With reconciliation still in the air, and a rescission vote in the House on Thursday that’s expected to be close, you may think House Majority Whip Tom Emmer is most focused on those legislative items. But during an interview with NOTUS on Wednesday, Emmer was fixated on something else: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Walz is due to testify on “sanctuary state” immigration policies before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday — along with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker — and while Emmer won’t be asking his fellow Minnesotan questions at the hearing, he has plenty of thoughts about Walz.
“Minnesotans did not create passive-aggressive behavior. We perfected it,” Emmer told NOTUS. “I don’t think Tim and I need to worry about passive-aggressive behavior. He doesn’t much care for me, and I’m not a big fan.”
Emmer and Walz have a long history. The No. 3 House Republican, who represents a district surrounding Minneapolis, has known Walz for more than a decade. And the two crossed paths in state politics before they served in the House together at the start of President Donald Trump’s first term.
At no point, however, have Emmer and Walz ever been friends. And as they’ve both progressed in national politics, their distaste for each other seems to have only grown.
“My reason for not being a big fan is he lies with conviction, and has been doing it for years,” Emmer said of Walz. “He is a complete incompetent when it comes to understanding how business operates, and he hasn’t kept my state safe.”
Walz’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Emmer is excited to have the Oversight Committee question Walz about Minnesota’s immigration policies, which he claimed had made the state “dangerous.”
“He will totally deflect, in my opinion, like he always does,” Emmer said of the governor and former vice presidential candidate. “The reason we have a state government is to protect its citizens and their property. That is job No. 1, and he is completely absent at it.”
While Emmer had plenty more thoughts on Walz, he also had thoughts about reconciliation. He remains bullish about the Senate and the House meeting their self-imposed deadline of getting the bill to Trump’s desk by the Fourth of July recess.
“I fully expect that they will pass whatever they’re going to pass, and send it back before the July 4 deadline, and that we will be passing it over here and getting it to the president’s desk by Independence Day,” Emmer said.
That timeline — as well as Emmer’s brief order of operations — suggests he thinks the House may accept whatever the Senate sends over. When NOTUS brought up a letter the House Freedom Caucus sent senators this week urging them to make the bill even more conservative, rather than just not watering it down, Emmer said he respected what Freedom Caucus members were trying to do.
“They are fighting for the positions they believe in,” Emmer said. “But at the end of the day, the Senate is going to determine what the Senate is going to do.”
Emmer pointed out that this Congress had essentially met every deadline it had set for itself, whether it be a hard deadline like government funding running out or a self-imposed deadline like passing the reconciliation bill in the House by Memorial Day.
He suggested that, if the Senate happens to pass the reconciliation bill “right at the end of June,” the House could come back from recess and vote on it.
“We’ll see,” Emmer said. “But it’ll be done. The president wants it by July 4, so he’s gonna get it.”
Emmer also expressed confidence that House Republicans would be able to pass a controversial rescissions bill on Thursday.
“It’s gonna pass,” Emmer said.
He said the complaint he hears the most is that the $9.4 billion package — which codifies some of the cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency on NPR, PBS and the United States Agency for International Development — isn’t enough. But Emmer said this was just the first in a package of rescission bills, and that the more members learn about the legislation, the more they support it.
As the whip, Emmer’s job is to get the votes for the GOP’s agenda. But he gave Trump a healthy amount of credit for getting members in line.
He said it can be tough to get Republicans on board with every item of the legislative agenda — “our members are very individual, very principled, core value-type people” — and that while some members fight right up until the end on their priorities, Trump has been successful by explaining his vision.
“He talks to them in their language about what he’s trying to accomplish, and he asks for their support in terms of what he’s trying to get completed,” Emmer said. “And he has been incredibly successful because he has credibility.”
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.