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Tag: tim walz

  • The Latest: Harris and Trump paint different pictures for voters as the White House intensifies

    The Latest: Harris and Trump paint different pictures for voters as the White House intensifies

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    Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are painting much different pictures as they meet with voters on the campaign trail. Harris, by turns, is pushing “joy” — branding the Democratic ticket, which includes her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “as joyful warriors.”

    Trump, meanwhile, has promoted a gloomier view for Republicans, saying at a news conference last week that, “We have a lot of bad things coming up.”

    Voters will more from both candidates and their running mates in the days ahead.

    Walz will hold his first solo events this week, traveling on Tuesday to Los Angeles to speak at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention, before attending a series of fundraisers around the country.

    Trump is set to do a live interview Monday on X, the social platform from which he was banned for nearly two years following the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.

    Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

    Here’s the Latest:

    Trump campaign says its emails were hacked

    Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said Saturday that it had been hacked and suggested Iranian actors were involved in stealing and distributing sensitive internal documents.

    The campaign provided no specific evidence of Iran’s involvement, but the claim comes a day after Microsoft issued a report detailing foreign agents’ attempts to interfere in the U.S. campaign in 2024.

    It cited an instance of an Iranian military intelligence unit in June sending “a spear-phishing email to a high-ranking official of a presidential campaign from a compromised email account of a former senior advisor.”

    Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung blamed the hack on “foreign sources hostile to the United States.” A spokesperson for the National Security Council said in a statement that it takes any report of improper foreign interference “extremely seriously” and condemns any government or entity that attempts to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions, but said it deferred to the Justice Department on this matter.

    ▶ Read more here.

    Walz to hold first solo events as Harris’ running mate

    Tim Walz is holding his first solo events as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, traveling on Tuesday to Los Angeles to speak at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention, before attending a series of fundraisers around the country.

    After his speech in Los Angeles, the Minnesota governor will hit five states in three days, beginning with a fundraiser in Newport Beach, California.

    He will headline two more fundraisers on Wednesday in Denver and Boston. He’ll speak at fundraisers in Newport, Rhode Island, and Southampton, New York the following day.

    Harris introduced Walz as her running mate during a joint rally last week in Philadelphia, and the pair then campaigned together in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. The vice president is set to campaign with Biden in Maryland this week, and also has promised to detail her policy proposals on the economy.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Associated Press

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  • Harris Campaign Claims Tim Walz Merely ‘Misspoke’ Amid Controversy Over Stolen Valor

    Harris Campaign Claims Tim Walz Merely ‘Misspoke’ Amid Controversy Over Stolen Valor

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    Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)

    U.S. House Republicans and military veterans are demanding answers from the Pentagon and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on his military record after several claims have resurfaced. Walz was picked as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate; the two are the presumed Democratic nominees for president and vice president.

    Criticisms of Walz’s military record have existed since 2006 when he first ran for Congress. Republican members of Congress and veterans are again raising concerns, including vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq; U.S. House Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., Cory Mills, R-FL, Navy and Army veterans, respectively, whose deployments include Afghanistan and Iraq.

    RELATED: Harris, new VP face criticism for handling of crime

    Walz, who served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, claimed in 2018 that his goal was to ban Americans from purchasing “weapons of war that I carried in war,” claiming that he fought in combat. He also claims that in 2005, before his unit deployed to Iraq, he retired from the Guard to run for Congress and his rank was command sergeant major.

    Questions have been raised for years about his deployments. Walz, who served in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, was deployed in 2003 to Vicenza, Italy, to support Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He did not see combat in Afghanistan.

    Vance has taken issue with Walz’s military service characterization, saying at a recent Michigan campaign event, “I wonder Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon you carried into war? What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not. I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”

    Similar claims have been made before. In 2018, when Walz was running for governor, retired National Guard leaders posted an open letter on Facebook, saying he “embellished and selectively omitted facts of his military career for years.”

    In 2009, a veteran reportedly confronted Walz’s former congressional staff claiming he violated the Stolen Valor Act of 2006 because of claims he made about Afghanistan when he was never deployed there, according to a video released by the Calvin Coolidge Project.

    RELATED: Biden Administration Borrowed $5 Billion Per Day in Fiscal Year 2024

    In July 2006, veterans sent letters to local news outlets, the Mankato Free Press, archived by Bluestem Prairie News, and the Winona Daily News, claiming Walz was misleading voters about his military service in Afghanistan. Walz published a response in the Winona Daily News stating he never misled anyone and he was proud of his military service.

    Others have pointed to a CSPAN interview with then U.S. Rep. Walz who didn’t appear to clarify that he never actually fought in Afghanistan.

    Since similar concerns have resurfaced, Banks on Thursday sent a letter to Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requesting official information about Walz’s service record.

    “The American people deserve transparency into the military records of service-members who serve in public office and especially when they represent such service as credentials for public office,” he wrote. “Misrepresentation and deceit intended to mislead the public about their service erode the integrity of our military and impact all Americans who choose to serve.”

    Banks, who chairs the U.S. House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, requested dates of service including when Walz put in for retirement and documentation to support any claim that he was “deployed overseas to Iraq or Afghanistan to serve in combat” or had a military security clearance.

    He also asked for clarification if Walz “falsely claiming to have carried a combat weapon in war constitutes stolen valor.” The 2006 law, amended in 2013, makes it a federal crime for individuals that make fraudulently claims about their military service.

    Mills argues Walz can provide further clarification about his record.

    “Walz should have at least come back and said, ‘I was promoted to Command Sergeant. I never went to the academy, and I was actually demoted back to Master Sergeant,” Mills said in a statement on social media. “But he’s not doing that. This guy’s trying to continue the lie in an effort to try to gain military favor from veterans when the real combat veteran and future Vice President is JD Vance.”

    The Harris campaign on Friday partially addressed the criticism. “Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country – in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way,” a Harris campaign spokesperson told NBC News. “In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke. He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them.”

    The former chaplain of Walz’s field artillery regiment also weighed in, saying, “In our world, to drop out after a WARNORD [warning order] is issued is cowardly, especially for a senior enlisted guy,” retired Capt. Corey Bjertness, now a pastor in North Dakota, told The New York Post. “Running for Congress is not an excuse. I stopped everything and went to war. I left my wife with three teenagers and a 6-year-old and I was gone for 19 months.”

    Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.

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    The Center Square

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  • This You? Donald Trump Trashes Tim Walz For George Floyd Protests After Praising MN Governor’s Response In Leaked 2020 Audio

    This You? Donald Trump Trashes Tim Walz For George Floyd Protests After Praising MN Governor’s Response In Leaked 2020 Audio

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    More of Donald Trump‘s “flip-flopping” went viral after he bashed Kamala Harris‘ running mate, Tim Walz, for the same thing he previously supported on tape and claimed credit for. The current “hateration” in question: Trump backtracking about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s handling of the unrest that followed George Floyd’s murder in 2020.

    Source: Michael Ciaglo/Andrew Harnik / Getty

    However, recently resurfaced audio recordings reveal that Trump’s current criticism is more misinformation from the “fake news” felon himself. CNN previously reported a full transcript of the detailed call between Trump and US governors

    Trump’s 2020 Praise Of Walz: A Conveniently Forgotten History

    Trump and his campaign have recently claimed that Walz “let Minneapolis burn.” Let’s rewind to June 1, 2020, when protests erupted across the country following the harrowing death of George Floyd, a Black man whose life was brutally taken by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Amidst the nationwide uproar, Minneapolis became ground zero for protests, some of which turned violent as the city grappled with deep-seated anger and grief.

    Listen to the audio here where Trump praises Walz:

    During this time, Donald Trump was quick to praise Governor Walz for his handling of the protests. According to AP News, a phone call that included top officials like Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Attorney General William Barr, Trump told Walz, “What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately.”

    Yes, you read that right.

    Trump, who now claims that Walz “let rioters burn Minneapolis,” was singing an entirely different tune back when the heat was on. Newsone states that Trump even went so far as to call Walz “an excellent guy” during that call. 

    Fast forward to the 2024 presidential campaign, and Trump, along with his running mate JD Vance, is suddenly criticizing Walz for supposedly allowing Minneapolis to burn during the protests. But here’s the kicker: that same audio recording, which Trump and the GOP are conveniently ignoring, directly contradicts these claims.

