‘It feels different in here’: Walz returns to the Capitol after death of friend and colleague

Gov. Tim Walz returned Monday to the Minnesota Capitol for the first time since a gunman fatally shot Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and seriously injured Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

The shootings early Saturday morning shocked the public, as well as state lawmakers who had just celebrated passing a bipartisan budget, their relief and sense of accomplishment giving way to fear as a dayslong manhunt for a suspect who’d listed dozens of lawmakers on an apparent target list ensued.

At the Capitol, Walz and his wife, Gwen, paused to take in a growing memorial for Hortman outside of the House chamber where she had helped hammer out the difficult budget deal just days earlier. They added a bouquet of flowers to a table in front of the main doors.

In his first interview since the shootings, Walz previewed a much larger remembrance to come. He told MPR News that he’s notified his team to prepare for the possibility of Hortman and her husband to lie in state at the Capitol.

She would be the first woman and the first lawmaker with only House service on her political résumé to have those honors, according to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library.

In the interview, Walz called Hortman his “closest ally” and praised her bipartisanship as a model for a divided country.

Listen to the full interview with politics editor Brian Bakst using the audio player above, or read a transcript of it below. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

You had to convey the news that your friends and colleagues had been shot, all while dealing with the extended public safety threat and a manhunt. Did you have to compartmentalize the two? How did you keep your personal emotions to the side during that?

Well, yes. And again, condolences all around and thank you. I think the shock is maybe right now coming into this building. In this moment.

We were focused on making sure public safety, making sure the other officials were safe, and then the work of coordinating to bring this suspect in.  And so I think now, over the last half hour of coming in this building, and I've never worked in this building without my closest ally, Melissa. 

How did that hit you when you came in today? 

Well, I don’t think sadness sums it up. It feels a little despondent. Just her smile and the way she conducted herself, obviously policy and skillfulness — you’ve heard all about that, but it was personality, and it was the hope, and it feels different in here. I think a lot of Minnesotans, it’s going to be a really, really hard week. 

Back to those early morning hours on Saturday, were you alerted that you might have been at risk as this unfolded? 

Not at that time. It came more as my responsibility to stand up the Emergency Operations Center. I think I received a call from from my chief of staff at right around 4:30 a.m. I moved and was into the state emergency operations center a little before 6:00, and then we basically spent the next 43 hours in updates and work and things that we were doing. 

We learned this morning from federal authorities that the suspect went to at least four residences of lawmakers. How much worse could this have been? 

Oh, far worse. A law enforcement officer said, “You know what, if they went to John Hoffman’s home, can somebody go check on Melissa and Mark?” and they were probably a minute away from saving them.

And these other representatives who were gone, they would have been killed in this. I think it’s clear, you know, early things will come out on this, that this was well planned. He certainly had the armament to do the damage. 

Well, obviously a lot of people at the Capitol, yourself included, are grieving this loss of Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. Even before this tragedy, it was no secret that you admired her as a person and as a political leader. What distinguished her? 

There’s no one in my entire public career that I worked closer with and counted on more. I think she had the rare combination: she understood procedure, she understood policy, she understood people.

She brought a work ethic that was second to none, and she was always committed on moving things forward. And in today's world, people get chastised because they’re willing to compromise. Nothing that I’ve done as governor would have gotten done without Melissa Hortman, and I’ve never worked closer with someone than with her.

And your families get to know this. My wife is grieving Mark as we all are. When you go into public service, your entire family is pulled into it. And I don’t really know how to express, and that’s why I said — I just got to be candid with you, Brian — I feel very unmoored in this building now, because I knew that no matter when things got really tough, I had that close advisor and ally — and to be very candid — a check on me.

There were times when when she let it be known that she was speaker of the house and and that the governor was a separate branch and would not step on the speaker of the house. And that was what made Minnesota’s politics work. 

What kind of tributes or public remembrances are you expecting there to be? 

Well, first of all, for her family and for Colin and Sophie, the kids, we want to honor their wishes. 

