Harris running mate Tim Walz lashes ‘selfish’ Trump
Minnesota governor, former high school teacher and one-time national guardsman triggers a barrage of Republican attacks.
US presidential hopeful Kamala Harris and her freshly selected running mate Tim Walz hit the campaign trail together on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) for the first time, as the Democrat duo fired up supporters at a rally in the key battleground of Pennsylvania.
Mr Walz, the 60-year-old Minnesota Governor whose everyman credentials could help win over voters, joined Ms Harris in Philadelphia to launch a tour through four swing states where the race against Donald Trump is likely to be decided.
He took aim at the Republican nominee as being too selfish to serve Americans. “Donald Trump – he sees the world differently. He doesn’t know the first thing about service because he’s too busy serving himself,” Mr Walz told a crowd of around 10,000 cheering supporters. “He drove our economy into the ground, and make no mistake: violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That’s not even counting the crimes he committed.”
Earlier, Mr Trump and Republicans moved quickly to cast the Vice-President’s choice of vice-running mate as a “dangerously liberal extremist”, zeroing in on his performance during the Black Lives Matter riots in which Minneapolis descended into chaos.
As top Democrats from President Joe Biden down praised Ms Harris’s choice of the former teacher, national guardsman and congressman, Republicans accused the Democrats of anti-Semitism for picking Mr Walz over the nationally better known governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish.
Mr Trump, 78, who has had a rough couple of weeks since Ms Harris, 59, emerged as the Democrats’ nominee, said Mr Walz would be the “worst vice-president in history … unleash hell on earth and open the borders to the worst criminals imaginable”.
“He’ll rubber stamp Kamala’s GREEN NEW SCAM and light trillions of dollars on fire,” Mr Trump said in a campaign email fired off soon after Ms Harris’s choice emerged.
Ms Harris, who has enjoyed a honeymoon in the polls since her elevation, ended days of intense speculation over whom she would choose as her running mate on Tuesday.
Mr Walz, who was re-elected as governor in 2022 in a strongly Democrat state after spending over a decade in the House of Representatives, became the favourite in recent days as the field of running mates was narrowed to three, including Mr Shapiro and Arizona senator and retired astronaut Mark Kelly.
“This is a guy who has proposed shipping more manufacturing jobs to China, who wants to make American people more reliant on foreign energy and has proposed defunding the police,” said Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance.
“Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in 2020 and the few that got caught, Kamala bailed them out of jail,” he added, referring to Ms Harris previous career as a lawyer.
Reports suggested Ms Harris was drawn to Mr Walz’s personable, avuncular style, their chemistry during the final interview process, his potential appeal in mid-western must-win states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, and some of his policy record, including a statewide child-tax credit and codification of abortion rights.
Some Republicans suggested it was also to avoid a fight with the far-left of the Democratic Party, which has become stridently anti-Israel, by passing over Mr Shapiro, the popular governor of a battleground state, who once served in the Israeli Defence Forces.
“Kamala is the most anti-Israel member of Biden’s team, always siding with Hamas and Iran’s interests,” said Republican senator Tom Cotton. “Shapiro and Walz’s views on Israel aren’t that different. But Harris catered to her pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic base who opposed Shapiro because he’s Jewish.”
Republicans roundly criticised Mr Walz for his allegedly slow response to the breakdown in law and order in his state’s biggest city, Minneapolis, in May 2020 after the death of George Floyd, which suffered massive damage to property in riots that latest for a week
“In 2021, Minnesotans were roughly five times more likely to move to Florida than vice versa. They were fleeing a state that, under Governor Tim Walz, turned its back on law and order, increased taxes, and imposed unscientific coronavirus restrictions, harming children and destroying businesses,” said Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
Right-wing influencer Charles Kirk told his 3.2 million followers that Mr Walz had “overseen some of the most radical youth trans surgery laws in the country”.
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Welcome to the race, Tim Walz!
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 6, 2024
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