Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura praised current Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz while speaking with MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday — especially for the Democratic VP pick’s push to legalize marijuana in the state. “Twenty-some years ago, I tried to legalize cannabis marijuana. I lit the match,” the independent politician began.
“Well, the match simmered for 20 years and finally became a flame, and Gov. Walz called me and he said, ‘Gov. Ventura, you need to be in my office Monday at 11. I’m going to sign in the law ending the prohibition of marijuana in Minnesota. It was your idea. You’re still alive. You should be there to take credit for this because you’re the one who done it,’” Ventura continued.
“That’s the kind of person Tim Walz is,” Ventura warmly concluded.
The former Minnesota governor, a military vet himself, also defended Walz’s military service against attacks from GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and the Republican Party, who have criticized Walz for retiring after 24 years of service.
“First and foremost, any point after 20 years, you can retire when you want to,” Ventura explained. “Second, Vance is missing the point. What he ought to be asking is this: why is the National Guard being shipped out and fighting in foreign wars and other lands? That isn’t their role.”
“Their role is to be here in our nation protecting us inside our own country. That’s why they’re called ‘the National Guard,’” he continued, exasperated.
Ventura blamed the issue on former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. During the Iraq War, “They couldn’t bring back a draft. It would be political suicide. So what did they do? Bush signed an executive order now sending our National Guard over in the world combat zones. That is ridiculous.”
Sharpton and Ventura also spoke about the elephant in the room: Donald Trump, and their own past friendships with him. Sharpton asked if Trump is the same person that Ventura was once friends with — a question the former governor replied to with a resounding no.
“He is not the guy that came to me back in ’98 after I won,” Ventura said. Ventura even recruited Trump for the Reform Party in an earlier potential run for president. “Back then he was much more liberal, but you need to understand, Donald Trump is for Donald Trump, and Donald Trump is going to do whatever it is that supports Donald Trump.”
“So he looked the situation over. He obviously saw that he could take over the Republican Party. So he changed his views. You know, he went from pro-choice now to, you know, no rights for women’s reproduction. He’s gone far right. He’s trying to say he’s now a religious person. Well, to me, if you’re going to be a religious person, you have to live it,” Ventura continued.
Ventura sarcastically noted that he, as an atheist/agnostic, thinks he’s more religious than Trump.
“And Donald Trump hardly lives it. I mean, he’s had multiple wives. I often laugh and think, what would the Republicans have said if Barack Obama would have had multiple wives and multiple children and ran for president, like Donald Trump? What would the Republican response be to that? It would have been horrifying to see what Republicans would have said if that would have been Barack Obama.”
You can watch the interview with Jesse Ventura in the video above.
