I sat down with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Remember Tim Walz? His running mate, former Vice President Kamala Harris, has been keeping a relatively low profile since leaving elected office earlier this year, but Walz is still out there talking to Rachel Maddow, to Molly Jong-Fast, to David Remnick, and now to me about what the Democrats could, should, and need to do to oppose Donald Trump and MAGA. I asked him what hes running from and if theres anything hes running for. Below youll find an excerpt of our conversation for Today, Explained thats been edited for clarity. You can also listen to the interview below or wherever you listen to podcasts.Do you think these guys are still weird?Oh, hell yes. 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.Did you watch the joint session this week?Yeah, parts of it. I did.I felt like the messaging from the Democrats was muddled at that joint session. Some didnt show up at all. Some left early, some wore pink and held up these feeble signs that said, False! or This is not normal. We all saw Representative Al Green protest. But there wasnt a unified message. Did you want to see something more unified from your party?Yes. Other than bidding on an antique tea set or whatever was happening? Yes, I wanted something more than that. Im hearing it from my constituents in Minnesota, and Im hearing it across the country. Theres a primal scream of Do something! Do something! Now I have the advantage as a governor, I can do something. We can put up firewalls against them. Youre not going to demonize our people. Were going to continue to make sure our children are fed. 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.When I get asked, What should we be doing? Im probably the last guy. I didnt get it done. And we needed to win. And thats where were in this pickle because we didnt win. But Im being reflective of what I could have done better, what I should have done better. I dont have a big solution. But what I think for all of us, which is encouraging to me, these town halls the kind of organic folks bringing up theres not going to be a charismatic leader right in and come up with this just perfectly delivered message. Its going to get us out of this. Its going to be a whole bunch of people who dont want to see kids go hungry, who dont want to see health care ripped apart, who dont want to throw Ukraine under the bus on the side of Russia. Those folks are going to stand up and make a difference.So yes, in answer to your question [on Democrats response to Trumps speech]: Yes, its frustrating, but its hard. I served for 12 years in Congress and someone said, Would you like to go back? I said, I would rather eat glass than go back to Congress.James Carville said in a New York Times op-ed 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 theyre repulsed by their policies, and then go for a shot in the jugular. What do you think of that strategy?Well, I dont agree with it, and I dont agree with this idea that people need to feel the pain. Im going to do all that I can as governor. I said to my team that we protect the most vulnerable. We protect our gains. Thats what were going to do.This isnt simple disagreement on tax rates, simple disagreement on how much we should do on defense spending versus domestic or whatever. This is an all-out assault around Article I of the Constitution.Again, I dont want to overreact, but I said this last week and I stand by this: The road to authoritarianism is littered with people saying, Youre overreacting. And I think that piece of it, of speaking out, matters. Have [Trumps team] done anything you liked? Theyve done a lot.Two things. Ill mention this especially today, tonight. I think I come down on Trumps side on Daylight Savings Time. So we started talking about that. Ill give you that, Ill give you that one. And believe it or not, this is bizarre, I heard Donald Trump talk about this and Im with him: I think we should get rid of the penny. I think its outlived its thing. So yeah, the worlds melting down around us. But Donald and I are solving the penny crisis.So lets talk about 2024 for a minute here. Not because I want to dwell on the past, but you brought it up that you guys didnt win. I want to better understand why not. You guys didnt swing a single swing state in your direction. A lot of people were stunned by that. Were you stunned?Yeah. In this business, youve got to be steely eyed and coldhearted about where things are at. I spent my time in about seven swing states, and felt like I was getting down to where folks were at. Obviously not. And I think the soul searching that comes with that is: Why did our message about focusing on the middle class, expanded health care, Medicare, help for home health care work, environmental issues why did that not work? Because it felt like to me that it was resonating and it did not.And I think the team around me said this: Well either win all seven or well lose all seven on this. I think that they thought because these things are so nationalized now that it didnt matter that Im in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, talking to folks or up in Erie. Or youre in Waukesha in Wisconsin. The national narrative over the top of that was going to drive it, and it felt like we were there. And I [was], you know, drinking my own Kool-Aid or whatever. And thats on me. I said I own that.Youve been doing soul searching. If theres one thing you can take back or do over, what do you think it would be?Yeah, I think I would have taken back getting myself sucked into the conversation around what was happening in Springfield, Ohio. 