Former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has blasted Donald Trump, saying the president’s crackdown on free speech is straight from North Korea’s playbook.
Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 election was speaking on MSNBC’s All In when he compared the current climate in the U.S. to that of the tightly censored hermit state.
The Minnesota governor likened Trump to a dictator in the wake of ABC’s decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live after a mix of administration pressure and MAGA pile-on.
He fired a wave of criticism touching on murdered Democrats, thin-skinned Trump, and defending democracy.
“If you ever wonder how democracy dies, this is it. It’s one of the most outrageous affronts on this. This is North Korea-style stuff,” Walz warned.
“And it’s being done because this is a weak, thin-skinned man who’s failing as a president. All of the things he promised are not happening, and this is exactly what dictators do.
ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show. PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
“It’s our most cherished freedom to point out very clearly that this is a terrible president and a terrible human being who is doing nothing to improve the lives of Minnesotans and who continues to have this double standard, because I just want to be very clear, there is no place for political violence, and we condemn it.”
He again brought up Melissa Hortman, a leading member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, who was shot dead in her Brooklyn Park home in June by a man impersonating a police officer. Her husband and dog were also killed.
Hortman was later found to be on a list of Democrats to be targeted by 57-year-old Trump supporter Vance Boelter, who has been charged with their murder.
“But I would like to see the notice of how this is being approached and how my dear friend Melissa Hortman‘s murder in a political attack was handled. And the attacks we see. We see a Fox News host on air talk about killing homeless people, and this week we saw eight homeless people shot in Minneapolis,” he said, touching on Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade’s vile comments about homeless people.
During a live broadcast last week, he suggested the homeless should face “involuntary lethal injection or something” before adding, “just kill ’em.”
Walz, who launched his gubernatorial re-election bid Tuesday, said, “None of this surprises me with Donald Trump. This is not overreacting; this is our responsibility now. Getting a democracy back after it’s gone is a lot harder than defending it now.”
Walz, running mate of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, laid into Trump. Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images
On Jimmy Kimmel, he added, “The idea that they’re going to chill speech just because it’s critical, look, this isn’t about any other type of speech other than what Donald Trump views as anti-Trump. He said it, it’s not about Charlie Kirk’s murder. He said it, ”You’re against Trump.“ He said Americans should be “deeply concerned.”
Trump called the decision to pull Kimmel’s show “great news for America.” On Thursday, making his way back to the U.S. after his U.K. state visit, he told reporters on Air Force One, “They give me only bad publicity [and] press. I mean, they’re getting a licence. I would think maybe their licence should be taken away,” he said.
It comes as Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr said his agency’s “not done yet.” He also told The Bulwark’s Scott Jenninksy that he thought it was “worthwhile to have the FCC look into The View,” another ABC program, and more.
The White House said Kimmel’s show was pulled because he’s not funny. Mike Blake/REUTERS
In response to Walz’s comments, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said that Kimmel’s ouster has nothing to do with the dissolution of free speech. “This has nothing to do with free speech—low-ratings loser Jimmy Kimmel is free to make whatever bad jokes he wants, but a private company is under no obligation to lose money producing an unpopular show,” she told the Daily Beast.
She continued: “Kimmel’s ratings have declined over 63 percent since his show moved to its current timeslot and he has lost over 43 percent of his total audience since President Trump returned to office. Jimmy Kimmel’s terrible product isn’t a free speech problem; it’s a talent problem. He is welcome to go start a Substack like all the other low-ratings losers!”