No, Tim Walz did not say he would make AOC House speaker | Fact check

An Oct. 28 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) highlights a recent online appearance by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee.
“Tim Walz and AOC play Madden on Twitch,” the post begins. “During the live stream, Walz told Ocasio-Cortez that if he and Kamala Harris won the election, he would make her the Speaker of the House.”
Other Instagram posts made similar claims.
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Walz did not say he would make Ocasio-Cortez speaker. The exchange referenced in the claim came in a discussion about an AI task force she sits on. And the speaker is chosen by the House, not the president or vice president.
Walz and Ocasio-Cortez used her Twitch stream on Oct. 27 to discuss the final days of the presidential campaign, talking politics while playing video games before he took the stage for an event that night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Social media claims focus on a stretch of the stream when the duo played Madden NFL and Walz said, “We’re going to win this election. We’re gonna make you, put a gavel in your hand in the House.”
A full video of the exchange, posted to YouTube on Oct. 28, shows the comment is being misrepresented online by cutting it out of an exchange that addressed the risks and potential of artificial intelligence, along with Ocasio-Cortez’s participation on a bipartisan AI task force in the House.
“We’re going to make you, put a gavel in your hand in the house, maybe for that committee, so we can get something done,” Walz said.
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After Fox News suggested the exchange was about making her speaker, Ocasio-Cortez responded with a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“He said we’d get gavels,” she wrote. “There are over 100 gavels in the House. I am currently the Ranking Member of Energy & Mineral Resources. If Dems win the majority & I stay on the subcommittee, we’d all get gavels.”
The claim also conflicts with the process by which speakers are chosen. Members of Congress select a speaker on the first day of each term, typically choosing from the leaders named by the Republican and Democratic parties in their own caucus meetings. The speaker needs to secure a simple majority of the representatives-elect present and voting, meaning the majority party’s leader would typically have a clear path to the role.
The executive branch has no formal role in selecting the speaker, though Harris and Walz could presumably have ways of influencing the choice if elected.
USA TODAY reached out to Walz through a campaign spokesperson and some social media users who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
PolitiFact, Check Your Fact and AFP also debunked the claim.
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