Tangle - Kamala Harris picks Tim Walz as her running mate.

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Tim Walz. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 election. Walz is a 60-year-old former high-school teacher and military ...veteran. He represented Minnesota's rural 1st District in Congress from 2007 to 2019, was elected governor in 2018, then re-elected in 2022. Harris’s pick followed her certification as the Democratic nominee, and her selection of Walz finalizes the party’s ticket roughly two weeks after President Joe Biden exited the race.You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.You can catch our trailer for the Tangle Live event at City Winery NYC. Full video coming soon!Check out Episode 5 of our podcast series, The Undecideds. Please give us a 5-star rating and leave a comment!Today’s clickables: Quick hits (0:59), Today’s story (3:04) Left’s take (6:43), Right’s take (10:50), Isaac’s take (14:42), Listener Question (23:00), Under the Radar (23:20), Numbers (24:12), Have a nice day (25:23)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Help share Tangle.I'm a firm believer that our politics would be a little bit better if everyone were reading balanced news that allows room for debate, disagreement, and multiple perspectives. If you can take 15 seconds to share Tangle with a few friends I'd really appreciate it — just click here and pick some people to email it to!Take the survey: What do you think of Harris tapping Walz? Let us know!Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year, garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th.
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Starting point is 00:02:00 Tim Walz. That is right. Kamala Harris has picked her running mate for 2024. And we're going to jump in and explain the pros and cons of him, why he was picked, and share some views from across the political spectrum, of course. With that, I'm going to pass it over to John Law to introduce the main story, and I'll be back for my take. Thanks, Isaac, and welcome, everybody. Here are your quick hits for today. First up, Representative Cori Bush, the Democrat from Missouri, lost her primary race to St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell in the second most expensive House primary in U.S. history. Number two, Hamas named Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds behind the October 7th attack on Israel, as its new political
Starting point is 00:02:51 leader after its former political chief was assassinated last week. Number three, X sued an advertising coalition and its member companies, saying it violated antitrust laws when pulling their ads from the platform. Number four, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an emergency ban on dactyl, DCPA, a common herbicide used to kill weeds. The ban followed an assessment that found that DCPA can cause irreversible damage to fetuses exposed to the toxin in utero. And number five, a Pakistani citizen linked to Iran was arrested and charged in New York for an alleged murder-for-hire plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump. CBS News has confirmed that the party's leader in November, Kamala Harris, has chosen,
Starting point is 00:03:47 there you see it on your screen, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. He is a former congressman and a retired Army National Guardsman who was elected governor six years ago. The Democratic ticket will appear together at a rally in Philadelphia later tonight. The former educator-turned-two-term governor also served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, making him the longest serving military veteran to be a vice presidential nominee. A working class politician from a rural background, Minnesota's Tim Walz is known for not pulling punches. This is not about the Second Amendment. This is about the safety of our children and our communities. A self-described white dude for Kamala Harris, the popular governor,
Starting point is 00:04:26 will now run alongside the nation's first woman of color atop a major party's ticket. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 election. Walz is a 60-year-old former high school teacher and military veteran. He represented Minnesota's rural first District in Congress from 2007 to 2019, and was elected governor in 2018, then re-elected in 2022. Harris's pick followed her certification as the Democratic nominee, and her selection of Walls finalizes the party's ticket roughly two weeks after President Joe Biden exited the race.
Starting point is 00:05:03 Initially considered an underdog candidate to be Harris's running mate, Walls' stock rose over the last few weeks as he stumped for Harris in rallies and television appearances. In a viral interview, Walls introduced a now popular attack against former President Donald Trump and J.D. Vance by calling them weird. The line has been adopted wholesale by Democrats, who have used it to claim Republicans' views on America have diverged from the norm. These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away. They want to be in your exam room.
