Fact Check: Tim Walz Did NOT Say A Harris Administration Would Make Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez House Speaker
Did Tim Walz tell Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that his administration would make her speaker of the House if Democrats win the election? No, that’s not true: Walz suggested Democratic lawmakers should make her chair of a House committee, not the speaker. Walz is running for vice president, a position that has no direct role in picking House officers.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on an X account belonging to Fox News on October 28, 2024. The caption read:
TWITCH IMPULSE: The Democratic vice presidential nominee told the progressive lawmaker that a potential Harris-Walz administration would make her the Speaker of the House while they were playing a video game. The live stream receiving criticism.
Here’s how the post looked on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 31 15:56:15 2024 UTC)
The post included a link to a short segment from Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s livestream with Walz that aired on the Twitch channel on October 27, 2024. In the clip, Walz talks about making Ocasio-Cortez the chair of a House committee, not speaker of the House. He says:
We’re going to win this election, we’re gonna make you, put a gavel in your hand in the House, maybe for that committee so we can get something done.
The context becomes clear in the full version of the Twitch livestream. Walz and Ocasio-Cortez are discussing the online gaming industry, and at the 37:43 mark, Ocasio-Cortez says:
I’m on the House AI [Artificial Intelligence] Task Force as well. And we talk a lot about this stuff.
Walz responds:
I’m glad you’re on there. No, I am. I think — it’s obvious you embrace this. You’re listening to people … We’re in the middle of a pretty busy nine days here, as you know. We’re going to win this election, we’re gonna make you, put a gavel in your hand in the House, maybe for that committee, so we can get something done … For your listeners to understand, when you’re in the House of Representatives, whoever has the gavel has pretty much everything, makes the decisions. So, if you want folks who are actually, have a to-do list, and want to get it done, stay engaged.
Merriam-Webster defines “gavel” as “a mallet used (as by a presiding officer or auctioneer) for commanding attention or confirming an action (such as a vote or sale).” The speaker of the House of Representatives wields a gavel during meetings (archived here), but so do House committee chairs.
Walz served six terms in the House and likely knows that the vice president has no direct role in selecting either the speaker or committee chairs. Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states:
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers
More Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning Tim Walz can be found here. Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are here. Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the 2024 U.S. presidential election are here.
