https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/06/us/politics/harris-tim-walz-rally.html
Walz, Throwing Punches at Republicans, Makes His Big Entrance With Harris
As the vice president introduced her new running mate at an energetic rally in Philadelphia, he quickly demonstrated his ability to deliver searing attacks against Donald Trump and JD Vance.
America’s introduction to Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota began with a half-hour of cheering for Vice President Kamala Harris and ended with some of the sharpest attacks Democrats have leveled against former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio.
Before a raucous crowd in Philadelphia, Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz presented the Minnesotan as a folksy former schoolteacher and football coach who had inspired his students, served in the military and improved his constituents’ lives.
But it was his ability to deliver searing yet accessible attacks against their Republican opponents that won Mr. Walz a place on the national ticket, and during his first rally, he did not miss his marks.
“Donald Trump sees the world a little differently than us,” he said. “First of all, he doesn’t know the first thing about service. He doesn’t have time for it because he’s too busy serving himself.”
Then came the dagger. “Violent crime was up under Donald Trump,” he said, before pausing for effect. “That’s not even counting the crimes he committed.”
The Harris campaign’s presentation of Mr. Walz brought an end to its two-week sprint to find a running mate, a process that typically takes months and involves a series of public tryouts. Instead, Ms. Harris’s search for a partner took place largely behind closed doors.
Ms. Harris, in her remarks, hailed Mr. Walz as not only the governing partner she had sought but a person of decency who she said would set an example to inspire the nation.
“Tim Walz was the kind of teacher and mentor that every child in America dreams of having and that every kid deserves,” the vice president said. “The kind of coach — because he’s the kind of person — who makes people feel like they belong and then inspires them to dream big. And that’s the kind of vice president he will be. And that’s the kind of vice president America deserves.”
Just 40 days ago, President Biden was preparing to debate Mr. Trump in what his campaign described as the kickoff to the general election. But the president delivered a performance so alarming that his party exploded in revolt, ultimately pushing him out of the race just over two weeks ago.
In short order, Ms. Harris’s emergence as the nominee has transformed what had been a Democratic Party depressed by the prospect of scrounging up votes for an unpopular 81-year-old candidate. Now the party is newly hopeful heading into the highly competitive homestretch of the election.
“The promise of America is what makes it possible for two middle-class kids — one a daughter of Oakland, California, who was raised by a working mother, the other a son of the Nebraska plains who grew up working on a farm — it’s the promise of America,” Ms. Harris said in Philadelphia. “Because only in America — only in America — is it possible for them together to make it all the way to the White House.”
Mr. Walz seemed almost overwhelmed as he took the stage to wild cheers. He spent the 30 minutes while Ms. Harris spoke alternating between bowing toward her and theatrical applause that had the effect of making him appear like a man who had just won the political lottery.
When he finally took the microphone, his exultation was clear. “Wow,” he said, before offering another small bow.
In his speech, he praised Ms. Harris’s career in law enforcement and as vice president, saying she had “fought on the side of the American people” and “never hesitated to reach across the aisle if it meant improving people’s lives.”
He emphasized his blue-collar roots, growing up in small towns in Nebraska and spending summers working on his family farm, and described how joining the military had given him purpose.
But it was his prepared zingers against Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance that led to the biggest responses from the crowd, which the Harris campaign said had totaled about 12,000 people.
Mr. Walz accused Mr. Vance of being an inauthentic tribune of the white working-class Midwesterners he says he represents. Mr. Walz, who graduated from Chadron State College in Nebraska, mocked Mr. Vance’s Ivy League education and Silicon Valley employment before effectively calling him a coward in front of a national television audience.
“I’ve got to tell you, I can’t wait to debate the guy,” Mr. Walz said, pausing again as he savored the attack line to come. “That is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
(The line, for the blissfully uninitiated, was a wink-and-nod reference to a widely shared yet false social media claim about Mr. Vance and furniture.)
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Mr. Walz catapulted himself from little-known Midwestern governor to a national Democratic star embraced by the party’s progressive wing.
He created a catchphrase for liberals in labeling Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance as “weird” characters, going so far on Tuesday as to call them “creepy and weird as hell.” He delighted key elements of his party with punchy appearances on cable television and down-home videos on social media, along with his record of enacting liberal measures as governor.
In her introduction, Ms. Harris highlighted several of Mr. Walz’s policy positions, many of which aligned with the Biden administration’s, that she said demonstrated his willingness to stand up against attacks on freedom.
Among them was being the first governor in the country to sign a new law protecting reproductive rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. He also signed the most significant expansion of voting rights in Minnesota in over 50 years.
Mr. Walz cast his support for abortion rights, as many Democrats have, as a defense of personal freedom.
“In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices that they make,” he said. “Even if we wouldn’t make the same choices for ourselves, there’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”
Mr. Walz also shared his family’s difficult experience with in vitro fertilization treatments, which have been targeted by conservatives in some states that moved to pass restrictive laws after the decision overturning Roe.
“I remember praying every night for a call for good news,” he said, describing the pit in his stomach and the “agony” he had felt hoping that the treatments had worked.
This, he said, was why he and his wife named their daughter “Hope.”
The rally also had to deal with the thorny issue of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who was the runner-up to join Ms. Harris on the ticket and gave a fiery speech to help kick off the rally.
Mr. Shapiro warned about the prospect of a Trump-Vance White House and spoke warmly of Mr. Walz.
“Tim Walz is a great man,” Mr. Shapiro said, adding that he was “an outstanding governor,” a “great patriot” and a “dear friend.”
“I’m going to be working my tail off to make sure we make Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the next leaders of the United States of America,” Mr. Shapiro added.
Mr. Walz, in turn, said Mr. Shapiro could “bring the fire” and called him a “visionary leader,” telling the crowd, “What a treasure you have in Josh Shapiro.” He also praised Mr. Shapiro’s ability to complete an interstate highway reconstruction last year. “Everybody in America knows, when you need a bridge fixed, call that guy,” Mr. Walz said.
The Harris campaign said that since Mr. Walz had been announced as the running mate, it had raised more than $20 million from supporters. It was one of its best fund-raising days this election cycle, the campaign said.
During his speech, Mr. Walz tried to rally supporters for the three-month dash to November, telling them, “We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”
“Over those next 91 days, and every day in the White House, I’ll have Vice President Harris’s back,” he said. “And we’ll have yours.”