    AP News received a statement from Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, who is trying to spin the narrative.

    “Governor Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy soldiers and cries for help from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis,” said Leavitt.

    However, according to the phone call,  Trump was praising Walz for deploying the National Guard. Trump himself claimed credit for in a 2024 fundraiser, despite the fact that it was Walz who gave the official order.

    This attempt to rewrite history isn’t just disingenuous; it’s a blatant attempt to mislead voters as Trump and his team scramble to discredit Walz, who has been tapped as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 election.

    The GOP’s current claims are nothing more than desperate attempts at damage control. What a PR mess.

    Republicans like House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House GOP Chair Elise Stefanik have also jumped on the bandwagon.

    Newsone reports that Trump’s VP, JD Vance, ever eager to play the race card, questioned whether Black business leaders in Minneapolis were grateful that Walz supposedly allowed their businesses to burn.

    But again, the receipts—aka that 2020 audio—tell a different story.

    Truth Is Out, But Will It Matter?

    So, what’s the takeaway from all this? Simply put, Trump’s attempt to backtrack on his OWN recorded words is just another case of political opportunism. But thanks to modern technology and a few vigilant social media users, the truth is out there for anyone willing to see it.

    As the 2024 election heats up, it’s CONTINUOSLY proven that clearly the GOP is willing to bend, twist, and outright break the truth to suit their narrative. But the truth has a way of coming to light—whether they like it or not.

    For Trump and his team, the message is clear: You can’t rewrite history when the receipts are only a click away.

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    Lauryn Bass

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  • Tim Walz, Doug Emhoff, and the Nice Men of the Left

    Tim Walz, Doug Emhoff, and the Nice Men of the Left

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    Illustration: Pablo Delcan/Source Photographs: Getty Images

    What a split screen,” Doug Emhoff said to a crowd at a private fundraiser on the coast of Maine in the last days of July. The Second Gentleman was referring to Donald Trump’s remarks that afternoon to the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago, where he berated Rachel Scott of ABC News for being “nasty” and suggested that Kamala Harris had only recently “turned Black.” Emhoff appeared gobsmacked by the raw vulgarity. “The contrast could not be clearer,” he said.

    Since Joe Biden’s decision to step aside, the loudest contrast in the presidential race has been between the elderly white man at the head of the Republican ticket and the younger Black and Indian American woman on the other side. But a disparity of the intragender variety has also come to the fore: the difference between how the men of the right and the left define masculinity.

    On the one hand is the Republican Party’s view of manhood: its furious resentments toward women and their power, its mean obsession with forcing women to be baby-makers. On the other hand is the emergence of a Democratic man newly confident in his equal-to-subsidiary status: happily deferential, unapologetically supportive of women’s rights, committed to partnership.

    The new Democratic man is embodied by Harris surrogates like Emhoff, whose first solo public appearance since his wife became the de facto nominee was at a Planned Parenthood in Portland, Maine, and Harris’s vice-presidential pick, Governor Tim Walz, the former National Guardsman and football coach whom the right has taken to calling “Tampon Tim” for passing a law in his home state of Minnesota requiring public schools to stock free menstrual products in all school bathrooms.

    This is not to suggest that these Democratic guys represent some perfect specimen of evolved masculinity. But taken as a whole, as male Democrats fall over one another in an effort to elect a woman to the presidency, they are presenting a different definition of masculine strength tied to women’s liberation and full civic participation and all but declaring it a new norm.

    That Trump is terrible toward and for women hardly needs repeating. But the Republican convention in July was nevertheless a startling window into just how wholly unconcerned the GOP is about its abysmal reputation. Speakers included Hulk Hogan, the former professional wrestler accused of domestic abuse, and Dana White, the Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO who was once filmed engaging in a physical altercation with his wife. There were right-wing misogynists like Tucker Carlson, who lost his job at Fox News amid sexual-harassment allegations and has called women “extremely primitive and basic,” and Representative Matt Gaetz, who has been accused of having sex with a minor and has called reproductive-rights activists “odious on the inside and out.” Where Harris’s walk-out music is Beyoncé’s “Freedom,” both Trump and running mate J. D. Vance have been using James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”

    Trump and his buddies’ hoary views of women as either sexualized objects or pigs are almost old hat. What’s new is the way the contemporary right is practically vibrating with the creepier energies of the online manosphere, which tells young men that women have robbed them of their power. It’s the worldview of men like Andrew Tate, who has been arrested for human trafficking and rape and who tweeted in April, “Dear white men you’re fucked. You’re being replaced because none of you have children.” Elon Musk, who is a vocal supporter of Trump’s campaign (and has also been accused of harassment), has echoed this natalist version of the Great Replacement Theory, saying that “birth control and abortion” have put civilization at risk and suggesting that childless people should not be able to vote.

    While the ideas that these men espouse have become common currency across the right, they remain somewhat foreign to the political mainstream. That’s why the discourse this summer was dominated by bewildered responses to unearthed remarks by Vance, who has described childless women as “deranged,” “sociopathic,” and “childless cat ladies” and argued that parents should get extra votes. Republicans’ recent obsession with overturning no-fault-divorce laws is also informed by incel culture and online sexist outrage. Vance has bemoaned the fact that people can more easily leave marriages, even violent ones, “like they change their underwear.”

    This is not about ensuring that more babies are born. If it were, Republicans would be supporting child tax credits, federal paid-leave legislation, affordable housing, subsidized day-care programs, and maternal-health-care bills. They would not be imperiling IVF treatments. It’s about the domination of women and the reinscription of patriarchal power.

    Then, on that split screen, there are the men of the Democratic Party. Emhoff takes care to emphasize, in a way that is new for Democratic men, that reproductive rights is “not just an issue for women,” it’s “an issue for all of us.” In Portland this summer, he described a “post-Dobbsian hellscape” in which “you can’t get a Pap smear; you can’t get basic care.” That’s right: Men in the post-Biden Democratic Party can comfortably say Pap smear.

    As Harris weighed the decision of who would be her running mate, it was understood that she would be seeking a white man to balance out the historically disruptive nature of her candidacy, and the nation got a glimpse of an array of guys who seemed eager to serve a female boss. They were masculine in a lot of traditional ways: veterans and astronauts and high-powered lawyers who could talk about guns and fixing cars but also child care and parenthood. This is a version of masculinity that is open and optimistic and appears to really love women. To many of us, this winds up reading as a lot more manly than, for instance, Vance’s half-hearted attempts to defend his mixed-race marriage from white-supremacist criticism.

    It is thus poetic that Harris encountered Walz, who as governor had signed a series of expansive protections of abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, at a Planned Parenthood in St. Paul in March, the first visit by any sitting vice-president to a facility that provides abortion care. Walz, 60, looks like a beardless Santa Claus and has the vibe of a neighbor who will fix your lawn mower. His lightning-strike audition for the veep slot was accompanied by photographs online showing him snuggling dogs, cats, and piglets and being embraced by groups of happy children after he signed new child-care-benefit laws. Walz speaks often, including at his first campaign rally with Harris in August, of the IVF struggles he and his wife, Gwen, experienced.

    It is invigorating to see Walz’s traditional form of public masculinity — “big dad energy,” as Axios put it — in service of a party that seems finally to be taking women’s rights and liberation as a central moral concern. Just a few decades ago, that stance would have gotten Democrats derisively labeled “the mommy party.”

    But this is where Walz’s great rhetorical contribution to the campaign comes in: his use of the word weird to describe the backward, bizarre positions of the opposition. It’s not just that weird is an effective descriptor that drives Republicans up the wall. It’s that it also reflects its inverse: normal. For while the right has been terrifyingly successful at rolling back laws and rights, it seems to be having a tougher time altering what have become new gender norms. When Vance describes child care as “class war against normal people,” it sounds weird. When Fox News’ Jesse Watters suggests that “when a man votes for a woman, he actually transitions into a woman,” it sounds really weird. And when Democratic men speak of women as their partners, friends, colleagues, and bosses, when they make it clear that people need Pap smears and tampons and abortion care, when they show themselves willing to work for a woman to become president, they sound, well, normal.

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    Rebecca Traister

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  • Tim Walz’s long history with China

    Tim Walz’s long history with China

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    Washington — Thirty-five years before Vice President Kamala Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, he was on his way to teach high school in mainland China as a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square took place in 1989.  

