Harris and Walz to head to Wisconsin and Michigan
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are off to Eau Claire in Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday to continue their battleground tour after a raucous debut of the Minnesota governor in Philadelphia.
The rally in Wisconsin is due to start at 12pm CT and the vice-president and Walz will be joined by Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers, senator Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin secretary of state Sarah Godlewski, and others.
Indie folk band Bon Iver, who have their roots in Eau Claire, will perform at the rally before Harris and Walz are due to address the crowd around 1.25pm CT.
Key events
During his campaign, JD Vance doubled down on the Republican accusation that Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz over Josh Shapiro because of his Jewish identity.
A reporter asked:
“You have repeatedly suggested that the only reason Kamala Harris didn’t pick Josh Shapiro is because of his Jewish faith. Do you have any evidence to support that assertion that a person who is married to a Jewish man is somehow antisemitic or bowing to antisemites?”
In response, JD Vance said:
“Well I reject the premise of the question. I did not say that was the only reason that Kamala Harris didn’t choose Josh Shapiro so you should take a little less DNC talking points when you ask your question and ask a real question.”
Following Harris’s pick of Walz as her running mate, JD Vance told Fox News on Tuesday that by choosing Walz, Harris “bent the knee to the far-left,” adding, “This decision, selecting Tim Walz, is another sign that she doesn’t care what the American people think. She is only in this to obey the far-left radicals within her own party. It’s a really shameful moment for Kamala Harris.”
Shapiro has been a vocal supporter of Israel amid its war on Gaza which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians since Hamas’s October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 Israelis.
During the anti-war student protests across US college campuses, Shapiro appeared to compare the student demonstrators to the KKK, saying, “We have to query whether or not we would tolerate this if this were people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia.”
Shapiro, who says his views have changed, has also once written that “peace will never come” to the Middle East as Palestinians as “battleminded.”
Since Walz’s pick as Harris’s running mate, reports have emerged that Shapiro appeared circumspect about the vice presidency position during the final selection process, with various sources familiar with the matter saying that he had numerous questions about the role and his responsibilities.
JD Vance continued to stick to Donald Trump and Republicans’ attack line questioning Kamala Harris’s biracial identity, saying:
“Donald Trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive but frankly obviously true to me which is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She’s a fake …”
In response to a question from a reporter who asked, “How can you fake your race?”, JD Vance replied:
“She fakes who she is depending on the audience that she’s in front of and that’s who she is and that’s who she’s always been.”
JD Vance on Trump’s attacks on Harris’s racial identity: ‘I was not bothered at all’
During his campaign in Shelby Township, Michigan, JD Vance defended Donald Trump’s attacks on Kamala Harris’s biracial identity, saying that he saw no problem with the former president’s comments at the NABJ conference last week where he said Harris “happened to turn Black”.
In response to a question on how he would explain Trump’s attacks, JD Vance, who is married to Usha Vance, an Indian American lawyer, and has biracial children, said:
“I was not bothered at all by what President Trump said I didn’t take it as an attack on Kamala Harris’s biracial background at all.
What I took it as was an attack on Kamala Harris being a chameleon. She pretends to be one thing when she’s in front of one audience, she pretends to be something else when she’s in front of another audience and I think he was observing the basic foundational reality that Kamala Harris pretends to be something different, depending on which audience she’s speaking to.”
In response to #TamponTim, a trending and apparently mocking hashtag online that takes aim at Tim Walz and his efforts to provide menstrual products to all students, including transgender students, Hillary Clinton defended the progressive Minnesota governor.
Writing on X, Clinton said:
“How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools! Let’s do this everywhere.”
How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools! Let’s do this everywhere. pic.twitter.com/hk6v8cs8p4
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 7, 2024
Tim Walz does not own any stocks, according to financial disclosures reviewed by Axios and confirmed by a spokesperson.
In Axios’s business editor Dan Primack’s newsletter, Primack reports that Walz’s disclosures also do not indicate any mutual funds, bonds, private equities or other securities.
Kamala Harris’s vice-president pick also does not have any book deals, speaking fees or crypto or racehorse interests, Primack reports, adding that Walz does not also own any real estate.
According to the report, the Walzes’ only investment assets appear to be from state pensions.
In a new post on X, Kamala Harris said that with Tim Walz by her side, “Let us fight for the promise of America’s future.”
The duo is set to campaign in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, today as part of their campaign blitz across seven states in five days.
‘I could not be more thrilled’: Trump reacts to Harris’s VP pick
Here is video of Donald Trump describing his shock at Kamala Harris’s vice-president pick, Tim Walz:
“I can’t believe it. … I could not be more thrilled.”
