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Kamala Harris appeared on Tuesday in Pennsylvania for the first time alongside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, after announcing earlier today he will join her as running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket.
“I set out to find a partner who can help build this brighter future,” Harris said of Walz when she took the stage before a crowd of over 12,000 in Philadelphia. “A leader who will help unite our nation and move us forward. A fighter for the middle class. A patriot, who believes, as I do, in the extraordinary promise of America.”
Walz praised Harris’s record as a prosecutor and senator, describing Harris as someone who “took on the predators” and “fraudsters” and “fought on the side of the American people.”
The popular Minnesota governor also praised Harris for bringing positivity to national politics.
“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” he said.
Walz beat out a crowded field of rivals to be the Democratic pick for VP, including Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, who appeared at Tuesday’s rally.
Best pics of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at Philadelphia rally
Tim Walz lands a zinger on Vance about that couch story – and attacks him for using Hillbilly Elegy to trash his own community
Best pics from Harris-Walz rally
VIDEO: Walz claims GOP is breaking the Minnesota ‘golden rule’ on abortion
Tim Walz is hoping to connect his Midwest values to the 2024 campaign.
On the subject of abortion, Walz said the GOP opposition to abortion goes against Minnesota’s “golden rule,” of “mind your own damn business.”
Walz accuses Trump campaign of lying about Project 2025
Tim Walz is the latest to accuse the Trump campaign of falsely downplaying its links to Project 2025, a model administration document from a conservative thinktank that’s been criticized for its suite of far-right policies.
Trump has claimed he isn’t associated with the proposal, despite JD Vance writing a foreword for a book by the project’s creator.
“Don’t believe him when he plays dumb,” Walz said in Philadelphia. “He knows exactly what Project 2025 will do to restrict our freedoms, to rig the economy to help the super rich. If Trump gets a chance to return, he’s going to pick up exactly where he left off four years ago, only this time it’ll be much, much worse.”
Walz savages JD Vance as out of touch and ‘weird as hell’
It’s not hard to imagine why Tim Walz once won a state football championship when he was a high school coach.
The Minnesota governor practically gave a halftime pump-up speech today in Philadelphia, and he reserved his most passionate section for his rivals on the (political) field, savaging Ohio senator and Trump running mate JD Vance as an out-of-touch elite, despite their shared Midwest roots.
“Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community,” Walz said, to hoots from the crowd.
“Come on, that’s not what Middle America is,” he continued. “And I got to tell you. I can’t wait to debate the guy … That is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
The Democrat also accused Vance and Trump of being “weird as hell.”
Read more here to learn about why Vance is increasingly coming under fire from even those within his party.
Walz gets personal talking about reproductive care
Tim Walz is arguing that the Republican position on abortion rights and other forms of reproductive care go against Minnesota’s golden rule: “Mind your own damn business.”
The Minnesota governor said there was a time when Republicans believed in freedom, but that has turned out to mean the “freedom to invade your doctor’s office.”
The Democratic leader also spoke personally about his family’s efforts to conceive a child through IVF, and the long stretches where it seemed the procedure wouldn’t take.
Eventually, when their daughter was born, they named her Hope.
‘Thank you for bringing back the joy’
Tim Walz is making that case that he and Kamala Harris will be happy warriors on behalf of the middle class and common decency.
“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” Walz began, praising Harris for her uplifting style.
The Minnesota governor also connected his small town upbringing working on a family farm to the values he said he’ll bring to the White House.
“My mom and dad taught us, show generosity toward your neighbors, and work for the common good,” he said.
Walz said this approach couldn’t be more different than Trump’s.
“He froze in the face of the covid crisis,” Walz said. “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.”
How Tim Walz’s 1995 DUI arrest changed his life
On September 23, 1995, Walz, a 31-year-old, newlywed, high school teacher and football coach, was pulled over doing 96 miles per hour in a 55mph zone. The officer who stopped Walz smelled a “strong odor of alcoholic beverage”, according to the police report.
After failing a field sobriety test and preliminary breath test, Walz was taken to a local jail in Dawes County, Nebraska.
Ariana Baio has the details.
Big cheers for Walz record on ACA and free school lunch
Some of the biggest cheers of the night so far have come when Kamala Harris described Tim Walz’s record on social service programs, which included supporting the Affordable Care Act and making school breakfast and lunch free for Minnesota kids.
“We believe healthcare should be a right and not just a privilege for those who can afford it,” Harris said.
Source: independent.co.uk