    “As the events were unfolding, several of us went in,” Walz said at a 2014 congressional hearing marking 25 years since the massacre. 

    He recalled meeting a crowd of people in a Hong Kong train station who were “very angry that we would still go after what had happened.” But Walz, who became fascinated with China during his youth, saw it as an opportunity. 

    “It was my belief at that time that the diplomacy was going to happen on many levels, certainly people to people, and the opportunity to be in a Chinese high school at that critical time seemed to me to be really important,” Walz said. 

    In 2007, as a newly elected congressman, he told The Hill that “China was coming, and that’s the reason that I went.” 

    His year teaching U.S. history, culture and English in Foshan, a city in the southeastern Chinese province of Guangdong, was the beginning of his decades-long relationship with China. It has opened him up to criticism from Republicans, who are trying to portray him as being weak on the communist-ruled nation, which is widely viewed as the greatest geopolitical threat and economic rival to the U.S.

    Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said Walz owes Americans “an explanation about his unusual” relationship with China. Morgan Ortagus, who was a Trump-era State Department spokesperson, claimed that “if Walz has his way, our China policy will be the weakest in generations.” 

    But Walz has spent his political career criticizing the Chinese government, especially its human rights record. 

    After Walz returned to Nebraska following his year teaching abroad, he told the Star-Herald that if Chinese citizens “had the proper leadership, there are no limits on what they could accomplish.” 

    As of 2016, Walz had visited China about 30 times, including for his honeymoon. Walz married his wife, Gwen, a fellow teacher, on June 4, 1994 — the fifth anniversary of China’s brutal repression of Tiananmen Square protests. 

    “He wanted to have a date he’ll always remember,” she told the Star-Herald before they wed. For their honeymoon, the couple led dozens of American students on a tour through China. The couple continued the educational trips for years through their own travel company. 

    Elected to Congress in 2006, Walz served on the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, which focuses on human rights. He backed Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, garnering praise from activist Jeffrey Ngo. In 2017, he was the only lawmaker to co-sponsor the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which eventually passed in 2019. 

    Walz has met with the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled leader, and has been critical of China’s aggression in the South China Sea. 

    In a 2016 interview, Walz said he didn’t “fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship,” and said there could be “many areas of cooperation” between the U.S. and China. But he also said the relationship depends on China playing “by the rules.” 

    That same year, Walz said China’s human rights record was “getting worse, not better.” He suggested that separating China’s human rights record from trade policies, which he previously supported, was a mistake. 

    “I think the idea was, with a free-market economy, we would see a more opening of the Chinese grip on social life and on human rights. That simply has not occurred,” Walz said during a House hearing. “We cannot decouple economic growth from human rights growth, and, as a nation, we need to hold those ideas up.” 

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  • Joy Ride: Upbeat Dems Are Spreading Optimism to a Divided (and Newly Delighted) Nation

    Joy Ride: Upbeat Dems Are Spreading Optimism to a Divided (and Newly Delighted) Nation

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    The joy squad has rattled not only Team Trump but right-wing pundits as well. Even Fox News attack dog Jesse Watters, who has also been known to criticize Harris’s laugh, has voiced frustration about his own mother’s newfound infatuation with the vice president, insisting his mother is “a Kamala fanatic. Keeps talking about joy.”

    Third, warmth breeds warmth. It’s called positive reinforcement. Projecting an air of positivity tends to make others (in this case: potential voters) feel positive themselves. And one can feel this energy in the big-time crowds, the spontaneous chants, and the sheer giddiness that has returned to the hustings.

    Fourth, the nation has had fear fatigue for so long that the Dems’ campaign has brought waves of relief, hope, promise, and rejuvenated political engagement.

    Eight years of MAGA gloom—with a global pandemic in the midst of it—had enveloped the country in a dark cloak. In 2016, Trump won the presidency by mining a deep vein of discontent among the electorate. He constantly spoke of grievance. He spread fear. He helped usher in a national mood of loathing: loathing of a so-called deep state, loathing of the establishment, and loathing of the Other. And he did it by fanning long-simmering resentments among his base—resentments that, at their roots, were often the result of legitimate concerns. Yet, at times, those resentments sprang from a kind of paranoid self-loathing embedded in the belief that the American Dream was somehow unavailable to a huge swath of American voters. From his inaugural address (“This American carnage stops right here”) to his January 6, 2021 call for insurrection (“Stop the steal!”) to four years of social media ranting at Joe Biden and the American judicial process on social media (“The legal system in our country has been corrupted & politicized at a level never seen before”), Trump figuratively polluted the American political atmosphere. When Biden initially handed the reins to Harris and voters responded so enthusiastically, they were evidently starving for a break from the drumbeat, seeking a more optimistic message, even if many may not have realized it at the time. They were primed for the positive.

    The phrase “Make America Great Again” has always been about going backward. And in 2016, Trump deftly picked the electoral lock because we were at an anomalous hinge point in history when a slim majority of Americans were so afraid of what the future represented (technology, climate change, the global economy, shifts in migration), that they voted to get into a time machine. But this 248-year American experiment in representative democracy, for the most part, has been about progress, about embracing the future. And we may, in fact, be rerouting ourselves to that tried-and-true path of progress as we see raucous crowds roar in call-and-response cadence, when Harris declares at her rallies: “We’re not going back.”

    While there will be battles royale during the next three months over ideology, policy, and personal biographies, I believe this election will fundamentally boil down to a contest between the future and the past, between joy and anger. Indeed, many experts are seeing a surge in young people joining the voter rolls and becoming engaged, offering their opinions, loud and clear. They will certainly play a decisive role in the outcome. The question in this race, at the end of day, will be whether people at the ballot box are inclined to happily embrace tomorrow or bitterly claw back to visions of yesterday.

    Which is to say: What’s happening with the Harris-Walz campaign feels fresh and authentic—and different. It feels more like a movement than a moment. And Republican attacks about the ticket being “communist” or “socialist” just feel hackneyed. We’ve seen all of this before. And whatever we feel about politics, most of us are just exhausted by the old and desperate for something new.

    As that respected political sage Stephen Stills once observed:

    There’s something happening here

    But what it is ain’t exactly clear…

    Maybe it’s joy. And maybe that simple human feeling can change a nation’s future.

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    Mark McKinnon

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  • Kamala Harris’s jubilant Detroit rally ends in meltdown

    Kamala Harris’s jubilant Detroit rally ends in meltdown

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    Democrats have been delirious with joy ever since President Joe Biden finally ended his untenable re-election campaign last month, making way for a feel-good ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and her freshly announced running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. If they win in November, she will be the first woman to be elected president, while he is a plainspoken former schoolteacher and football coach with a surprisingly progressive record as a lawmaker, catapulting to viral fame in recent weeks for simply saying what many of us have been thinking: Republicans Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are “weird.”

    More than that, with a palpable momentum, the pair seem to be in about as strong of a position as possible to keep Trump from returning to the White House and enacting the terrifying Project 2025, a far-right plan to replace the government with a Christian nationalist autocracy.

    Eager to make history and defeat Trump, liberals of all stripes swiftly coalesced around the new ticket, which drew a reported 15,000 supporters to a Wednesday rally at Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus — what Walz said was the largest of the campaign so far.

    However, the electric atmosphere — which reached a crescendo with Harris descending the Air Force One to the jubilant sounds of Beyoncé’s “Freedom” — soured with more than a dozen medical emergencies throughout the event, a curt clash between Harris and antiwar protesters, and a logistical transportation meltdown that left thousands of supporters stranded on the side of the road for hours.

    “We Minnesotans … we’re a stoic people, of few words,” Walz joked. “But holy hell, can you throw a party here in Michigan!”

    @metrotimes #kamalaharris #2024election #detroit #michigan ♬ original sound – Detroit Metro Times

    The candidates were joined on stage by a revolving door of high-profile supporters, including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, UAW President Shawn Fain, Senator Debbie Stabenow, and other members of congress, who all gave rousing speeches. But each was interrupted by calls from the crowd for medics as people apparently became dehydrated in the summer heat.

    “Thank you for caring for your neighbors,” Walz said.

