ABC Giddily Celebrates ‘Folksy’ Tim Walz’s ‘Meteoric’ ‘Rise’ to Kamala Running Mate

Curtis Houck
August 7th, 2024 1:23 PM

Text to Speech

00:00 00:00
Font Size

ABC’s Good Morning America understood the assignment on Wednesday to play proverbial clapping seals over Vice President Kamala Harris picking Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) as her running mate, casting him as a “folksy”, innocent guy from Minnesota with a “meteoric” “rise” who “fired up” a Philadelphia rally but can also “reach out to the rural conservative voters”.

They also heralded his governorship as making law “a wish list of Democratic bills” on social issues, but were otherwise light on specifics and, like, CBS and NBC, kept Walz’s image squeaky clean and ignored statements and positions Walz has taken.

That included his peddling of the crude, false claim about GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance having had sexual relations with a couch.

Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos kept it superficial by first boasting in a tease of “a look at the Army National Guardsman, former high school teacher, football coach, father of two, six-term congressman” who’s “[e]ager to go head to head against his opponent.”

“[Harris] introduced her running mate to the nation last night and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz fired up the Philadelphia crowd with new takes on the Trump-Vance ticket,” he later added                    

Congressional correspondent Rachel Scott embraced her unofficial job in Democratic public relations by gushing over the “packed house” Tuesday night in Philadelphia for Harris and Walz, boasting the two see “their campaign as a fight for the future”.

“Overnight, Vice President Harris taking the stage with her new running mate...introducing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to the nation. As a father, congressman, sergeant major, teacher and former football coach,” Scott began.

Scott simply narrated their rally, bragging that Walz went “after the former President, who was found guilty in the hush money trial of falsifying business records” and offering no pushback to Walz’s claim that “violent crime was up under Donald Trump” as being the former president’s fault.

She also led viewers through a clip of Walz smearing Vance as an elitist, ignoring the Republican’s early years of poverty inside a broken home.

“Walz also using his family’s personal history with IVF to make the case for reproductive rights....His star rising in Democratic circles in recent days after he coined a new line of attack against Republicans, calling them weird,” she later bragged.

The second half hour saw more of the same with senior White House correspondent one-upping Scott with a syrupy profile of Walz. Wang began by swooning over his “rise” as “meteoric” that’s been “anything but conventional”.

Wang continued with more biographical details meant to make him seem as normal and soft as a baby’s bottom, including former students who just so happened to be ready to talk about how accepting he was faulty adviser for the gay-straight alliance at the high school he taught at.

Wang hit all the campaign talkers, down to calling him a “moderate” but nonetheless eagerly embracing the label of “radical liberal” (click “expand”):

WANG: Walz, a former high school social studies teacher, now a vice presidential candidate at 60 years old. He joined the Army National Guard at 17 to help pay for college, serving 24 years as an enlisted soldier while teaching in Minnesota.

HARRIS: Tim Walz was the kind of teacher and mentor that every child in America dreams of having.

WANG: He also coached football taking the team to its first state championship and leading the school’s first gay straight alliance.

FORMER STUDENT JACOB REITAN: As a student that was bullied and a student that needed to feel safe in my high school community, both Tim and Gwen made Mankato West a safe place for people like me and I’ll always be grateful to them.

FORMER STUDENT NOAH HOBBS: He’s genuine, authentic, caring human being.

WANG: Walz crediting his students for his turn to politics.

WALZ: They encouraged me to run for office. They saw in me what I was hoping to instill in them, a commitment of common good, a belief that one person can make a difference.

WANG: In 2006, Walz was first elected to Congress. The avid hunter and gun owner representing a rural, conservative district in Minnesota for 12 years and winning re-election even when Trump won his district by double digits. He was known as relatively moderate in Congress, helping pass a veterans suicide prevention bill and voting to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which was opposed by environmental groups.

WALZ [in 2018]: I do.

STATE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE [in 2018]: Congratulations.

WANG: But as governor, he signed into law a wish list of Democratic bills on paid family leave, legalizing recreational marijuana, universal background checks on gun purchases, transgender protection and free school breakfast and lunches for all. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade, Walz was the first governor to pass legislation codifying the right to abortion. Donald Trump blasting Walz as a radical liberal, a label he’s laughed off.

WALZ: What a monster. Kids are eating — eating and having full bellies so they can go learn and women are making their own health care decisions. [SCREEN WIPE] If that’s what they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.

WANG: Republicans also acting his response to violent protests in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Walz only deploying the National Guard after three days of chaos.

WALZ [in 2020]: If the issue was that the state should have moved faster, yeah, that is on me.

Of course, nothing about how, for example, Walz set up a hotline during the pandemic for Minnesotans to report to the authorities their neighbors for insufficiently abiding by lockdowns.

Wang brought up Walz’s wife, Gwen, in context of the two having their two kids through IVF, but ignored Gwen’s almost celebratory reaction to Minneapolis burning in 2020 (click “expand”):

WANG: But sources say Harris was won over by Walz folksy straight forward manner. Supporting Walz every step of the way, his wife Gwen a lifelong English teacher. The couple have two kids and have been open about their IVF journey.

WALZ: And I remember praying every night for a call for good news. The pit in my stomach when the phone rang and thing any we heard the treatments hadn’t worked. So, it wasn’t by chance that when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope.

WANG: Now 23 years old —

HOPE WALZ: Good job, dad.

WALZ: Oh, thanks, Hope.

WANG: — Hope is a frequent star on her father’s social media account.

WALZ: Then we’re gonna get some food. Corn dog.

HOPE WALZ: I’m vegetarian.

WALZ: Turkey then and then —

HOPE WALZ: Turkey is meat.

WALZ: — not in Minnesota. Turkey’s special.

Wang closed with more propaganda that repeatedly claimed Walz “has proven” he’s liked by “rural conservative voters” even though “some critics say that his record more firmly cements vice President Harris as a progressive”

The Harris campaign is betting that Governor Walz can reach out to their rural conservative voters in those critical battleground states. Harris and Walz are going to be blitzing through the states this week, knowing there are only 90 days until the election. 

(....)

You already have Republicans attacking him for being even more liberal than Vice President Harris. And some critics say that his record more firmly cements vice President Harris as a progressive. But at the same time, he has proven that he can reach out to the rural conservative voters, even those who have supported Donald Trump. So, the Harris campaign is making a bet that, even though his record is conservative [sic], his back story, his demeanor will be able to reach out to those Midwestern voters into those swing states that they need to clinch the White House.

To see the relevant ABC transcript from August 7, click here.

Donor Privacy Policy