Starting point is 00:05:32 They're bad on foreign policy. They're bad on environment. They certainly have no health care plan. And they keep talking about the middle class, Wallace said to MSNBC in July. As I said, a robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are, they don't know who we are. As Minnesota's governor, Walz developed a reputation for supporting popular progressive policies and helping get them passed into law. In a summary of his signature accomplishments, Walz celebrates legalizing recreational marijuana,
Starting point is 00:06:01 protecting abortion rights, implementing tuition-free college for low-income students, establishing automatic voter registration, providing free breakfast and lunch for school children, and expanding LGBTQ protections. He also signed an executive order that removed a college degree requirement for 75% of Minnesota's state jobs with bipartisan support. Democratic insiders suggested Walz was picked not just for his executive experience, but also his background as a military veteran and gun owner who supports gun control measures. His familiarity with voters in the must-win states of Wisconsin and Michigan is also viewed as a plus. Walls is well-known in western Wisconsin because it shares a media market with Minnesota, while Michigan has many economic and cultural similarities with the state.
Starting point is 00:06:45 In the days leading up to the pick, Harris's shortlist was reportedly down to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Walls. Shapiro, a popular swing state governor, was the favorite of many Democratic strategists. However, he faced opposition from progressives who were critical of his support of Israel and his openness to private school vouchers, concerns shared by union leaders. Shapiro also reportedly told Harris that he was unsure he wanted to leave his job as governor to become vice president. Harris and Wallace appeared together on Tuesday night in Philadelphia alongside Shapiro. Harris highlighted Wallace's history as a veteran, teacher, and football coach,
Starting point is 00:07:18 while Wallace delivered some of the sharpest attacks against Trump, describing him as a self-serving criminal who oversaw a rise in crime across the U.S. Immediately after the announcement, the Trump campaign went on the offensive. It's no surprise that San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running mate, Trump's press secretary said in a statement. Walz spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State. If the Harris-Walz ticket wins the election, Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan would take over for the rest of Wallace's term. Today, we're going to break down some of the arguments from the left and the right about Wallace's selection, and then Isaac's take.
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Starting point is 00:08:44 From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year, garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th. Alright, first let's start with what the left is saying. The left mostly favors the pick, suggesting Walls will bring even more charisma and energy to the ticket.
Starting point is 00:09:30 Some say the pick shows Democrats are comfortable embracing their progressive image. Others worry that Republicans' attacks on Walls will land with moderate voters. In the Daily Beast, David Rothkopf wrote, Tim Walls is the Biden that Harris needs. Same vibes, same base. Not only has Harris made the best possible choice among the excellent options from which she was choosing to run and eventually serve alongside her, she did it confidently and from strength. She did not choose a candidate to placate critics. She chose one to further energize the broad national coalition that is lining up to support her vision of America, Rothkopf wrote.
Starting point is 00:10:04 The creation of the Harris-Walz ticket makes starkly clear the choice Americans will face in November. It presents two career public servants versus two men who have dedicated their lives primarily to serving themselves. Wallace has governed from the mainstream throughout his career, and his views far more closely dovetail with the majority of Americans on issue after issue, from protecting reproductive rights to defending voting rights, from providing low-cost health care to offering meals to needy kids in school, from protecting the climate to introducing common-sense gun laws. Then do those fascist-loving, Democratic-hating extremists on the GOP ticket, Rothkopf wrote. Walz is in many ways the Joe Biden Kamala Harris needed on the ticket. Same vibes, same base, legit blue-collar
Starting point is 00:10:46 roots, solid governing record. With the addition of his teaching, coaching, and military record, he's kind of a Swiss army knife candidate. And Jacobin Branco-Marketic said the Tim Walz VP shows America's politics are changing. Walz has a record as governor that anyone on the left is plenty to be pleased with, from putting in place free universal school meals and paid family and medical leave, to establishing a form of tuition-free public college and beefing up worker protections, Mark Hedick wrote. But that's not what makes this pick significant. Harris's decision to go with Walls over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, the other name that her list had been whittled down to, is another major sign,
Starting point is 00:11:23 on top of Biden's 2020 campaign and the first year of his presidency, of a major shift in the United States' political center of gravity since 2016. By almost every parameter of conventional democratic thinking, Shapiro was the logical, strong pick for Harris. Walls, meanwhile, was unabashedly progressive.
