about focusing on the middle class, expanded health care, Medicare hope for home health care work, environmental issues. Why did that not work?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Because it felt like to me that it was resonating and it did not. And we didn't.
--:-- Tim Walz: And I think the team around me said this. We'll either win all seven or we'll lose all seven on this.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think that they thought because it was, these things are so nationalized now that it didn't matter.
--:-- Tim Walz: I'm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, talking to folks who are up in Erie or you're in Waukesha in Wisconsin. The national narrative over the top of that was going to drive it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And it felt like we were there and I, you know, drinking my own Kool-Aid or whatever.
--:-- Tim Walz: And that's on me. I said, I own that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You've been doing soul searching. Is there one thing you wish you could take back or are there, you know, a half dozen or so? If there's one thing you could take back or do over, what do you think it would be?
--:-- Tim Walz: One thing I will not take back is when I said he was skipping like a dipshit. I own it. I own that. I'm not taking it back.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think I would have taken back, um, getting myself sucked into the conversation around what was happening in Springfield, Ohio.
--:-- Tim Walz: And it hit me on the heart string on this. And look, I know my weaknesses on this. I am a sucker. If somebody's nice to me, I'll be nice to them type of thing.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This one was, it so struck me like reprehensible that they were saying this about people that I was in like a three or four day debate making my case that this is not happening in Springfield, Ohio.
--:-- Tim Walz: And every time I was saying that we were talking about Springfield, Ohio and immigration. We weren't talking about other things that mattered to people.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I went down that line trying to do I think morally the right thing.
--:-- Tim Walz: It turns out I'm how much have you heard about Springfield, Ohio? By the way since that election what Donald Trump has mastered is He floods the zone to the point where you don't get to make your point.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And it doesn't matter if it was eating dogs and cats because it was immigration and people were uncomfortable with immigration.
--:-- Tim Walz: And so I would I would do that differently. I don't think vice president Harris has been asked this But I bet one thing she wished she could take back was that moment in that interview with the view where she said she wouldn't change a single thing the Biden administration was doing.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think that I'm sure the right loved that. And I think a lot of people on the left were stunned by that.
--:-- Tim Walz: Now, she's not here, so I can't ask her. But let me ask you, in that moment, had that question been posed to you? I mean, what were things that you think you could change that the Biden administration could have been doing better?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah, I think they should have been out there telling us that the inflation was real and this hurt.
--:-- Tim Walz: I think, you know, if I in retrospect, which is 2020 hindsight type of thing, I think there should have been talk about sending, especially in the summer of 23, potentially sending, you know, stimulus checks to folks to try and counter some of it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And making it clear that we were fighting for them.
--:-- Tim Walz: Look, I think you were always going against this idea of change. They wanted it was a change election. It's happened globally. We needed to be the change.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And with that statement, more than anything, was a lot of great work was done by the administration. We have we do have the best economy, but that doesn't matter on a micro scale to someone if they can't afford the rent payment.
--:-- Tim Walz: But in fairness to the vice president, had it been me in that moment, I might have made that same thing.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I think that's we as Democrats better do some soul searching about that. Why would we do that? It's not like we're blindly loyal like, you know, the Trump folks are.
--:-- Tim Walz: But there was it's OK to criticize people you like. In fact, that's what you need. You've got to surround yourself with people who aren't yes people to tell you that you didn't do a very good job on this or you should change this.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We didn't do that. We didn't do it. You know, you watch the RNC. You don't see the Bushes on stage. You certainly don't see the Cheneys.
--:-- Tim Walz: But you watch the DNC and you still see the Obamas and the Clintons. Do you think it's time that, I mean, I'm not going to say, you know, don't put Barack Obama on stage, don't put Michelle Obama on stage.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But do you think it's time the Democratic Party refresh a little bit, put some fresh faces on there? Because here we are, and there's still no one has any idea who's coming next.
--:-- Tim Walz: Well, I will say this. The DNC was a good party on that. I thought it would do something better than them.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But let's, yes, yes. And I'm going to say, can this be our bar? Let's have our 2028 candidate have hair. Ouch. Took yourself out of the race.
