Minnesota’s governor, a Harris V-P contender, calls Trump and Vance ‘weird people’
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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks after attending a meeting with US President Joe Biden and other Democratic governors at the White House on July 3.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MINNESOTA – In a potential audition to be Ms Kamala Harris’ running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota on July 27 cast former president Donald Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, as a dangerous combination before their campaign visit to the state later in the day.
“The fascists depend on us going back, but we’re not afraid of weird people,” Mr Walz said during an event organised by the Harris campaign. “We’re a little bit creeped out, but we’re not afraid.”
Speaking to a crowd of about 200 people packed into the St Paul Labour Centre, an energetic Mr Walz mocked Trump’s selection of Mr Vance as his running mate.
“They went out, you know – because he’s a TV guy – they go out and try to do this central casting: ‘Oh, we’ll get this guy who wrote a book, Hillbilly Elegy, you know,’” he said, referring to Mr Vance’s best-selling memoir, “because all my hill billy relatives went to Yale and became, you know, venture capitalists.”
The rally, which also featured Senator Amy Klobuchar and Representative Betty McCollum, both Democrats of Minnesota, took place just hours before Trump and Mr Vance were scheduled to headline their own rally in St Cloud, a city of about 70,000 that narrowly went for Trump in 2016 but that President Joe Biden won by a comfortable margin in 2020.
“The nation found out what we’ve all known in Minnesota: These guys are just weird,” Mr Walz said of the Republican ticket, echoing a message he debuted on MSNBC this past week and that the Harris campaign itself has begun to test drive.
Polling before Mr Biden’s exit from the race on July 21 had given Republican organisers hope that Minnesota, which has not supported a Republican nominee since Richard Nixon in 1972, could be in play in November. Mr Walz and the other speakers sought to tamp down that notion on July 27 by focusing on two polls released on July 26 that showed Ms Harris leading Trump in the state.
“He’s here today, in the state of hockey, to complete his trifecta,” Mr Walz said of Trump. “He lost in ’16. He lost in ’20. He loses in ’24.”
Asked about a report from Bloomberg News suggesting that he was among three finalists being considered to be Ms Harris’ running mate, Mr Walz told reporters that he was “honoured to be in this conversation” and that he was excited by the energy that Ms Harris’ choice was bringing to the Democratic Party.
“I love them all,” he said of the other vice-presidential contenders. “But this is the Vice-President’s pick. And I tell you what, I trust her judgment.” NYTIMES
