Tim Walz calls for a 'shadow government' to combat Trump admin

At a Texas town hall event on Thursday night alongside former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that a "shadow government" is needed to tell "the truth about what things are happening."

In response to a woman expressing fear that "we’re not going to make it to the midterms," asking how it can be made sure that "they’re free of fraud," Walz noted an executive order recently signed by Trump that he claimed made it more difficult, "specifically to women," to vote, and said that "one of the first things they do is try and restrict the vote."

"This is one of the things, though, that is going to take power to the streets. I don’t know what the answer is on this, but I’m kind of, I’ve been saying this, I think we need a shadow government. So when all these things come up every single day, we’ve got an alternate press conference telling the truth about what things are happening," he said, which was met with loud cheers from the audience.

He said that what he thinks the Democrats have done wrong when they’re been in control is that "we’ve been timid. I think we tried to cut deals." He said that when the Democrats had the House and Senate, they should have passed the John Lewis Voting Rights act as well as the Employee Free Choice Act.

Later in the town hall, a man asked Walz, "why aren’t our Democratic leadership being more aggressive about fighting" what he called an "existential crisis in this country."

During his response, in which he discussed Social Security and the "primal scream of do something" Walz heard, he recounted a story about his son, Gus.

"I got an 18-year-old, Gus, and I’m with Gus out there having one of those dad talks with him. I was giving Gus my wisdom on what he had done—because I know these things, right? I’m a dad. In the middle of it, he gives me the old, 'says the guy who got his a** kicked by Donald Trump. And I’m like okay, okay, okay."

"Well, look, we need to acknowledge what happened" and "we need to go out and listen to people," Walz added.

"People are standing up and saying, this is what is important to us. People are saying, this is why I don’t think the Democrats are winning and you should do this. We need to be capturing this."