Starting point is 00:11:39 He not only passed measures that were economically left, but proved supportive of issues like gun control, abortion rights, and transgender rights, Mark Hedick said. It's hard to see any of this, Wallace's transformation into a progressive, his unapologetic defense of his record, and it being considered an asset over a centrist rival, happening in an earlier era of U.S. politics. The fact that it comes after Joe Biden, briefly governed as a progressive populist, is solid proof that the American political landscape has markedly changed. In New York Magazine, Jonathan Chait argued,
Starting point is 00:12:11 Kamala Harris and Tim Walz need to pivot to the center right now. Harris does not need to run a perfect campaign to beat Trump, but at the moment, she is in a toss-up environment and every inch counts. Does Walz help her gain those inches? I don't believe he does. Rather than being one of the most moderate governors in America, he is one of the most liberal and possibly the most liberal, which is why he's become a hero to the far left in recent days. Walz is not a leftist, but he has adopted some unpopular positions like providing free health care to unauthorized immigrants, Chait wrote. There is a reason Walz is less popular in a light blue state than Josh Shapiro in a purple state. It's because he's less moderate. free health care to unauthorized immigrants, Chait wrote. There is a reason Walz is less popular in
Starting point is 00:12:45 a light blue state than Josh Shapiro in a purple state. It's because he's less moderate. The good news in all this is that vice presidential candidates generally have little effect on election outcomes. Walz probably won't hurt Harris much, if at all, Chait said. What the selection does, however, is forfeit her best opportunity to send a message that she is a moderate. She needs to take every possible opportunity between now and November to make up forfeit her best opportunity to send a message that she is a moderate. She needs to take every possible opportunity between now and November to make up for that. Harris needs to adopt positions that will upset progressive activists. She needs to specifically understand that the likelihood a given action or statement will create complaints on the left is a reason
Starting point is 00:13:18 to do something rather than a reason not to. All right, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. The right is critical of the pick, arguing Harris bowed to pressure from progressives to snub Shapiro. Some suggest walls won't help Democrats as much as they expect. Others say the pick was a strategic blunder that will slow Harris' momentum. The New York Post editorial board said Kamala Harris bows to the radicals in picking lefty Tim Walls as her running mate. Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, the most left-wing of her VP options, in the process passing over the clear best choice, Governor Josh Shapiro of Swing swing state Pennsylvania, plainly because she didn't dare cross the left by tapping a Jew. This is an utterly damning sign of how she'd govern, well to the left of Joe Biden and even more deceptive, the board wrote. It's easy to see
Starting point is 00:14:15 why Harris felt so comfortable with him. He's a lot like her, a radical who most media can and will aim to paint as a centrist. But boy, was this foolish. Pennsylvania is crucial this November, and Shapiro plainly would have been a huge asset. The left has gone ballistic the last week against him, and Harris yielded, against her own best electoral interests, to the haters, the board said. The press is cheered as she remade her image,
Starting point is 00:14:38 not even complaining as she avoids any event where she can't rely on a teleprompter, nor asking where her campaign website will announce any policies. But in tappings, Harris showed who she really is, a California lefty who will give in to the radicals every time. In National Review, Noah Rothman wrote, The Walls pick is a statement of weakness. The elevation of Minnesota Governor Tim Walls to the presidential ticket is a statement more about the Harris campaign's weakness than about its strengths, Rothman said. The Harris campaign assumes that Walls has prohibitive
Starting point is 00:15:08 appeal in the three crucial Rust Belt states, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, that the Democratic presidential nominee has lost precisely once this century. The campaign's sense that Walls helps shore up the bulwarks in the Democratic Party's last line of defense is an admission that the party believes the 2024 race is still a base election. Beyond Walz's presumed capacity to shore up the party's faltering lines in the Midwest, it is also believed that the governor's popularity among progressives in positions of authority mollifies the more rabid far-left elements in the streets, Rothman wrote. This tacitly concedes the GOP's claim that Democrats are unduly beholden to a radical faction within the party that is overrepresented in the press, on college campuses, and in online
Starting point is 00:15:50 forums. This is terrain Republicans are eager to attack. Walz's selection may foreclose on taking the campaign to the GOP's turf, forcing them to commit finite resources to what should be safe states. In the Hill, Matt Lewis suggested picking Tim Walz was Kamala Harris' first campaign mistake. Walz is the governor of Minnesota, a state that Harris should easily win. And while Walz's avuncular Midwestern image may play well in so-called blue wall states,
Starting point is 00:16:17 which include Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, it's not the same as him being the popular governor of one of those states. What's more, by going with Walls, Harris has abandoned the generational change contrast that a Harris-Shapiro ticket would have enjoyed against Trump, Lewis said. There are thousands of politically homeless Americans yearning in vain for someone, anyone, to woo them. Today, that goal became much harder. Walls won't be easily pigeonholed as some effete cosmopolitan liberal. He's a veteran and a high school football coach, among other things.
Starting point is 00:16:47 It's also true that some of his past positions would be hard to cast as out of touch. He was once backed by the NRA. Still, much of Walls' actual record, such as signing a law that allows undocumented immigrants to receive a driver's license and his response to the George Floyd protests, will be easily pilloried, Lewis wrote. From where I sit in the peanut gallery, this vice presidential choice constitutes her first unforced error. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take.
Starting point is 00:17:22 All right, that is it for it with the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take. So I'm actually going to break this up into four parts today. First, why this choice matters. Second, Walls as a running mate versus Josh Shapiro. Walls' strengths and his weaknesses. So first, I want to start with the robust debate about whether vice presidents change the outcome of elections. I think they clearly do. From Lyndon B. Johnson delivering the South for John F. Kennedy to Mike Pence helping Donald Trump win over evangelicals, we have plenty of examples of vice presidents helping presidential candidates address key vulnerabilities. For Harris, she didn't win a primary. She's on a compressed timeline in a very
Starting point is 00:18:05 tight race and is a living, breathing example that vice presidents can become presidents pretty quickly. So Harris's choice will have a greater than usual influence on enthusiasm, turnout, and perceptions about her campaign. And her picking walls is going to move some voters. Second, I want to address the decision to pick walls over Josh Shapiro. A lot of progressives, especially the anti-Zionist crowd, are celebrating her choice. They applied pressure on Harris' team to pick walls and are now labeling it as proof the party is moving left and away from the influence of the Israel lobby. Interestingly, many conservatives are doing the same. Framing the pick is proof that Zionists and Jews can no longer operate in the Democratic Party. I think this is total bunk. For starters, the attacks on Shapiro
Starting point is 00:18:50 were silly. He did not compare pro-Palestine protesters to the KKK, as many on the left accused him of doing. In fact, if you listen to or read the full transcript of his comments, you'll see that he was criticizing anti-Semitic and Islamophobic protesters, saying that we have a higher tolerance for bigotry against Jews and Muslims than we do against Black people, which actually is a reasonable take on Americans' current cultural sensitivities. Also, Tim Walz's positions on Israel seem nearly indistinguishable from Shapiro's. The Atlantic's Yair Rosenberg argued convincingly that Shapiro's stance on Israel relative to other candidates has been receiving outsized attention
Starting point is 00:19:30 because he is a practicing Jew. To show this, Rosenberg pointed out that Walz has voted to condemn the UN resolution against Israeli settlements that Obama allowed to pass, participated in the AIPAC conference calling Israel, quote, our truest and closest ally in the region with a commitment to values of personal freedoms and liberties surrounded by a pretty tough neighborhood, end quote. Walls also met with Netanyahu personally and released a photo to the media. He said of campus protests, quote, I think when Jewish students are telling us they feel unsafe in that we need to believe them, and I do believe them, end quote. And he said in June, quote, the ability of Jewish people to self-determine themselves is foundational.