    Wayne County is also home to one of the largest concentrations of people of Middle Eastern origin. Many of them joined a movement urging voters to choose “uncommitted” over Biden in the primary election in protest of Israel’s U.S.-backed attack on Gaza, which has has resulted in at least 40,000 deaths and possibly up to 186,000, many of them Palestinian women and children. The Uncommitted Movement drew an eye-popping 100,000 votes in Michigan and spread to other states across the country, allowing it to send delegates to the Democratic National Convention later this month to advocate for a ceasefire.

    Seeing as the Uncommitted Movement could seemingly make or break the 2024 election, Metro Times was curious if Harris and Walz would speak on the matter. A group in the crowd attempted to force the issue, starting a chant of “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide — we won’t vote for genocide.” A visibly agitated Harris then tried to shut them down, saying, “I am speaking now. … If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise I’m speaking.”

    Instead of, say, using the opportunity to show support for Israel as well as concern for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as both Harris and Walz have done in the past, it was not brought up again.

    Harris did reportedly address the issue with a bit more grace behind closed doors, however, as founders of the Uncommitted Movement later said they briefly spoke with both candidates at the rally. According to a press release, the organizers “requested a formal meeting with Vice President Harris to further discuss their demands of an arms embargo and a permanent ceasefire,” adding that Harris “shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting.”

    click to enlarge

    Lee DeVito

    As darkness fell, Harris-Walz supporters were left stranded on the side of the road for hours amid a transportation meltdown.

    Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. When the rally ended around 8:30 p.m., there appeared to be no coordinated plan to direct attendees back onto the buses that would return them to the various offsite parking lots recommended by the campaign organizers. The situation quickly spiraled into chaos, with police giving conflicting instructions, hard-to-find buses stuck in gridlock traffic, and thousands of rally-goers left stranded on the side of the road as darkness set and mosquitos descended.

    It took Metro Times two and a half hours to get back to our car, following the three-hour rally. The Harris-Walz campaign does not appear to have a public-facing email to reach for comment.

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    Lee DeVito

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  • 8/7: CBS Evening News

    8/7: CBS Evening News

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    8/7: CBS Evening News – CBS News


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  • Trump in 2020 praised Tim Walz’s handling of George Floyd protests

    Trump in 2020 praised Tim Walz’s handling of George Floyd protests

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    (CNN) — Republicans are attacking Tim Walz’s response to unrest in Minneapolis in 2020, but at the time, then-President Donald Trump said he “fully” agreed with how the Minnesota governor handled rioting in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, undercutting a key line of GOP attack this week after Walz was named Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate.

    “I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days,” Trump said of Walz on a June 1, 2020, call during which he also described the Democratic governor as “an excellent guy.”

    The call was led by Trump, who was joined by then-Attorney General Bill Barr, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and included a series of governors as protests across the country, some of which devolved into violent rioting, were breaking out following the police killing of Floyd on May 25.

    Details from the call, during which Trump implored governors across the country to “dominate” protesters, have previously been reported, and CNN published the call’s full transcript the day it happened in 2020.

    It’s not uncommon for even the most bitter of political rivals to offer tempered praise toward one another in the aftermath of a natural disaster or serious nationwide crisis – especially ones that require cooperation in responses between state and federal governments. But more than four years later, Trump’s praise for Walz takes on new meaning as the GOP nominee and his allies have sought to jolt Americans’ memories of the nationwide unrest that summer, linking Walz to pictures of Minneapolis engulfed in flames and the aftermath of the destruction.

    “You’ve got a big National Guard out there that’s ready to come in and fight like hell. I tell you, what they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated. And it happened immediately,” Trump told the governors. “Tim Walz. Again, I was very happy with the last couple of days. Tim, you called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”

    The call took place a week after Floyd was killed. At the time, and in the years since, Republicans publicly criticized Walz over whether he waited too long to call in Minnesota’s National Guard.

    Trump’s 2024 campaign, responding to CNN’s request about his 2020 praise for Walz and the details of the call, said that he was only complimentary of the Minnesota governor given that by June 1, Walz “had acted.” They argued, however, that Trump had always been frustrated that Walz hadn’t taken more action sooner.

    Walz first activated the Guard on May 28, three days after Floyd was killed, and the same day protesters lit the outside of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct on fire.

    “The important thing here is the timing and context for these remarks. He was complimenting a governor that finally, after days of madness, had finally done something. So it wasn’t in real time. It was after Walz finally did something about it,” a senior Trump campaign adviser told CNN.

    A second Trump adviser reiterated the point, telling CNN the call came “in the context of what President Trump encouraged a lot of these governors and local leaders to do, in finally stopping or doing something about these riots. It had been seven days, or however long, days that Minneapolis had been burning, where President Trump, is essentially saying, finally, you guys, finally, the burning and looting and rioting have stopped.”

    Allies close to Trump echoed the adviser’s sentiment, noting the panic among government officials at the time on how to curb the riots, and the urgency to reach across the aisle to stop the violence.

    During the 2020 call, Walz also offered some words of thanks for the Trump administration’s response, thanking Esper for his “strategic guidance.” He also asked the Trump administration to help with messaging surrounding the role of National Guard troops.

    But in the hours after Walz was announced as Democrats’ vice presidential candidate on Monday, Republicans attacked his tenure as governor — with much of the criticism focused on the timing of his decision to call in his state’s National Guard. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, told reporters earlier this week that Walz “allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020.”

    Walz “sat by and let Minneapolis burn,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott echoed that accusation. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said Walz “could have stopped” the rioting, “if he wanted to,” while the Republican Party’s research arm accused Walz of fleeing “like a coward” while Minneapolis burned.

    A spokesperson for Cotton’s Senate campaign said Walz “should have immediately sent in the Guard, the state police, and restored order instead of letting violent criminals destroy a huge portion of the city, before they were bailed out of jail by Kamala Harris,” alluding to a tweet Harris posted in support of a Minnesota bail fund.

    “As Tim Walz has admitted, his handling of the riots was an ‘abject failure,’” Cotton’s spokesperson said, referencing remarks the governor made about the city’s response to the riots. Spokespeople for Abbott and DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.

    Even before Harris selected Walz, Trump criticized the governor on the subject.

    “Every voter in Minnesota needs to know that when the violent mobs of anarchists and looters and Marxists came to burn down Minneapolis four years ago … Remember me? I couldn’t get your governor to act,” Trump told the crowd at his rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, last month, before falsely claiming that he, not Walz, activated the National Guard in response to the unrest.

    “I sent in the National Guard to save Minneapolis, while Kamala Harris sided with the arsonist and rioters and raised money to bail out the criminals,” Trump said.

    Walz, who first activated the Guard after peaceful protests had devolved into instances of rioting, looting and violence, said in 2020 he did so in response to requests from the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

    During the June 2020 call, Trump said he had directed Walz to call in the National Guard, before lauding the way the officers performed.

    “I said you gotta use the National Guard,” Trump said, referring to Minneapolis. “They didn’t at first, then they did, and I’ll tell you that’s true, I don’t know what it was … those guys, third night, fourth night, they walked through that stuff like it was butter. They walked right through and you haven’t had any problems since.”

    The governor faced some bipartisan criticism for the timing of his order to activate the Guard. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat who was facing scrutiny over chaos in his city, said in August 2020 that he had verbally asked Walz on the evening of May 27 to send in the Guard but that the governor hesitated. Walz refuted Frey’s account at the time, saying the ask did not constitute an official request, which he said came the next day. (Any tension between the two seems to have cooled.)

    Some of the most notable instances of violence in Minneapolis, including the ransacking and burning of a city police precinct, took place the night of May 28 – after Walz had already activated a portion of the Guard. Walz and Trump spoke the same day. The governor activated the entire guard on May 30.

    In the June 1 call with Walz and the other governors, Trump seemed to acknowledge that he was satisfied with how the state Guard responded to the protests: “Yesterday and the day before, compared to the first few days, was just – never seen anything like it,” Trump said. Walz responded: “Absolutely.”

    “A lot of people don’t understand who the National Guard is and you need to get out there, from a PR perspective, and make sure that it’s not seen as a occupying force, but it’s their neighbors, school teachers, business owners, those types of things,” Walz said on the call.

    Trump said he believed that was a good idea, though he added he thought “that the people wouldn’t have minded an occupying force.”

    “I wish they had an occupying force in there,” Trump added.