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. And every time I was saying that we were talking about Springfield, Ohio, and immigration we werent talking about other things that mattered to people. And I went down that line trying to do, I think morally the right thing.It turns out, 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 dont get to make your point. And it doesnt matter if it was eating dogs and cats, because it was immigration and people were uncomfortable with immigration. And so I would, I would do that differently.I dont 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 wouldnt change a single thing the Biden administration was doing. Im sure the right loved that, and I think a lot of people on the left were stunned by that. Had that question been posed to you, what were the things that the Biden administration could have been doing better for the American people?Yeah, he should have been out there telling us that inflation was real. And this hurt. In retrospect, I think there should have been talk about sending, especially in the summer of 23, potentially sending stimulus checks to folks to try and counter some of that and making it clear that we were fighting for them. Look, I think you were always going against this idea of change. It was a change election. Its happened globally. We needed to be the change. And what that statement, more than anything, was a lot of great work was done by the administration. We do have the best economy, but that doesnt matter on a micro scale to someone if they cant afford the rent payment.But in fairness to the vice president, had it been me in that moment, I might have [said] that same thing. And I think that we as Democrats better do some soul searching about that. Why would we do that? Its not like were blindly loyal, like, you know, the Trump folks are. But its okay to criticize people you like. In fact, thats what you need.You watch the RNC, you dont see the Bushes on stage. You certainly dont see the Chaneys, but you watch the DNC and you still see the Obamas and the Clintons. Do you think its time the Democratic Party refresh a little bit, put some fresh faces on there? Because here we are, and theres still no one has any idea whos coming next.Well, I will say this: The DNC was a good party. I thought it would do something better than them. But yes, lets have our 2028 candidate have hair.So the Trump campaign seems to mostly run on the economy, immigration, but they get to office and it feels like theyre mostly focused on draining the so-called swamp and, and wokeness. Now the wokeness they seem to be campaigning against, some of it started in your state with the murder of George Floyd. 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. What do you think about that? I think we have not done a good job of explaining it. I think we need to name [racism] when it happens. But we also need to tell the average person who I do not believe is racist, but [who] doesnt understand what were saying. 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. I think we as Democrats have a great example to rebut that: Just look at this current cabinet. If thats the best and brightest coming from the other side, we should make that case about accountability.RelatedTheres some cognitive dissonance in this country right now, because some people cant believe that were canceling aid to African children, that were deporting migrants the way were doing it, that were treating trans people the way were treating them. And then it seems like half the countrys pleased as punch about it all, which is confusing. It feels like were 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. What would you say to people who are losing faith in their American identity right now? Because it feels like youve still got faith. Its tough. I dont want to whistle past the graveyard, but its not a cliche: Every generation has to renew the democracy. And again, I will admit it. I would like to live in precedented times. Im sick of living in unprecedented time. I want normalcy, I dont want to see these people. But theres also an opportunity and a privilege for us to, to reimagine.I think were still exorcizing ghosts that havent been exorcised since the beginning of this country. I think theyre just coming back out. I think theyre raising their head up again, and were going to have to deal with them. So I think its our responsibility, I think the privilege of being in that battle.I got asked the other day, Whos the leader of the Democratic Party? Im like, Hell if I know. I think its the people who are out there. I think its the working class. Because we are not cultish.Its pretty clear if you ask a Republican whos the leader of the Republican Party? Because they cant say it fast enough, put on their red hat and dance to the tune. Were not going to dance to that tune. But we have a set of shared values. And so I am optimistic. I do believe that arc in the moral universe bends, but I dont think it bends by itself. I think you got to reach up and pull it some to get there. Youre talking to us right now at SXSW. I saw you on Maddow. I saw you talking to Molly Jong-Fast, David Remnick. Are you running for somethin right now?I am not. I have the potential, if I would be given the privilege, to run for a third term of governor of Minnesota. We just need to make sure that we have a winning candidate for 28 not because theyre [a Democrat], but because they care about people and they adhere to our values.See More: