The establishment media did not seem enthusiastic about Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of radical-left Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Although it might have been expected that this choice would excite Harris’s Democrat allies in the media, it was evident from the reactions in the days following the announcement that this was not the general mood. People have looked at him as the safe pick. I would disagree,” said Joe Scarborough of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. He argued that this choice opened up a number of issues for the Democratic ticket to defend.
Media elites expressed their negative views about Walz’s selection throughout the week, indicating that some Democrat insiders thought it was a mistake. The Associated Press’s Meg Kinnard reported on “Walz’s military record under scrutiny as Vance, GOP question his service.” The New York Times’s Nate Cohn wrote about “With Walz, Harris Passes on a Chance to Redefine Herself,” while NBC News’s Steve Kornacki titled a story “Tim Walz’s election results don’t show a clear blue-collar boost,” providing data analysis of Walz’s shortcomings as a running mate. The Wall Street Journal’s Tarini Parti and Sabrina Siddiqui wrote about “How Shapiro Lost Out to Walz in the Race to Be Harris’s VP Pick.
The media elites highlighted some subtle but critical points. Walz is from a solidly blue state with a far-left record as governor, two political bases that Harris already features as the West Coast radical from California. Moreover, Walz did not perform better among rural voters in Minnesota than corrupt President Joe Biden in 2020, underscoring his lack of strength among the all-important demographic that also exists in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Harris chose Walz over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a pro-Israel Democrat who hails from an all-important swing state, a battleground many Republicans feared could slip from their grasp with Shapiro on the ticket. Political convention suggests that Shapiro, as the governor of Pennsylvania, would dramatically help Harris win the Keystone State, but that assumption is reportedly wrong, according to Harris campaign polling.
It’s not that I think Walz is the bad pick. It’s that there was a really good pick available and that they were afraid of their left flank, afraid of ruining the mojo,” said Sarah Longwell from The Bulwark.
Underscoring the media’s skepticism is another point: anonymous Harris campaign staffers appeared to work overtime last week to redefine their candidate by allegedly retracting five of Harris’s most radical policies. That public relations battle appeared undone with the selection of Walz, a Democrat governor with a record that mirrors Harris.
She is in a toss-up environment, and every inch counts,” Jonathan Chair from New York magazine said. Does Walz help her gain those inches? I don’t believe he does.
The most serious line of attack against Walz opened up on Wednesday, with accusations of stolen valor plaguing his first week as Harris’s running mate after a video surfaced of him misrepresenting his military career by falsely claiming he served in war. The Harris campaign escalated the stolen valor scandal on Thursday by scrubbing its reference to Walz’s rank.
Walz did make a comment, speaking to a group — he’s been loose with his language,” CNN correspondent Tom Foreman said while fact-checking Walz’s claims. There is a difference between being in a combat area, being involved in a time of war, and actually being in a position where people are shooting at you.
It’s conceivable he’s been loose with his language,” CNN’s Van Jones said. If he needs to clean it up, clean it up.