    Later that day, federal law enforcement would forcibly clear peaceful protesters from a park outside the White House, making way for Trump to cross the park and pose for a photo op with a Bible outside St. John’s Church.

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  • Audio shows Trump praised Walz in 2020 for handling of riots after George Floyd’s death

    Audio shows Trump praised Walz in 2020 for handling of riots after George Floyd’s death

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    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers have been assailing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, over his handling of the rioting in his state in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020 — but in a phone call with governors that included Walz, then-President Trump praised his handling of the situation and said he was “very happy” with it.

    In the audio obtained by CBS News, Trump is heard saying, “I know Governor Walz is on the phone, and we spoke, and I fully agree with the way he handled it the last couple of days.”

    Trump appeared to make reference to the conversation during an interview Wednesday with Fox News, although he characterized it as a phone call from Walz, rather than a group call with other governors, and claimed that Walz had called him to ask for help.

    “His house was surrounded by people that were waving an American flag,” Trump said. “That didn’t sound like very bad people, and he called me, and he was very concerned — very, very concerned that it was going to get out of control. They only had one guard, I guess it was at the mansion or at his … house.” He said that Walz asked him to “put out the word that I’m a good person, and I did I put out the word, I said, ‘he’s a good person.’”

    Republicans, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, have accused Walz of inaction during the riots. 

    “Tim Walz is a radical who let rioters burn Minneapolis to the ground in 2020,” Scalise posted on X on Tuesday.

    Trump, in the 58-minute call with the governors, said of Walz, “He’s an excellent guy. You’ve got a big National Guard out there that’s ready to come in and fight like hell. I tell you, the best — what they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately.” 

    Trump has said that he sent in guard forces, but Walz had already activated them before the call took place

    According to audio of the call, Walz also agreed with Trump that it was necessary to use force initially to put down the riots, but he argued that the next step was enabling peaceful protests to continue.

    “I think the guidance is, you got to get a handle on it with that force — that is absolutely correct,” Walz said on the call. “And then the transition in the next stage is trying to get those spaces for the peaceful protest. And I’m happy to do things that we have to look at — of how do we get reforms?”

    Asked for comment about Trump’s earlier remarks, his campaign press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement Wednesday: “Governor Walz allowed Minneapolis to burn for days, despite President Trump’s offer to deploy soldiers and cries for help from the liberal Mayor of Minneapolis. In this daily briefing phone call with Governors on June 1, days after the riots began, President Trump acknowledged Governor Walz for FINALLY taking action to deploy the National Guard to end the violence in the city.” 

    Hunter Woodall and Zak Hudak contributed to this report. 

    and

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  • Tim Walz’s military record under scrutiny as he joins Kamala Harris on Democratic ticket

    Tim Walz’s military record under scrutiny as he joins Kamala Harris on Democratic ticket

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    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz‘s military record has come under renewed scrutiny following Vice President Kamala Harris’ announcement of Walz as her running mate on the Democratic ticket. 

    On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who is an Iraq War veteran, seized the opportunity to target his opponent’s military record, resurfacing claims about his deployments and his retirement from the guard.

    Walz served honorably in both the Nebraska and Minnesota Army National Guards, earning medals and deploying in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. But his final days of service have been called into question, centering on his rank and if he retired to avoid a 2005 deployment to Iraq. 

    A CBS News review of Walz’s military record and statements from the Minnesota Army National Guard show Walz achieved the rank of command sergeant major but was reduced in rank to master sergeant after retirement since he had not completed coursework for the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. 

    On Iraq, records show Walz had retired before his battalion was mobilized and deployed to Iraq. A 2005 statement from his website indicates Walz was initially prepared to deploy to Iraq amid his bid for Congress. CBS News has asked Walz for comment on when he decided to retire. 

    A snapshot of Walz in the military

    Walz retired from the Minnesota Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery in 2005 after more than 24 years in service, the Minnesota Army National Guard told CBS News. 

    Walz first enlisted in the Nebraska Army National Guard in April 1981, serving as an infantry senior sergeant and administrative specialist. In 1996, Walz transferred to the Minnesota Army National Guard, where he first worked as a cannon crewmember and field artillery senior sergeant. 

    An undated photo of Tim Walz in uniform, released by the Harris-Walz campaign. 

    Minnesota National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Kristen Augé told CBS News that Walz “held multiple positions within field artillery such as firing battery chief, operations sergeant, first sergeant, and culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion.” 

    Walz earned several Army commendation and achievement medals during his more than 24 years of service. 

    Walz deployed in August 2003 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The Minnesota National Guard told CBS News the battalion supported security missions at various locations in Europe and Turkey. Walz was stationed at Vicenza, Italy, at the time and returned to Minnesota in April 2004. 

    Controversy over a 2005 Iraq deployment

    On Wednesday, Vance resurfaced claims that Walz retired from the National Guard to avoid deploying to Iraq. 

    “When the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America, asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably and I’m very proud of that service,” said Vance. 

    He added: “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him — a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people he served with.” 

    The claims first gained prominence when Walz ran for governor of Minnesota in 2018. At the time, retired Army veterans Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, who both served as command sergeant majors, posted on Facebook a lengthy letter accusing Walz of “embellishing” his military career and abandoning his Army National Guard battalion ahead of a 2005 deployment to Iraq.

    In the letter, Behrends and Herr write that in early 2005, Walz’s unit — 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery — was slated to deploy to Iraq. At the time, Walz was serving as the unit’s command sergeant major. 

    Behrends and Herr claimed that from the time the unit was told to prepare for an Iraq deployment and when Walz retired, he told other Army leaders he would be going to Iraq but later resigned his position before the deployment to avoid going to a combat zone. 

    Walz has said he left the guard to run for Congress, according to the Star Tribune. In 2006, Walz won his election to Congress against a six-term Republican incumbent. 

    Records show Walz officially filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Feb. 10, 2005. 

    In March 2005, the National Guard announced a possible partial mobilization of roughly 2,000 troops from the Minnesota National Guard, according to an archived press release from Tim Walz for U.S. Congress.  

    “I do not yet know if my artillery unit will be part of this mobilization and I am unable to comment further on the specifics of the deployment,” said Walz in the March 2005 statement

    The statement continued: “As Command Sergeant Major I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on. I am dedicated to serving my country to the best of my ability, whether that is in Washington DC or Iraq,” said Walz, who indicated at the time he had no plans to drop out of the race. “I am fortunate to have a strong group of enthusiastic support and a very dedicated and intelligent wife. Both will be a major part of my campaign, whether I am in Minnesota or Iraq.” 

    The Minnesota Army National Guard told CBS News that Walz retired on May 16, 2005. CBS News has asked Walz to clarify when he submitted his retirement papers. 

    The Minnesota National Guard told CBS News that Walz’s unit — 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery — received an alert order for mobilization to Iraq on July 14, 2005 – two months after Walz retired, according to Lt. Col. Ryan Rossman, who serves as the Minnesota National Guard’s director of operations. The official mobilization order was received on August 14 of the same year, and the unit mobilized in October. 

    CBS News reviewed the deployment history for the Minnesota Army National Guard which shows that in the fall of 2005, 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery was mobilized in preparation for a deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The battalion trained at Camp Shelby in Mississippi and deployed to Iraq as a motorized security task force. 

    In 2018, Tom Hagen, a military reservist who served in Iraq, wrote a letter to The Winona Daily News claiming Walz was not being candid about his service record and wanted people to know that the future Minnesota governor did not serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. 

    Walz responded in the same newspaper and criticized Hagan as dishonoring a fellow veteran, according to MPR News. Walz wrote: “There’s a code of honor among those who’ve served, and normally this type of partisan political attack only comes from one who’s never worn a uniform.”

    Joseph Eustice, a 32-year veteran of the guard who also led Walz’s battalion, told the Star Tribune in Oct. 2022 that the governor fulfilled his duty. 

    “He was a great soldier. When he chose to leave, he had every right to leave,” said Eustice. 

    Walz’s rank as a command sergeant major

    Official biographies on the Minnesota government website and Vice President Kamala Harris’ website describe Walz as a “retired Command Sergeant Major.” However, documents reviewed by CBS News show this is not accurate; while Walz served at one point as a command sergeant major, he retired at a lower rank. 

    Army veteran Anthony Anderson, who routinely obtains military records from the Defense Department using the Freedom of Information Act and has worked with CBS News on similar stories, provided Walz’s records for review. CBS News has also requested the documents from the National Guard. 

    One of the documents shows Walz reverted back to master sergeant from command sergeant major when he retired from the Minnesota National Guard in May 2005. 

    Army soldiers promoted to the rank of sergeant major or command sergeant major are required to attend the Sergeants Major Course, or what was formerly known as the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.  

    Lt. Col. Augé, the Minnesota National Guard spokesperson, told CBS News that Walz retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for “benefit purposes” because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.

    While Walz can say he served as a command sergeant major in the Minnesota Army National Guard, his official biographies are incorrect in referring to him as a “retired Command Sergeant Major.”

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  • Harris, Walz make first joint Midwest stop at rally in Eau Claire

    Harris, Walz make first joint Midwest stop at rally in Eau Claire

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    EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Roughly 12,000 people turned out to a rally in a rural area of Eau Claire on Wednesday afternoon to see Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly-minted running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in their first appearance in the Midwest.

    Supporters said they waited hours to get in for a chance to hear them speak, and said they’re excited to get out and vote for the ticket. Some said they’re energized in a way they weren’t before when President Joe Biden, who dropped out just over two weeks ago, was the presumptive nominee.

    Walz was the first to come out, looking joyful. He appeared to be adjusting to the national attention. 

    “Donald Trump, he sees the world differently,” Walz said in his speech. “He has no understanding of service because he’s too busy servicing himself.” 

    Walz then introduced the Vice President, who came out to thunderous cheers. Both said the road to victory for their ticket runs through Wisconsin.

    “Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion, rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate?” Harris said. 

    “I’ve seen more people on the fence have a new energy, people who were excited about Obama. I see them coming around,” said Melissa Kono of Independence, Wisconsin. “I don’t have to be excited about my candidate, I vote for the policies I believe in. And the candidates that support them.”

    Eau Claire is one of the blue spots in a sea of red in western Wisconsin; both parties say they plan to focus on western Wisconsin counties to try and squeeze some more votes out. 

    “I think it’s awesome she came to Eau Claire, not far from Minneapolis — for her to prioritize this early in the campaign and this turnout is really hopeful for what’s to come,” Kono said.

    In 2016, Donald Trump won Wisconsin by about 20,000 votes. Four years later Joe Biden won by just about the same margin.

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    Esme Murphy

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  • Donald Trump, Who Has Been Likened to Hitler by His Own Running Mate, Claims Tim Walz as VP Pick Is “Insulting to Jewish People”

    Donald Trump, Who Has Been Likened to Hitler by His Own Running Mate, Claims Tim Walz as VP Pick Is “Insulting to Jewish People”

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  • The Mad Dash to Make 2024 Debates Happen

    The Mad Dash to Make 2024 Debates Happen

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    The Republican and Democratic tickets are now set, but plans for getting the four presidential and VP candidates on debate stages are anything but, with networks jockeying for position, campaigns negotiating, and various dates being floated less than three months out from Election Day.

    Donald Trump kicked off this latest media free-for-all last Saturday when he announced he’d be skipping a planned ABC debate on September 10, which would’ve originally pitted him against Joe Biden but would now see him sparring with Kamala Harris. Instead, he called for a Fox News debate on September 4. “I’ll see her on September 4th or, I won’t see her at all,” the former president wrote Saturday on Truth Social.

    But on Wednesday, after a fresh round of polls showed Harris closing the gap or leading in some battleground states, Trump struck a different tone. “We have to get on with debates,” he said in a phone call with Fox & Friends. He said that “it’s gonna be announced fairly soon.”

    “She doesn’t want to debate,” Trump continued. “She wants to say I don’t want to debate, but I do want to debate.”

    Harris, meanwhile, has upheld Biden’s agreement to participate in the ABC debate. “I do hope Trump will agree to meet me on the debate stage,” she said last week, “because as the saying goes—if you got something to say, say it to my face.”

    US Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Democratic vice-presidential nominee, during a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024.By Hannah Beier/Bloomberg/Getty Images.

    Until Tuesday, however, both campaigns had some wiggle room when it came to debate negotiations, as the Democratic ticket hadn’t yet been set. The September 10 face-off was scheduled before Biden’s campaign-ending performance at the CNN debate in Atlanta on June 27. Some Trump allies have argued that Biden’s exit from the race changed everything, including the ABC debate agreement. But Harris was certified this week as the Democratic presidential nominee, and Minnesota governor Tim Walz was named Tuesday as her running mate, so there are no more unknowns. “I can’t wait to debate the guy,” Walz said that night at a rally in Philadelphia, referring to JD Vance.

    When and where such an event will happen remains unclear. Back in May, around the same time Biden and Trump agreed to the CNN and ABC debates, Harris also accepted an invitation from CBS for a vice presidential debate sometime in the summer. July 23 and August 13 were floated as possible dates. But “the Trump campaign never agreed,” Harris campaign spokesman Brian Fallon wrote on X last weekend. Fallon asserted that the Trump campaign was “afraid to debate her as the running mate. Now they are afraid to debate her at the top of the ticket.”

    Once Harris ascended and needed to pick her own running mate, CBS went back to the debate drawing board. The network is currently in talks with both campaigns about getting Walz and Vance onstage together, and is offering “several dates in September,” according to a source.

    Trump and Biden’s rejection of the decades-old Commission on Presidential Debates created a network scramble earlier this year, with half a dozen TV networks all competing to secure a presidential or vice presidential contest. (CNN ultimately decided to allow its rivals to simulcast the June debate, with an expectation that future debate hosts would do the same.) “The fall schedule is a blank piece of paper now,” one network executive remarked, noting that Trump and Harris have never debated before.

    Officials at several networks told Vanity Fair that they are hoping multiple debates will materialize in September—the sooner the better, since absentee or mail-in ballots are set to be sent out on September 6 in North Carolina, September 16 in Pennsylvania, and September 19 in Wisconsin.

    NBC News, for example, which did not land a debate back in May, is in active talks with both the Trump and Harris campaigns now. Fox News is trying to get Harris to commit to a debate moderated by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, though the conservative network may be a nonstarter for the Democratic ticket. Last month Fox pitched both parties on a September 17 matchup, but then Trump seemingly out of nowhere proposed September 4 instead, possibly with an eye toward the absentee and mail-in ballot calendar.

    “Conversations are happening,” Baier said Tuesday on Fox. “We have a lot on the table that we’ve offered, obviously, and we hope September 4 works.”

    A Harris campaign source pushed back on the suggestion that Fox is seriously in the mix for a debate.

    But Harris remains committed to the ABC date of September 10. “We’re happy to discuss further debates after the one both campaigns have agreed to,” a campaign spokesman said last weekend.

    Trump sounded Wednesday like a man willing to take that deal. “We’ll be debating her,” he told his Fox friends, adding that his “preference would be Fox” as the host, “but we have to debate.” He bragged that ABC, NBC, and CBS are all wooing him: “They’re all in love with me now so that, you know, I say yes, because it’s up to me, obviously.”

    When asked for an update on the state of the debates, and specifically whether the ABC event was back in play, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said, “Stay tuned!”

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    Brian Stelter

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  • Mass. Democrats praise Harris’ VP pick

    Mass. Democrats praise Harris’ VP pick

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    BOSTON — Massachusetts Democrats are praising Vice President Kamala Harris for choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in the upcoming presidential election.

    Harris made the announcement on Tuesday morning, ending weeks of speculation about her pick for a second-in-command to challenge former Republican President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, as Democrats seek to hold onto the White House after incumbent President Joe Biden bowed out of the race.

    “Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families. I know that he will bring that same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president,” Harris said in a statement.

    Walz, 60, is a military veteran, former public school teacher and six-term congressman. He was first elected as Minnesota’s governor in 2018 after defeating an incumbent candidate, a rare feat in the conservative-leaning, largely rural state.

    Gov. Maura Healey, a first-term Democrat and former surrogate for President Joe Biden, called Walz a “person of deep integrity and empathy” and lauded him as a “champion for the working families of his state (who) brings a common-sense approach to getting things done for the people he serves.”

    “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will build a country where people have the ability to not just get by, but get ahead. They will grow our economy, reduce the costs of housing and prescription drugs, and create jobs in every part of this country,” Healey said in a statement.