--:-- Tim Walz: Reflective on this. Look, I don't want to downplay that. We just need to, whoever it is needs to win and we need to understand that.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But I don't deny this, this sense of the future. Now, with that logic or whatever, look what the Republicans did.
--:-- Tim Walz: I said this, we don't have term limits in Minnesota and you do a four-year term. I've done two of those. I could finish my term now and do four more terms as governor and be younger than Donald Trump.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So this idea that, well, the Republicans are young and fresh or whatever, that's not totally true either.
--:-- Tim Walz: But I think, I do think they engage people more. They're more willing to give them that especially.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I think it feels like there's a bottleneck in elected office where it's, the choice shouldn't be between running your parents for the Senate or putting them into a home.
--:-- Tim Walz: That should not be the choice. And we get a little bit, or for governor. Fair enough. No hair. I get it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The Trump administration, the Trump campaign seems to mostly run on, you know, the economy, immigration, but they get into office and it feels like they're mostly focused on draining the so-called swamp and, and wokeness.
--:-- Tim Walz: Now the wokeness, they seem to be campaigning against. Some of it started in your state with the murder of George Floyd.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And it seems like they are betting that the majority of the American people, or at least their base thinks that there was an overcorrection after the death of George Floyd, whatever happened with BLM and DEI.
--:-- Tim Walz: I think we have not done a good job of explaining it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And look, we, I don't know, you fire, you have a whole bunch of top military officers, only two you fire are a woman and a black man.
--:-- Tim Walz: I think we need to name that when it happens, just to be clear, need to name it.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But we also need to tell the average person who I do not believe is racist, but doesn't understand what we're saying.
--:-- Tim Walz: And they have been conditioned by the other side that we are somehow passing over well-qualified white males to put these people in there.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think we as Democrats have a great example to rebut that. Just look at the cabinet. Just look at this current cabinet.
--:-- Tim Walz: If that's the best and brightest coming from the other side, we Seriously that we should make that case about accountability.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And so yes I and look I don deny this I do I think we losing elections and and folks in the middle doing this I yeah I think it costing votes but I think and I say this as a teacher I always said this if I would teach a lesson and then I would give a quiz on it and half the class would fail it I assume that half wasn't very smart.
--:-- Tim Walz: What I assumed is, is the method that I used to teach hit part of the class but didn't hit another because of their learning styles or whatever it might be.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So I want them to learn this geography concept. I should teach it in three or four or five different ways to make sure I'm as broad as possible that they got the concept on that.
--:-- Tim Walz: I think we teach DEI one way on this instead of being more strategic about how we talk about it because I don't believe my neighbors think it's a horrible thing to make sure everybody's got a shot to be able to succeed and that helps all of us.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So yeah, I think we're not doing a good job with that. I think it is electorally hurting us, But more importantly, it's hurting real people in their real lives.
--:-- Tim Walz: And it's throwing up those systemic barriers that have held us back for generations that we I think we're getting at.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: There's there's some cognitive dissonance in this country right now because some people can't believe that we're canceling aid to African children, that we're deporting migrants the way we're doing it, that we're treating trans people the way we're treating them.
--:-- Tim Walz: And then it seems like half the country's pleased as punch about it all, which is confusing.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It feels like we're losing a sense of ourselves. But you just spent months crisscrossing the country, shaking every hand in sight, and you seem like a glass half full kind of guy.
--:-- Tim Walz: What would you say to people who are losing faith in their American identity right now? Because it feels like you've still got faith.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah, no, it's tough. I don't want to wisp past the graveyard, but you know, it's not a cliche. Every generation has to renew the democracy.
--:-- Tim Walz: And again, I will admit it. I would like to live in precedented times. I'm sick of living in unprecedented times.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Oh, no governors. You know, I'm sick of that. I want normalcy. I don't want to see these people.
--:-- Tim Walz: But there's also an opportunity and a privilege for us to reimagine. And when I got asked the other day, they said, who's the leader of the Democratic Party? I'm like, hell if I know.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think it's the people who are out there. I think it's the working class because we are not cultish.
