‘Perfect Backstory’ ABC Cheers Kamala Picking ‘Folksy’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Plainspoken’ Walz

Curtis Houck
August 6th, 2024 10:25 AM

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You could ABC is already in love. During Tuesday’s ABC News Special Report on Vice President Kamala Harris selecting Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate, the liberal journalists were ebullient over Walz as not only “folksy” and “personal”, but also “the All-American definition of a man from middle — Middle America” with a “perfect backstory” and both a “moderate” and “progressive”.

Good Morning America co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos went first, gushing to senior White House correspondent Selina Wang that “Walz appears to fit the all American definition of a man from middle — middle America. High school teacher — teacher, football coach, member of the Army National Guard before becoming a member of Congress and now governor.”

A day after she gave cover to anti-Semitism by referring to opposition to Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) as having to do with “views” he holds being a “concern” for “Arab Americans”, Wang didn’t beat around the bush when celebrating Walz:

Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl came next and also didn’t bring up Shapiro being Jewish as why he didn’t get the nod, instead citing sources as having said the call really came down to Harris having “really hit off with — with Tim Walz”.

As you can see below, Karl tried to have it both ways with Walz’s labeling:

Chief White House correspondent and lead Democratic Party apple polisher Mary Bruce was giddy at the idea of covering Walz, proclaiming he’s so “folksy” and “plainspoken” that “appeals to a lot of voters”.

She even celebrated him as referring to half the country as “weird” (which speaks volumes about how Bruce sees Americans she supposed to work on behalf of):

Congressional correspondent Rachel Scott and political director Rick Klein brought it home with the former cartoonishly suggesting it could continue to be a struggle for Republicans to define the Harris-Walz ticket.

Klein suggested this could help really lock down a Democratic win (click “expand”):

KLEIN: [T]he Harris campaign knows that if you win in the upper Midwest, you almost certainly win the election and the movement that we’ve seen in the battleground state polling in the 538 polling average just since Joe Biden left the race is substantial, and it’s particularly pronounced in those upper Midwest states in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania. Now, Tim Walz isn’t from any of those states. Other finalists like Josh Shapiro were, but Walz is from just the other side of those states. He represents a part of the country, a redder part of a bluer state, as Jon Karl pointed out. That’s critical. A lot of voters there are similar to the voters in Wisconsin and in Michigan and in Pennsylvania that will almost certainly decide the election. I think it’s fair to assume that Governor Walz, after he’s selected, will spend plenty of time in those battleground states, as will Vice President Harris herself. She’s going to be in Pennsylvania later today. She’s planning to hit all of those big battlegrounds in the next couple of days. You see that shift, all of those three states at the top — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that by themselves almost certainly would make Vice President Harris president. Harris. And her hope will be that Tim Walz helps deliver those states.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Doubling down on the Midwest.

To see the relevant transcript from August 6, click “expand.”

ABC News Special Report
August 6, 2024
9:12 a.m. Eastern

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Vice President Kamala Harris is set to pick Minnesota Hovernor Tim Walz as her running mate. There he is right there. Two term governor — governor of Minnesota. Want to go straight to Selina Wang, who is there in Philadelphia. And, Selina, “Walz appears to fit the all American definition of a man from middle — middle America. High school teacher — teacher, football coach, member of the Army National Guard before becoming a member of Congress and now governor.”

SELINA WANG: Exactly. He really has that perfect back story. He also has those rural roots, and he’s really emerged as the dark horse in this veepstakes race. He has emerged as the favorite very recently as he has been on the cables, on the network, showing that he can effectively push back on those Republican attacks. He’s the one, George, remember, who labeled J.D. Vance and his Republican allies as, “weird,” which gained a lot of steam with the Harris campaign. He has this folksy, personal, informal vibe that is really appealed to a lot of Democrats. And they believe that his rural backstory, the fact that he was a former member of the NRA, as you say, he is this high school former high school teacher, he was a football coach, that this can help a appeal to those independent swing state voters. But it is unprecedented, George, how all of this has played out. I was told that, as of last night, according to sources, Vice President Harris still had not made her decision and that her team was printing out signs with multiple different candidates on it ready to go at any moment. This decision coming down to the wire, her and her close team have been keeping this decision under lock and key. They wanted to avoid any leaks.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And let me bring in Jon Karl, our chief Washington correspondent. We know that the vice president met with — with three finalists on Sunday, not only Governor Walz, but also Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona.