— Donald Trump is very happy that Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her VP pick pic.twitter.com/tMUxSekadZ
— The Recount (@therecount) August 7, 2024
Speaking to Fox News, Trump said he “could not be more thrilled”.
Martin Pengelly reported further on Trump’s Fox News interview for the Guardian, writing earlier this morning:
“Trump also claimed to have saved Walz from ‘thousands’ of pro-Trump protesters with ‘the American flags and the Maga flags’ who Trump said ‘surrounded’ Walz’s house in summer 2020, when Minnesota saw protests and rioting prompted by the police murder of George Floyd.”
In the days leading up to Kamala Harris’s final selection of her vice-president, three finalists were presented to her by her campaign team: Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly and Tim Walz, the New York Times reports.
Among the questioners who interviewed the finalists were Marty Walsh, Joe Biden’s labor secretary, Cedric Richmond, a campaign co-chair, Tony West, Harris’s brother-in-law, Dana Remus, a former White House counsel, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada senator.
According to the report, “Mr. Shapiro had privately appeared more circumspect about the vice presidency, according to multiple people familiar with the selection process, asking about his role and responsibilities.
“Mr. Shapiro, 51, is widely seen as harboring his own presidential ambitions, which could have complicated any relationship where his chief job would be to serve as a dutiful No. 2,” the Times added.
Meanwhile, the impression Walz gave off the Harris was “joyful” and “willing to do anything for the team”.
According to a source speaking to the Times anonymously, Harris said, “He’s just so open,” adding, “I really like him.” Additionally, Walz reportedly explicitly told Harris to not pick him if he could not help her win in November.
The Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign has rolled out its newest merchandise: the Harris-Walz camo hat which it described as the “most iconic political hat in America”.
The embroidered hat with the orange words is described on the website as “America made, union made” and sells for $40.
The hat appears to pay homage to Missouri-born popstar Chappell Roan’s own tour merchandise collection which also features a camo hat with the orange words, “Midwest Princess”.
Following the release of the Harris-Walz hat, Roan herself took notice of the resemblance, writing on X, “Is this real?”
Martin Pengelly
More from Donald Trump’s friendly Fox & Friends phoner, in which the former president and current Republican nominee took softball questions from the hosts on the cream couch and from a small crowd in Sturgis, South Dakota, who turned out before dawn to cheer him:
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On Tim Walz’s charge that Trump is not fighting for “kitchen-table issues”: Walz said so during his rally with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia yesterday, saying Trump was “sat at his country club in Mar-a-Lago wondering how he can cut taxes for his rich friends”. On Fox, Trump answered by rambling about his “unbelievable business, one of the greatest businesses, I built a business that is phenomenal”. The Trump Organization has certainly generated a phenomenal number of legal problems of late, not least a multi-hundred-million-dollar fine and other penalties for business fraud and a jail term for its chief financial officer.
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On what he will do for the economy on day one of a second term: “The first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to ‘drill baby drill’ and then number two, and I can do lots of things in the first day, it’s not one thing or two things or four things, we’re going to do lots of things on the first day, but we’re going to close up the border. We’ll let people come in but they have to come in legally.” Notably, Trump has said he wants to be a “dictator” on his first day back in office.
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On surviving an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania last month, and on news of another plot to kill him: “I’m in a very dangerous business. Being president is a dangerous thing. And especially when you’re an active president, when you are somebody that wants to make our country secure, when you want to build a strong military, we built, I rebuilt our entire military, and we gave a lot of it away to Afghanistan, which is, like, shocking, that was by the way the Afghanistan when we showed that gross incompetence in Afghanistan, I was getting out but we’re getting out with tremendous dignity and strength, we were the boss and … [and much more on Afghanistan, Ukraine – “I can go into Ukraine”, Iran and Hamas.]
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On the media “honeymoon” period for Harris and whether it “must drive you crazy”: “It does.”
Usha Vance has come to her husband JD Vance’s defense after his comments on “childish cat ladies” running the country surfaced in recent weeks.
In an interview with Fox News, Usha Vance responded to a question on what she would say to people who were offended by JD Vance’s comment, saying:
“JD absolutely, at the time and today, would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family, who really … was struggling with that…
And I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good.”
Usha Vance’s comments have been paraphrased by Vanity Fair as, “My husband only meant to insult people who actively choose not to have kids, not people who are trying but are unsuccessful” in a new headline.
She also did not mention her husband’s other attacks in which he called people without children “sociopathic”, “psychotic” and “deranged”.