--:-- Tim Walz: It's pretty clear if you ask a Republican who's leader of the Republican Party, because they can't say it fast enough, put on their red hat and dance to the tune.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We're not going to dance to that tune, but we have a set of shared values.
--:-- Tim Walz: And so I am optimistic. I do believe, and look, I do believe that arc of the moral universe bends, but I don't think it bends by itself.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I think you've got to reach up and pull it some to get there.
--:-- Tim Walz: This is a bit of a personal question. Do you miss wearing your glasses?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I ran this I'm freakishly fast still for an old man I run 22 miles a week I can still run 8.3 miles pretty casual so I went running this morning I put in my contacts and I think it does make me look less old that I have to get criticized online my vanity it seemed like you lost right around the time you got the running mate gig and I wonder you're still out here you're talking to us right now at South by Southwest I saw you on I think Maddow I saw you talking to Molly Jong-Fast, David Remnick.
--:-- Tim Walz: Are you running for something right now?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I am not. I have the potential, if I would be given the privilege, to run for a third term of governor of Minnesota.
--:-- Tim Walz: But I hope those are Minnesotans. But no, but my goal is, and I don't, you know, the ticket, we just need to make sure that we have a winning candidate for 28, not because they're Democrats, but because they care about people and they adhere to our values.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Okay, Governor, I got one last thing Because we're in Austin And someone told me that Austin isn't as weird as it used to be And she was lamenting that I wanted to ask you if you've noticed something that's happening on social media right now With the guy who did get the gig to be vice president
--:-- Tim Walz: Yes, my son sent it to me What did he send you?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He sent me a lot of them in, I think, trying to figure that out A lot of what?
--:-- Tim Walz: A lot of my opponent's memes Is that what you're talking about?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I brought a smattering of them for you today to pick your favorite. We've got emo J.D. Vance here. Let's see what else we got. This is painful for me, because my son's going to say, yeah, all those, and he kicked your ass.
--:-- Tim Walz: Well, it was the other guy. We got Shaman J.D. Vance. We got Hulk Hogan J.D. Vance. What is it with this?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Kevin James J.D. Vance. The guy from Shrek J.D. Vance. Violet from Willy Wonka J.D. Vance. Just a few more here. Minion J.D. Vance. What's behind this?
--:-- Tim Walz: I think it started around the time they won. Maybe a little bit before they won. People just started having fun with his face.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This is like Sid's toy from Toy Story mutilated J.D. Vance. This might be the one silver lining I didn't win. I can't imagine what they'd do with me.
--:-- Tim Walz: I don't know. I think it's a J.D. specific meme.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This is the sphere J.D. Vance. That's actually my favorite. They get really weird. Kim Jong-un, J.D. Vance. I'm sorry. Marjorie Taylor Greene, J.D. Vance. That's what we got the crowd's favorite. Two more. Melania with the hat, J.D. Vance. And then lastly, I couldn't find Tim Wall's J.D. Vance, but I could unfortunately find Kamala Harris, J.D. Vance.
--:-- Tim Walz: Any favorites, sir, before we go?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Thank you for that. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, but I'm going to take it.
--:-- Tim Walz: That was good. Governor Tim Walls, everybody. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Governor Tim Walls, Walls2028.com. Kidding, kidding. I guess you can go to Minnesota's website, mn.gov.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We spoke at South by Southwest on Saturday.
--:-- [Sound of applause]
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Heidi Mawagdi, Travis Larchuk, Laura Bullard, Amanda Llewellyn, Andrea Christensdottir, Patrick Boyd, and Miranda Kennedy helped put the show together today.
--:-- Tim Walz: And lots and lots of people from the greater Vox Media cinematic universe helped us out at South by Southwest.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Thanks, Millie Rock, to all of them.
--:-- Tim Walz: If you want more Vox Media at South by Southwest, our colleague Kara Swisher spoke to Senator Elizabeth Warren on stage shortly after our conversation with Tim Walz.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You can find that over at On with Kara Swisher.
--:-- Tim Walz: For now, we here at Today Explained are off. Thank you.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Thank you.
--:-- [Sound of applause]
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Thanks for listening to Today Explained. If you want to support the show, you can become a member at vox.com/members.
