Related: Lawmakers shootings: Trump says calling Walz would ‘waste time.’
What they’re saying:
Trump said he hasn’t and wouldn’t be calling Walz because it would “waste time.”
Trump called the Democratic governor “slick” and “whacked out” and said he’s “not calling him.” Trump added, “The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess.” Trump said he could “be nice and call him, but why waste time?”
Remember:
Walz was the vice presidential running mate for 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump.
The other side:
In an interview Monday with Minnesota Public Radio, Walz said he wasn’t surprised by the lack of outreach from Trump, saying, “I think I understand where that’s at.”
On Tuesday, Walz’s spokesperson, Teddy Tschann, said, “Governor Walz wishes that President Trump would be a President for all Americans, but this tragedy isn’t about Trump or Walz. It’s about the Hortman family, the Hoffman family, and the State of Minnesota, and the Governor remains focused on helping all three heal.”
In the early 2000s, Mickey Kaus liked to talk about “the Feiler Faster Thesis, [named] after the guy I stole the idea from:”
The news cycle is much faster these days, thanks to 24-hour cable, the Web, a metastasized pundit caste constantly searching for new angles, etc. As a result, politics is able to move much faster, too, as our democracy learns to process more information in a shorter period and to process it comfortably at this faster pace. Charges and countercharges fly faster, candidates’ fortunes rise and fall faster, etc.
And how! In the old days, it took decades between when a Republican was declared Hitler by Democrat politicians and their media operatives with bylines, and when he was issued a new suit and allowed to leave the Führerbunker in Berlin to attack the latest Rethuglican Hitler. It took over 35 years between Richard Nixon being smeared as a Nazi by George McGovern in the 1972 election, and Roger Ebert and Paul Krugman rehabilitating him as a nuanced, thoughtful statesman to attack current Republicans. It took over 20 years between when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were declared Nazis by all thoughtful “Progressives,” before the Harris campaign aggressively sought their endorsements last year.
In contrast, it’s only taken Walz eight months from when he called Trump someone with “fascist tendencies” to now wondering when the sympathetic phone call to Saint Paul would be coming. And considering that Walz was calling ICE agents a “modern day Gestapo” only a month ago, the pace of change is accelerating exponentially!