Starting point is 00:20:10 The failure to recognize the state of Israel is taking away that self-determination, so it is anti-Semitic. All this is to say, the left is wrong that Shapiro is distinctly Zionist in contrast to Walls in the field, and the right is wrong that Harris picking Walls is proof Zionists can't exist within the current Democratic Party. Walls certainly seems like a Zionist to me. With that out of the way, here are what I see as the five biggest strengths of the pick. First, Walls is a great communicator. His description of Republicans being weird went viral because it resonated with a lot of people in the center and the left who feel that Trump, Vance, and other conservatives spend a disproportionate amount of time talking about issues that don't matter to a lot of Americans. More precisely, though,
Starting point is 00:20:54 Walls is good at defending progressive positions in simple down-to-earth terms, similar to the way Trump makes mirror arguments for conservative principles. Number two, he's likable. The first rule of picking a vice president is to do no harm, and Harris picked a friendly-seeming Midwesterner who won't upset any particular segment of the Democratic Party. Walls first popped onto the national radar for a viral video of him and his daughter at the state fair in Minnesota, where his down-to-earth personality is on full display. He's just flat-out affable, and since presidential
Starting point is 00:21:25 races are as much popularity contests as they are policy debates, that makes him a strong candidate. Three, he will energize the progressive base. This was the pick that the Democrats' left flank wanted. Walls has a strong progressive track record, and the odds of the progressive wing of the Democratic base being activated in a genuine way go up with him on the ticket. The Philadelphia rally was a pretty shocking show of strength, with a larger and more energetic crowd than what Trump is drawing. It might not pan out, but Harris is making a strong bet that younger online progressive voters actually show up to vote for her with walls at her side. Number four, he is very experienced. He survived in Congress in a purple district for
Starting point is 00:22:06 12 years and has six years of executive experience as a governor. Love him or hate him, the guy knows how to pass legislation, and he knows how to work across the aisle. Minnesota's state congress is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, and Walls has managed to get stuff done. That would be a big selling point on the campaign trail. And number five, Walls as a package is not nearly as progressive as some people are going to make him out to be. He's a gun-friendly veteran. He has some low-key pro-market positions that have caught the attention of moderates. He signed the most comprehensive right to repair law in the country, brags about a $100 million tax cut that simplified the tax filing system in Minnesota, and banned non-compete
Starting point is 00:22:45 agreements. He is not an Ivy Leaguer, law school graduate, or coastal elite. He grew up in Nebraska, he oozes Minnesota vibes, and he can genuinely trumpet populist ideas. There is a reason people like Joe Manchin heartily endorse the pick, and it's not because he is an unhinged progressive. And now, some of his weaknesses. First and foremost, he was governor during the 2020 riots in Minneapolis, which did not reflect well on his leadership. He responded too slowly, downplayed the severity of the riots, excused the rioters' actions, insisted the government should give them what they wanted, and did not communicate very well as the protests developed. Many conservatives are smartly putting this front
Starting point is 00:23:25 and center, and I expect doing so could play really well with a lot of moderates. His handling of the unrest is probably his biggest failure as governor, and the biggest blemish on his record. Number two, under his leadership, Minnesota has given wide latitude to provide gender transition treatments and surgeries to youth. This is an issue Republicans desperately want to run on as they think the average American will be turned off by what's become commonplace progressive ideology. I'm still unsure how well this will play nationally, see Ron DeSantis, but Walls opens up the door for this criticism in a big way as his state has passed some of the most progressive laws on this issue. Number three, on the whole, Harris is viewed as being to the left
Starting point is 00:24:05 of Biden. Walls is viewed as being as left of Harris. I personally think both of these assessments are correct, and I think Trump and Vance can easily frame their opponent as too far left for voters. Walls might energize progressives, but I suspect he'll turn some undecided voters and moderates away once they learn about his record. Number four, immigration is a huge weakness for Democrats, and let's just say Walls is not going to help. He has signed bills that allow unauthorized migrants to get driver's license, joked about investing in the ladder business if Trump builds his wall, and pushed Democrats in his state to pass bills providing unauthorized migrants with health care and free college. These policy proposals are
Starting point is 00:24:44 unpopular in normal times, but they will be especially so during the current migrant crisis. And number five, he's not Josh Shapiro. Shapiro has a 60% approval rating and arguably the most divided state in the U.S. Many conservatives at least claim that if Harris had tapped him, it would have constituted a move to the center, an appeal to the never-Trump Republican, and a signal to the country that the party wasn't moving leftward. We'll never know if Shapiro could have helped Democrats reach those voters, but I think it's very plausible that he could have, and I'm 100% sure that in Pennsylvania, he would have. If Harris loses PA and the election by a thin margin, a lot of people will look back on this decision as a fatal mistake.
