America's Talking - Kamala Harris Picks Walz as Running Mate

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the Democrats' presidential ticket against Republican former President Donald Trump. The news comes 16 days after President Joe Biden said he would not seek reelection and endorsed Harris, who immediately acknowledged her candidacy. No other candidates emerged, and the party by virtual roll call Thursday through Monday awarded her the nomination. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, chief content officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris ended speculation this week about who her running mate would be when she tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the ticket. Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper has the day off. So joining me to discuss this is the Center Square Regional Editor. J.D. Davinsid, who among many other states oversees our coverage in Minnesota. J.D., while there was widespread media speculation for well over a week about who Harris would select as a running mate,

Walsh's name didn't really emerge as the frontrunner until the closing hours. J.D., are you surprised by this election? Dan, I think surprised is a good word. I mean, his name was always kind of in that lower tier, even when President Biden stepped aside. And there was, and they kind of centered around amazingly enough, the states that I handle for the Center Square. There was Andy Bashir in Kentucky, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. And then there was Josh Shapiro and a few others. And then all of the sudden, then somebody would say, oh, yeah, Tim Walts in Minnesota. I don't think anybody two weeks ago or a month ago would have said this would have been the pick. And I don't have any special insight, and I don't think anybody does, on how he moved to the front.

But it is a surprising choice, I think. Yeah, and voters now finally have some clarity after a crazy news cycle in the month of July when, you know, former President Trump, the Republican nominee this year, was nearly assassinated. The bullet grazed his ear at the Butler, Pennsylvania campaign event, followed, that was followed, of course, by the Republican National Convention, where Trump became and accepted the GOP nominee. And that was followed just days later by President Biden announcing he was stepping out of the race and endorsing Vice President Harris to be the nominee. Of course, President Biden can select the Democrats nominee. They had to go through as like a virtual roll call of delegates. That was finally finalized this week, which then followed with her selecting Governor Walsh. So at least voters now have some clarity

on who's going to be on their ballots come November, or if you vote, early on mail and ballots, et cetera. Breaking news today, we are recording this on Thursday this week. President Trump, or former President Trump, excuse me, just held a news conference and essentially challenged Vice President Harris to three debates during the cycle. He did, and I just read our story on the Center Square, and they're waiting to hear back from Vice President Harris. I believe.

But, you know, it's interesting. The things that you say, you know, usually during the summer months in our business, we kind of hope for a newsday or something that's not so boring. And we've been just going 24 hours a day, seven days a week over the last three weeks. I mean, it's been amazing. And the whole campaign, it seems a lot like a marathon. It almost seems like the campaign's been going on for two months. and now my heart rates up.

This is almost like a dead sprint with all of these things happening, and there's no opportunity to catch anybody's breath. And November will be here before you know it. You got that right. Although for many people, it's like a sprint. For us, it's a sprint, but you got to stop what you're doing and cover something new because there's new breaking news when it relates to the presidential election. And in some states, you know, those are those mailing ballots.

They're not that far from being mailed out and people are going to start voting in this race and this election. Yeah, I think in Ohio, well, I do know this. So the issue with President Biden being on a ballot that led to this roll call, which technically the Democrats did not have to do, dealt with deadlines for military ballots being sent out in Ohio, which would come after the Democratic Convention. So military ballots in the next couple of weeks, at least in Ohio, and I would assume several other states are going to be male. So, and, you know, if you're overseas and you're in the Army and you get that ballot

and turn it back in, within a month, some people will start, will start voting. You're right there, J.D. Of course, after the Walls selection, Republicans immediately went into attack mode on his selection, making claims that he's as woke, quote, unquote, woke, excuse me, as Harris or worse, challenging his record on public safety and crime issues. Of course, Minneapolis, Minnesota is where the protests, and in some cases, rioting started occurring or occurred in the wake of the murder of George Floyd there, saying the governor of Minnesota allowed that to happen. So it's just going to be a constant back and forth between now and election day, right? We're going to get hammered with campaign ads, with press conferences, maybe three debates, maybe less than that. But this is going to be a constant news cycle between now and then. Oh, there's no end.

And the difficult part about it is it won't be anything new. For the next three months, we're going to hear the same thing over and over again about Tim Walls, about Kamala Harris, about Donald Trump, about J.D. Vance. I don't know if this is good or bad, but both of the vice president, presidential candidates are in states that, I handle. And yeah, I do know that Walsh took some heat and still does on how he handled the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis. I have a daughter that lives downtown Minneapolis and called me yesterday and talked about Governor Wals and her concern with him was the George Floyd issue. On the flip side of that, the people in Minnesota are, you know, and the people. Purple-ish, more bluish, and a lot of the social issues and education issues that with free, you know, he did create free lunches and free breakfast in schools.

And he has created some other things. So I feel like that plays well to the Democratic base, J.D. Vance, while it has the same issues in Ohio, the people in Middletown are not necessarily really happy with him. They don't care for him all that much. And the people in Kentucky really don't like him. but he plays well to the Republican base. And both of those guys can be, and we've already seen, can be the attack dog. And of course, Trump has his own legal problems

scheduled to be sentenced ahead of the November election in the New York City Hush Money case. But we're going to have to leave that for another time and another episode of America in Focus, J.D. Thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep up with all election-related news at the centersquare.com.