I have made available to them and said — and they’re still working preliminarily on this — that I think it is totally appropriate for the stature of Mark and Melissa. I've asked to make sure our admin is ready should they lie in state in the Capitol. And then the public, there will be very, very large numbers of folks who will come out.  

There’s names in Minnesota — your Humphrey, Mondale and Wellstone — I would make the case that Hortman has always been there. She is. She’s humble and and she gets the work done. There’s been very few people in my life that have made a bigger impact. 

You’re anticipating a big outpouring of people who want to come by or want to be part of it.  

Yes, and, you know, I’ll leave it to the family. I don’t want to get out there, but I would say nationally, across the country, we’re receiving calls from outside the country, even leadership. And New York Gov. Hochul has lowered flags in the state of New York.

The world is watching this, I think, the act of political violence. But what I’m focused on now, and what appears today, is that the individual who's in custody, the justice system can deal with him. If I never have to talk about that, I will talk about Melissa Hortman. 

You mentioned her adult children. Have you spoken to them?  

I have a couple of times now. Our team is working with them. They are rocks. They’re their mom’s children. They’re planning, they’re organizing and they’re lifting up people around them.

And I would say the same thing with with Hope Hoffman, who I spoke to yesterday. You can picture in your mind what that young woman, the pain she endured, and she’s out there nursing her parents back to health and thinking about what’s next.  

You lost your brother in tragic circumstances, in a storm in the Boundary Waters many years ago. What lessons did that teach you about moving through traumatic grief? 

Yeah, and just strangely enough, the exact same night, the early morning hours of Father's Day. My brother was lost on Father's Day nine years ago, and I lost my dad at 19.

What I know is that there’s a lot of things happen now, and then people go back to their lives and your life is forever changed. And I think for the Hortman family, for Mark and Melissa’s family, it’s even more so. I think for many Minnesotans, while different circumstances, the tragedy’s the same with Sen. Wellstone’s loss and the tragedy we felt.

I think the biggest thing is that the gratitude and connections of people. I think they knew who their mom was, but I don’t think they knew the depth just because of her humbleness that she never took credit. I think everybody in this building knows, if there were things that moved forward, it’s because Melissa Hortman moved them forward. 

What have you heard in the last several hours about the condition of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette? 

Well, last I heard, it was last night. We heard from some folks who were with him, some of our staff. We understand that Mrs. Hoffman, Yvette, is is doing incredibly well. John came out of the last surgery. I believe he was shot in the elbow and think — I don’t want to get it wrong —but probably in the number of eight or nine times. 

I told them that this is the candle in the in the darkness, that the Hoffman family looks like they’re going to survive. And as of this time, as far as I know, they’re on the road to recovery, which is nothing short of a miracle. 

And I know, as you hope for that, and as you grieve the Hortmans, there’s a lot of questions being asked about what can be done in the immediate term when it comes to Capitol or lawmaker security. What can your administration do on its own? 

Yeah, well, the physical security, and I again can’t say enough about law enforcement and the coordination on this. I think it’s important in these times. The FBI, the ATF, I saw the U.S. Attorney — these are our partners and we work together.

We made sure that folks were notified. Just think about this: at 3:30 a.m. an officer leaving heard this on the radio, stepped back in and said, “Send somebody by the Hortmans.” And then I just think, too Brian, I think we’re going to have to talk about what we can all do, me included, of doing all we can to ratchet down the situation we’re in. 

You talked a lot over the weekend about getting the vitriol out of politics and toning down the rhetoric, as you just mentioned. How will you soften yours? 

Be more thoughtful on it, and I think I’ve always tried to be. I think Minnesotans know where I come from. But in this mood we’re in, I’ve been saying that if they go low, we go high. I kind of made the case, well, I’m going to go with them a bit here, because, you know, pushing back. I think to be thoughtful about that. I don’t think capitulating to, you know, hate or anger or bullying, I will stand up for that. But I think I've always tried to say that.