Starting point is 00:25:32 We'll be right back after this quick break. Whether renting, renewing a mortgage, or considering buying a home, everybody has housing costs on their minds. For free tools and resources to help you manage your home finances, visit Canada.ca slash it pays to know. A message from the Government of Canada. From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year. Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin,
Starting point is 00:26:02 A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year, garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike. See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu,
Starting point is 00:26:30 a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. All right, that is it for my take. We're skipping today's reader and listener question because
Starting point is 00:27:01 our podcast got a little bit long with the lengthy my take today. So I'm going to send it back to John for Under the Radar and numbers and have a nice day story. And I'll be back here tomorrow. We'll see you then. Thanks, Isaac. Here's your Under the Radar story for today, folks. Nine staff members who worked for the United States Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, may have been involved in the October 7th attack on Israel, according to a now-completed investigation by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services. In January, Israel alleged that at least 12 UNRWA staffers were involved in the attacks, which led to many countries
Starting point is 00:27:45 pausing funding to the aid organization. 19 staff members were investigated, and the UN said it found evidence that nine were involved in the attacks. This evidence has yet to be authenticated and corroborated, but the UN said it fired the staff members in question. NBC News has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. NBC News has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. Tim Walz's margin of victory over his Republican opponent in Minnesota's 2018 gubernatorial election was 11%. Walz's margin of victory over his Republican opponent in Minnesota's 2022 gubernatorial
Starting point is 00:28:23 election was 8%. The percentage of bills co-sponsored by Walls during the 114th Congress that were introduced by a member of the other party was 54%, the ninth highest rate among all representatives. The percentage of Americans who say they have either never heard of Walls or are unsure how to rate him is 71%, according to an August 2024 NPR-PBS Marist poll. Of those who have an opinion of Walz, the net percentage with a positive view of him is 5%. Walz's approval rating in Minnesota is 56%, according to a July 2024 poll from SurveyUSA. The number of days until
Starting point is 00:28:58 the Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago is 12. And since 1968, the number of Democratic vice presidential nominees who were announced further out from the DNC than Walsh is one. That was John Edwards in 2004, announced 20 days before the DNC. All right, and last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story. The Marine Conservation Society has reported an 80% reduction in the number of plastic bags found on UK beaches. This reduction has come after a series of laws introduced in the early to mid-2010s in the United Kingdom
Starting point is 00:29:34 that required large retailers to charge a fee for single-use plastic bags. Lizzie Price, a program manager at MCS, commented, It is brilliant to see policies on single-use plastics, such as carrier bags, working. The Guardian has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work,
Starting point is 00:30:01 please go to readtangle.com and sign up for a membership. We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Wall signing off. Have a great day, y'all. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Wall. The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will Kedak, Bailey Saul,
Starting point is 00:30:26 and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bokova, who is also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. And if you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to readtangle.com
Starting point is 00:30:39 and check out our website.

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