    “They are the team we can trust to protect Social Security, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. And they will make sure every woman has access to the health care she needs,” she added.

    Rep. Lori Trahan called Walz an “excellent choice” and lauded his work on veterans affairs, education, gun safety and expanding benefits for workers.

    “He passed free school meals to make sure children don’t go hungry, gun safety laws to protect kids at school and in their communities, and paid leave for workers,” Trahan, a Westford Democrat, said in a statement. “We have a strong, proven ticket in Kamala Harris and Tim Walz who are ready to take our message for a better future directly to the American people.”

    Rep. Seth Moulton called him a “committed veteran, leader, and friend” and said the Harris-Walz ticket will “fight to unite America and make our country better.”

    “A tireless advocate for our troops, he knows how to stand up for those who have been left behind – or simply not appreciated for all they do for America,” the Salem Democrat said. “This election is a choice between community and chaos, between expanding freedoms for Americans or restricting them, between standing with our friends and allies or shirking responsibility and trust.”

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Walz is a “terrific pick” for Harris’ second-in-command and also praised his accomplishments as a governor.

    “As a former teacher, veteran, and one of the most effective governors in America, Walz has a strong track record of putting government on the side of working families,” Warren, a Cambridge Democrat, posted on X. “I’m all in for Harris-Walz!”

    Sen. Ed Markey called Walz a “working class champion” and said he has the experience to help Kamala Harris lead our nation and deliver on the promises of a livable future for our people and planet.”

    “We now have the ticket that will bring us to victory on Election Day,” the Malden Democrat posted on social media.

    At least one Newburyport Democrat is also hailing the pick as a win for the ticket.

    “I think Tim Walz was a great choice. He has fantastic experience that is very different from hers. He is a smart, honorable and highly qualified VP candidate,” Karen Trowbridge, Newburyport Democratic City Committee chair, said.

    Trowbridge went on to say she believes the Democratic Party will unite behind Walz just as they united behind Harris.

    “Democrats should feel proud and optimistic today,” she said.

    The Trump campaign blasted Walz, as a “dangerously liberal extremist,” while warning that their vision for the country is “every American’s nightmare.”

    “By picking Tim Walz as her running mate, Kamala Harris not only bent the knee to the radical left, she doubled down on her dangerously liberal, weak, and failed agenda,” Brian Hughes, the Trump campaign senior adviser, said in a statement.

    “Walz would be a rubber stamp for Kamala to wage war on American energy, continue aiding and abetting an invasion on our border, and embolden our adversaries as the world is brought to the brink of World War III.”

    Daily News editor Dave Rogers contributed to this report.

    Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.

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    By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter

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  • Minnesotans, Wisconsinites share thoughts on Harris-Walz ticket during National Night Out

    Minnesotans, Wisconsinites share thoughts on Harris-Walz ticket during National Night Out

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    STILLWATER, Minn. — Voters in Minnesota and western Wisconsin got a chance Tuesday to chat with neighbors about all the political news during National Night Out.

    The annual event focuses on connecting communities with local law enforcement.

    This year, it happened to fall on a day Minnesota and its governor came under a national spotlight.

    “I was thinking [Tim Walz] was kind of a far-fetched choice, because a lot of people don’t know him,” said Emily Krawczewski from Stillwater.

    While the rest of the country will now get to know Walz better, he already has fans in Stillwater.

    “My neighbor called me and I was so happy,” said Linda Hansen. “I was thinking, ‘I just hate to see him leave,’ but then again, I want him to go.”

    Krawczewski says she thinks it’s wonderful to have a representative on the ticket who would keep Minnesota in mind.

    “I think it’ll, if anything else, increase voter turnout,” she said. “Voting is one of the most important things we can do and if it gets people to the polls, I’m happy.”

    Wisconsin is set to welcome both campaigns for rallies in Eau Claire on Wednesday.

    “As someone who’s very passionate about the state of our country, I think it’s super cool they’re going to all lengths to reach everyone,” said Molly Peterson, a teenager from Hudson.

    In western Wisconsin, the Democratic ticket faces an uphill battle.

    Some in Hudson question Walz’s leadership and policies.

    “When he makes those kinds of decisions for the people of Minnesota, I’m worried he’s going to make some bad decisions for the nation,” said Tom Nordahl.

    President Biden won Wisconsin in 2020, but in the state’s four westernmost counties, Donald Trump took nearly 60% of the vote. Mr. Biden did win Eau Claire County, though.

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  • In first rally with Walz, Harris praises him as leader to help unite the nation

    In first rally with Walz, Harris praises him as leader to help unite the nation

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    Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made their debut as the Democratic ticket at a packed campaign rally in Philadelphia Tuesday evening.

    The rally was also Harris’ first appearance since the Democratic Party finalized its virtual roll call results, cementing her as its nominee. She revealed Walz as her VP choice Tuesday morning.

    “I stand before you today to proudly announce I am now officially the Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Harris said, standing alongside Walz. “And so now, we have some work to do. We have to move to the general election and win that.” 

    APTOPIX Election 2024 Harris
    Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speak at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024.

    Matt Rourke / AP


    She quickly moved on to introduce her running mate, saying she sought a partner “who can help build this brighter future, a leader who will help unite our nation and move us forward, a fighter for the middle class, a patriot who believes, as I do, in the extraordinary promise of America, a promise of freedom, opportunity and justice, not just for some, but for all.”

    “So, Pennsylvania, I’m here today because I found such a leader: Governor Tim Walz of the great state of Minnesota,” she announced, to enthusiastic applause and chants of “Tim, Tim, Tim, Tim!”

    She praised his record as governor, as a defender of abortion rights and voting rights and noted that he signed “the most significant expansion of voting rights in Minnesota in over 50 years.” She promised that together they’d pursue national legislation on both those fronts.

    Harris also said Walz, with his experience as an executive, “will be ready on Day One.” That line is what President Biden said about Harris when they were running together in 2020.

    Harris contrasted her background as a girl from Oakland, California, with Walz as a boy who grew up on the plains of Nebraska. 

    “It’s the promise of America, because only in America, only in America, is it possible for them together to make it all the way to the White House,” she said. 


    Harris holds first joint rally with running mate Tim Walz

    55:43

    As Walz took the stage, he said, “I’m thrilled to be on this journey with you,” and he told the crowd, “Pennsylvania, I know you know this, but my God, what a treasure you have in Josh Shapiro,” who was a top contender for the VP spot and introduced Harris at the rally. Shapiro said earlier at the rally, “I love being your governor,” and he vowed to work hard to elect Harris and Walz. 

    Walz, in his maiden remarks as Harris’ running mate, praised the vice president, and while he noted the prosecutor’s role that she and the campaign have been emphasizing, he broadened that view of her, saying, “She took on the predators, she took on the fraudsters, she took down the transnational gangs. She stood up against powerful corporate interests, and she never hesitated to reach across the aisle if it meant improving people’s lives. And I want all of you to hold this and don’t ever underestimate the power of this: She does it all with a sense of joy.”

    Walz leaned into his Midwestern roots, telling the story of his childhood, his military service and the 20 years he spent as a high school social studies teacher. Walz said his former students encouraged him to first run for office, and he ran for Congress in 2006. 

    “I learned the art of compromise without compromising my values,” Walz said of his time as a congressman. “And now as governor of the great state of Minnesota, I bring those experiences to bear in tackling the challenges that are facing our great state.” 

    Walz also took on GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, saying that he “sees the world a little differently than us.”

    Walz tore into Trump, saying the former president doesn’t know the first thing about service because he’s “too busy serving himself.” Walz said Trump weakens the economy to “strengthen his own hand.” He also said crime went up during Trump’s time in office, and “that’s not even counting the crimes he committed,” Walz quipped. The Trump campaign has blasted Walz over crime in Minnesota. 

    The governor said he “can’t wait to debate” GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, “that is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up,” Walz said. 

    With 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania has the largest allocation among battleground states and a win in the state is likely to be pivotal to winning the White House in November. In 2016, former President Donald Trump unexpectedly won the state, which had voted for the Democratic presidential candidate since 1992. President Biden took it back in 2020.

    Harris and Trump are tied at 50% among likely voters in Pennsylvania, according to the latest CBS News poll. The poll, which found Harris has a 1-point edge nationally, also shows the vice president and Trump in an even race in the other six battleground states. 

    Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, also made a campaign stop in Philadelphia earlier Tuesday. He plans to travel to other battleground states later this week, as well. 

    Kamala Harris’ upcoming planned rally schedule

    The Philadelphia rally kicked off Harris and Walz’s  cross-country tour in seven battleground states this week. The two will be campaigning in the following cities:

    • Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Wednesday
    • Detroit, Michigan, on Thursday
    • Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday
    • Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday. 

    Harris had also scheduled campaign stops in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday and Savannah, Georgia, on Friday, but the events were postponed due to Tropical Storm Debby, which is forecasted to bring historic rainfall and flooding to southeastern states this week.

    contributed to this report.

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  • VP Harris and VP nominee Gov. Walz set to hit the campaign trail

    VP Harris and VP nominee Gov. Walz set to hit the campaign trail

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    U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and her VP nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wave to supporters at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. It was the pair’s first time on stage together. Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice

    It’s Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

    Starting in Philadelphia, the largest city in one of the largest battleground states on the map, United States Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the presidential nod, made her selection of a running mate on Tuesday. Walz, a former teacher, high school football coach and member of the National Guard, was officially announced via various social media platforms on Tuesday morning.

    During his first appearance as the vice president nominee, Walz, who walked out on the stage at the Liacouras Center alongside Harris said she, “believes in the promise of America,” and that if they win this election, “every single day in the White House I’ll have Vice President Harris’ back and we’ll have yours.” 

    Now Harris, 59, and Walz, 60, have to hit the road and talk to supporters. With the Democratic National Convention, which will take place in Chicago inside and outside of the United Center, scheduled to take place in less than two weeks, the pair will need to cover a lot of ground and fast. Walz was one of the Democratic politicians that stumped on the behalf of the Biden/Harris ticket during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month. Alongside Texas Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (D-16) and Biden-Harris Principal Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks, Walz spoke to the media about what took place on day two of the Convention. He also explained why the Biden/Harris administration was the best way to go for Americans of all political persuasions. 

    Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice

    Former United States President Donald J. Trump and his vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator J.D. Vance has held several joint rallies, most recently in Atlanta at the Georgia State University Convocation Center in Summerhill. 

    During that rally, Trump took verbal shots at Harris, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump had several individuals speak on his behalf before he took the stage on Saturday. Georgia Congressman Mike Collins, U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), former Georgia Senator David Perdue were among the speakers.

    Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spoke to the crowd in Philadelphia Tuesday night as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris looked on. Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice

    Harris and Walz, both together and separately, will be visiting battleground states this month. The campaign rallies will take place in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, according to the campaign. A planned visit back to Georgia and rally in Savannah on Friday, August 9 was canceled due to concerns over what the weather would be like due to tropical storm Debby. There has not been word from the Harris/Shapiro camp whether or not the pair will visit Georgia again before Election Day in November. With Georgia and its 16 electoral votes being critical to both campaign’s run to the White House, there is a good chance Harris and Walz will be back to the Peach State. 

    Harris and Walz with their spouses following the conclusion of Walz’s speech. Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice

    The Trump/Vance campaign visited Montana this week. The campaign’s trip to North Carolina was canceled due to inclement weather.

    Harris surrogates like Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, who dropped by The Atlanta Voice office on Tuesday afternoon, are supportive of the new ticket, calling Walz, “a very strong choice.”

    “He’s an accomplished governor and a military veteran,” Ossoff said of Walz. “Georgians are going to find Governor Walz competent and will be able to step in that role. I look forward to campaigning with him.” 

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    Donnell Suggs

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  • Fellow Teachers Are Sharing Their Excitement Over Harris’ VP Pick, Tim Walz

    Fellow Teachers Are Sharing Their Excitement Over Harris’ VP Pick, Tim Walz

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    Teachers on social media have been sharing their excitement online after Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday morning.

    Walz, a veteran of the Army National Guard who represented southern Minnesota in the U.S. House from 2007 to 2019, is a former high school social studies teacher.

    Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association teachers union, said in a statement shortly after the announcement that “educators are fired up and united to get out and elect the Harris-Walz ticket.”

    “Gov. Walz is known as the ‘Education Governor’ because he has been an unwavering champion for public school students and educators, and an ally for working families and unions,” she said, adding that the Democratic governor “has a track record of getting things done to make people’s lives better.”

    After graduating from Chadron State College in Nebraska in 1989, Walz, a Nebraska native, taught high school in China for a year before returning home.

    Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, both began teaching at Mankato West High School in southern Minnesota in the 1990s. Walz, who’s currently serving his second term as governor, coached the school’s football team and helped the squad win its first state championship in 1999.

    While teaching at Mankato West High, Walz served as the first faculty adviser to a newly formed gay-straight alliance group at the school in the mid ’90s.

    Walz’s background as an educator has garnered more national attention in recent weeks after it was reported that he was on the short list of vice presidential picks.

    Ann Vote, a former student of Walz’s, told The Washington Post in an article published Friday that it was “wild” for her and her classmates to think their former teacher could become the vice president.

    “But I don’t get the sense that everyone is completely shocked,” she said. “It’s sort of like, ‘Darn right he’s on that list. Absolutely he should be!’

    Vice President Kamala Harris introduces her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at a campaign event Tuesday in Philadelphia.

    Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

    Supporters have touted his gubernatorial record of increasing funding for public K-12 schools in Minnesota, as well as signing laws providing free school meals to Minnesota students, implementing a paid family and medical leave program and granting free tuition at public colleges for students whose families earn less than $80,000 a year.

    Nevada state Assemblywoman Selena Torres, a Democrat and teacher, celebrated Harris’ choice of Walz.

    “Teachers are leaders who deliver results everyday,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I couldn’t be any more excited to cheer on [Walz] as our next VP!!!”

    “Teachers are going to turn out in record numbers!” another teacher wrote on X. “I am so excited to get back to the environmental science classroom this fall with a sense of optimism for future US policy!”

    Check out more reactions from teachers and educators on X below:

    We couldn’t be more proud of our former member and Teacher Governor @Tim_Walz.

    From the classroom to the state Capitol, he’s impacted the lives of countless Minnesotans. We’re excited to help him impact the lives of Americans in the White House. #HarrisWalz2024 pic.twitter.com/8fFVlswL3Y

    — Education Minnesota (@EducationMN) August 6, 2024

    Teachers are going to turn out in record numbers! I am so excited to get back to the environmental science classroom this fall with a sense of optimism for future US policy! pic.twitter.com/6SCXOg82Yg

    — Rich Calhoun (@richcalhoun) August 6, 2024

    LOVE love love the celebrations of (and by) social studies teachers going on rn. Love that Gov. Walz brings his life as a longtime public school teacher to this campaign.

    — Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz (@laughschultz) August 6, 2024

    This doesn’t usually happen after breaking political news, but teachers have been blowing up my phone this morning.

    They definitely have that first day of school energy about Tim Walz.

    — Aisha Sultan (@AishaS) August 6, 2024

    Can you imagine if the other side tries any nonsense during a debate? He’ll whip out that teacher stare. This retired history teacher is THRILLED.

    — Sparkles B.A.H.A., M.A.T. 🇺🇦 (@Read_Art_Garden) August 6, 2024

    Governor Tim Walz taught for over 20 years. All my fellow teachers out there know that you don’t mess with teachers. Watch out GOP! pic.twitter.com/9Zy5ToQPaS

    — Sari Beth Rosenberg (@saribethrose) August 6, 2024

    In my opinion, this country would be in a much better place if we had had more social studies teachers running things. #walz

    — Dr.MacLeodCartoons FB.COM/MACLEODCARTOONS (@MacLtoons) August 6, 2024

    This might be the most excited I’ve been about a ticket since I began voting in 1988, but it’s because there’s a teacher on the ticket. A TEACHER! Someone who knows first hand what teachers go thru. Maybe we can get serious work done on education!

    — Dr. Shanon Taylor (@DrSpEdinNV) August 6, 2024

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  • How Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rose through politics

    How Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rose through politics

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    How Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rose through politics – CBS News


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    Despite a pandemic and social unrest in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota, voters gave Tim Walz a second term as governor. CBS News political reporter Hunter Woodall joins “America Decides” to look at Walz’s rise in politics as he joins the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket.

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