We just came out of a session where I made that case: that Minnesota's politics, the most divided in the country, Speaker Hortman, Speaker Demuth, Senators Murphy and Johnson navigated it. 

But you’ve been on the national stage and a lot of folks in the political bases, they seem to want the fight. How do those two match up?  

Yeah, I don’t know. At this time, I do agree with you, that’s the case. And then you’re viewed as not being strong enough. I’ve never believed that and I don’t know if I was ever necessarily comfortable in it, but I do get the fight. I just think now, stepping back, I think there’s going to be some folks who need to own up to this, that they’re part of it. You can’t just blame me. You can’t put out misinformation and claim that it’s where things are at.

But I will say this. None of that happened during this legislative session, a difficult legislative session, and I continue to say it. And I said it when I signed the bills. And you think about this, I was out at the Emergency Operations Center late on the first night signing the bills that Melissa Hortman was a part of getting done. 

Have you spoken to President Trump yet?  

I have not.  

Does that surprise you?  

No, I don’t think so. I think I understand where that’s at. I did speak to Vice President Vance, grateful for that call. I’ve spoken with President Biden, Vice President Harris and spoke this morning with Premier Ford of Ontario.  

Have you invited the call from the president? What have you thought about what you might say?  

I’m always open to you know, people expressing gratitude. Vice President Vance assured us, and he delivered, that the FBI would be there as partners with us to get it done. That was what needed to be done.

Then I think at this point in time, Minnesotans, we know where we’re at, and we know what we have to do. We're going to honor and memorialize our friend. 

Speaker Lisa Demuth is here at the Capitol today. Have you spoken much with her and leader Johnson lately? 

They all immediately contacted, graciously. And I again will continue to speak about this, during negotiations I was grateful and so pleased to see the humanity that this bill was negotiated with, and both those leaders exhibited that.  

Do you think the state needs for you to stand with those Republican leaders and the Democratic leaders to just to showcase unity?  

Oh, I’m certain we will. I know there’s memorials being planned as we speak and I certainly think you'll see that, because they’ve been engaged from the very beginning, contacting and speaking with us.  

And I know you don’t want to talk a lot about the suspect, Vance Boelter, but the federal government and county prosecutors have both charged him with multiple crimes. It looks like the feds will take the lead. Are you okay with that? 

Absolutely. And he’ll be given due process, and I have utmost confidence in these prosecutors that they will get the charges and that he will be held accountable.  

And what do you want to say to those who went online to try to associate this man with you politically, or suggest you knew him or had some kind of connection? 

I think that’s the world that we live in. I think most folks who know how government works, these are non-partisan positions. We have thousands of people on these boards that get nominated locally and put them on. But, everything’s a conspiracy, and it doesn’t help us solve the problems.

It’s irrelevant where he was at. Whether you know him or not, he carried out this just unspeakable act, but this is where we’re at. I think it’s all part of this. It leads to this dehumanization. It leads to these type of things.

And what I would say to people doing this is, we need to be very careful right now for copycats and people coming up with this. We had a disturbed individual here, wherever his politics come out. And again, we would be grieving anyone on this, it just so happens he was targeting a certain political group. That doesn’t change the fact that this is horrific and we would be grieving any one of our members. 

What do the next few days look like as leaders and as Minnesotans process what took place? 

I think it’s to be out there to model what this looks like. I think you’ll see us together a lot.

And again, and this is not hyperbole: I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of people at the national level. However, Melissa was a singular force of understanding how democracy worked in getting things done. You didn’t have to agree with her politics to know that she was effective. She was decent when it came time, and if her point did not win out, she accepted it, shook hands and signed it.

I would make the case the rest of the country can watch how we handle this. As I said, I think it was our finest hour, this this legislative session. It was messy. It had things in it that we’d never seen before. It was divided.

But the discussions we had were the most civil, and I think we came up to a compromise position that we can all as Minnesotans live with. So this coming on the heels of that is just unimaginable, but I’m going to make the case that we have to carry that momentum.