JONATHAN KARL: Yeah, all three had strong arguments to make to be her running mate. All three under serious consideration until the very end. Tim Walz came through as somebody that frankly, Kamala Harris was comfortable with. She actually had known Josh Shapiro much longer. The two of them both former attorneys general she had known had a longer relationship with him. But people that I’ve spoken to said she really hit it off with — with Tim Walz. Both of them coming from states that are important, Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important battleground state. But Minnesota, a — a state that Democrats, won last time and were counting on winning again, but where Donald Trump had shown strength and more importantly, it’s that whole area Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan. The feeling was having a Midwest governor who had governed in a state that — that — that — that has significant pockets of Republican voters would be good for her. And, if you look at his experience in Congress, George, you know, he’s a six-term member of the House before he ran for governor. His district is a district that Donald Trump carried quite handedly, a pretty conservative district. And as a member of Congress, he was viewed as a — as a moderate Democrat. Now, he is seen certainly among these three finalists as the most progressive, the most liberal politically of the three finalists. But he does, you know, have a record in Congress as — as a rather moderate Democrat representing a very moderate to conservative district in Minnesota.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And let me bring in Mary Bruce, our chief White House correspondent. Mary, that personal chemistry, obviously paramount in the final decision. But in the last couple of weeks, Tim Walz also had been performing very well on the stump and a lot of Democrats believe he lines up well with former President Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance.

MARY BRUCE: Yeah, certainly, George, his Midwestern appeal, that plainspoken way of talking that he has, he’s a bit folksy, and I think that certainly appeals to a lot of voters, especially perhaps some — some Joe Biden supporters. He clearly showed — Kamala Harris believes that he is able to get out there on the stump, clearly articulate the case against Donald Trump and he was creating a lot of buzz, as Selina said, he coined that, that — that — that one word takedown of the Trump-Vance team, just calling them weird. That is something that really gained a fair amount of traction. And so much of this decision while yes, it is about, you know, who can put what states in play, you know, looking at the map, looking ahead to the future, it is also a decision that is simply about chemistry, camaraderie, compatibility. This is a job, of course, that Kamala Harris knows better than anyone else. And clearly, when it came down to it, she believes that she and Tim Walz make a good team here, that they are going to be able to not just govern well, but also win. All of these things factor into this decision. And, of course, this is the most consequential decision of her career and one that she has had to make at absolute warp speed. Just 16 days, George, 16 days. That’s how long she has had to get used to being a candidate and to making this huge decision. And despite all of the decision making, all of the vetting, when it comes down to it, this decision was up to Kamala Harris alone.

STEPHANOPOULOS: No question about that. Let’s bring in Rachel Scott with the first reaction from the Trump campaign. Rachel.

RACHEL SCOTT: Yeah, we’re just getting word in from Donald Trump’s campaign and also from the former President and his allies saying, “even worse than dangerously liberal and crooked Kamala Harris.” That’s the reaction to this news that we are now reporting that Harris is picking Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate. Just yesterday, George, the former president Donald Trump, was saying quite the opposite. In fact, during an interview, he said that whoever Harris chooses to be, her running mate would be better than her. We know that the Trump campaign for days now has really been trying to recalibrate their focus, trying to figure out what exactly their strategy is, because they wanted to run against President Joe Biden. Once President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, they now have tried to figure out what their new line of attack is not only on Vice President Kamala Harris, but also now on someone who is going to be her running mate. When — when President Biden was still in the race, we know there was that phone call between Senator JD Vance and also Vice President Kamala Harris agreeing to meet again once again on the debate stage. We’ll have to see what happens with a potential vice presidential debate and whether or not Governor Tim Walz will agree to debate senator JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, Rachel, thanks. Let’s bring in our political director, Washington bureau chief Rick Klein. And, Rick, as now that we know that it’s going to be Walz, I imagine he’s going to be on a continuous loop between the states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And we’re seeing this at a time when Kamala Harris does have some momentum in those states.

RICK KLEIN: George, the Harris campaign knows that if you win in the upper Midwest, you almost certainly win the election and the movement that we’ve seen in the battleground state polling in the 538 polling average just since Joe Biden left the race is substantial, and it’s particularly pronounced in those upper Midwest states in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania. Now, Tim Walz isn’t from any of those states. Other finalists like Josh Shapiro were, but Walz is from just the other side of those states. He represents a part of the country, a redder part of a bluer state, as Jon Karl pointed out. That’s critical. A lot of voters there are similar to the voters in Wisconsin and in Michigan and in Pennsylvania that will almost certainly decide the election. I think it’s fair to assume that Governor Walz, after he’s selected, will spend plenty of time in those battleground states, as will Vice President Harris herself. She’s going to be in Pennsylvania later today. She’s planning to hit all of those big battlegrounds in the next couple of days. You see that shift, all of those three states at the top — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that by themselves almost certainly would make Vice President Harris president. Harris. And her hope will be that Tim Walz helps deliver those states.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Doubling down on the Midwest. Okay, Rick Klein, thanks very much. One more time. Vice President Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz — poised to pick Tim Walz as her running mate.

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