For more on Usha Vance’s defense of her husband’s words – which she described as a “quip”, click here:
Trump compares Walz to Sanders and teases Harris debate news
Martin Pengelly
Donald Trump called into Fox & Friends this morning, for half an hour of softball questions teeing up invective about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Democrats’ supposed antisemitism and other matters. Here are some of the highlights …
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On Tim Walz for vice-president: Trump said he was surprised Harris picked the Minnesota governor, who he predictably slammed for being extremely progressive, repeatedly comparing him to Bernie Sanders. Trump also claimed to have saved Walz from “thousands” of pro-Trump protesters with “the American flags and the Maga flags” who Trump said “surrounded” Walz’s house in summer 2020, when Minnesota saw protests and rioting prompted by the police murder of George Floyd. Trump said Walz asked him to “put out the word that I’m a good person”, so Trump did and the crowd went home. “And he called me back and he thanked me very much, that’s my only thing I’ve ever had to deal with him,” said Trump, who in 2019, as president, appointed Walz to the bipartisan Council of Governors.
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On Josh Shapiro missing out: Trump said he was “no big fan” of the Pennsylvania governor but “would have said it would have been a better choice” for Harris to pick him. Claiming to be leading in Pennsylvania – contestable, at least – Trump also agreed with his hosts that antisemitism, stoked by Shapiro’s positions on Israel and Gaza, played a role in Shapiro missing out. “I think that any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat … should have their head examined,” said Trump – a man whose own alleged antisemitic remarks memorably include the contention, “The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. No one else.” Trump also claimed, in the same answer, to be in with a chance of winning New York. Polling there shows Harris pulling clear.
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On whether he will debate Harris: Trump fringed close to making news when he said: “We’ll be debating I guess in the pretty near future, it’s going to be announced fairly soon, but we’ll be debating her.” Trump had agreed a second debate with Joe Biden on ABC News but has said he will only debate on Fox News. Harris says it has to be ABC. “I would like to say my preference would be Fox but we have to debate,” Trump said, adding: “I think debates are very important as they should be exposed just like Biden was exposed.” It’s true Biden’s catastrophic debate display against Trump in June hastened the end of the president’s candidacy for re-election. But Harris – who Trump complained the media wanted to “build up into the next Margaret Thatcher, liberal version” – would be a very different opponent.
More follows…
Trump attacks Harris and Walz, claiming they want to make US a communist country
Donald Trump has attacked Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in an interview with Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning.
The former president trotted out familiar attack lines, trying to paint his Democratic opponent as “communist” and out of touch with American voters.
During a phone-in interview, Trump claimed: “This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately if not sooner.”
He went on to disparage Walz’s record on protecting gender-affirming care in Minnesota while suggesting Harris not choosing Josh Shapiro was “very insulting to Jewish people”.
“This is a ticket that would want this county to go communist immediately if not sooner … he’s very heavy into transgender. Anything transgender he thinks is great … I think it’s very insulting to Jewish people” — Trump on Fox & Friends on Harris/Walz pic.twitter.com/61Phj3OTVx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 7, 2024
Analysis: why Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz
Chris Stein
Walz emerged as Harris’s pick after a search lasting two weeks that saw the vice-president also consider a group that included the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and Arizona senator Mark Kelly. The choice of Walz drew praise from across the Democratic party’s ideological spectrum.
The progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Harris made an “excellent decision”, while Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator who recently left the party and is best known for hamstringing Biden’s proposals to fight child poverty and more aggressively combat climate change, said: “I can think of no one better than Governor Walz to help bring our country closer together and bring balance back to the Democratic party.”
Republicans responded to Walz’s selection by posting on social media images of the protests the rocked Minneapolis four years ago after George Floyd’s murder, reminders of the governor’s support for a law allowing undocumented migrants to obtain driver’s licenses, plus a massive Covid relief scandal that took place during his administration.
Now in his second term as governor, the former congressman and high school teacher brings to the ticket a record of progressive policymaking, a somewhat sympathetic view towards pro-Palestine protesters, and a distinctly Minnesotan style of communication the campaign could use in its efforts to win the nearby swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Here’s the full analysis from my colleague Chris Stein:
Our Revolution, a grassroots US progressive political organization founded by Bernie Sanders, condemned the outcome of Cori Bush’s Democratic primary.
Joseph Geevarghese, spokesperson for the group, said Democratic party leaders failed to support Bush against a “barrage of racist attacks and millions of dollars” being spent to unseat her.
Geevarghese said in a statement: “Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents’ taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza. As a result, Aipac and its Maga Republican-funded super Pac spent more than $8.4m to buy her congressional seat.
“Democratic party elites have spent years decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy, yet they are resoundingly silent when wealthy conservative donors unseat a true working-class champion who was among the first federal lawmakers to endorse Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy for president.”