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Sources Say, Kamala Harris Picks Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) as Running Mate; Trump Campaign Slams Gov. Walz as a Dangerously Liberal Extremist; Gov. Walz is Former Teacher, Football Coach, and National Guardsman. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 06, 2024 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin with breaking political news, sources telling CNN that Vice President Kamala Harris has made the most consequential decision of her political career thus far, picking Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate. The 60-year-old veteran and teacher turned governor was once seen as a dark horse candidate in the selection process, but he quickly rose to prominence in the past few weeks. It was Walz using a popular Trump is weird line that went viral, and a source says he was the staff's favorite.

We're also learning that the Harris campaign will turn their call informing walls that he is the pick into an official campaign announcement releasing in just a few hours from now, perhaps in the next couple of hours. We're with you ahead of their first rally tonight in Pennsylvania. And we're also told in just the last several minutes, a source telling our Arlette Saenz that Vice President Harris has personally informed Walz that he is the pick. That apparently happened in a video call just a short time ago.

Let's bring in Jeff Zeleny and M.J. Lee. They are live in Philadelphia for us, where that rally will be taking place later on today. And here with me is CNN's political director, David Chalian.

M.J., I'll start with you first. We could all just run through this. What are your sources saying about what went into the vice president's decision and what comes next?

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We know Jim that this was a deliberation process that actually happened very quickly. She only really had some days to really go over all of the information that was available to her before making this decision that was the most consequential political decision of her career so far. And I'm told by a source that is close to this process that there were several big reasons that the vice president ultimately ended up going with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

One of them is just the executive experience that he brings to the table, particularly with a focus on a record that has something to say about working class Americans, whether it is supporting policies that are related to paid leave, gun control or reproductive rights, free lunch in schools, those are all a number of the policy areas that they felt like really painted a picture of somebody that could again send a message to working class Americans, obviously a huge group of voters that the Biden-Harris campaign would have been aiming their message at heading into November. And now, that campaign is, of course, the Harris-Walz campaign and the Harris-Walz ticket.

The other thing just simply comes down to the bio that they felt like was incredibly compelling. You know, we've been talking about Tim Walz for a number of hours now, but the fact that he has this record and background of having served in the Army National Guard, he had been a history teacher for a number of years, was a football coach, and, again, just going back to the background roots of having born in a small town in Nebraska, somebody that can really speak to to rural America, that was a big draw, is our understanding.

They also just felt like he has been an effective messenger when it comes to going after the Trump-Vance ticket. We have been talking about the fact that he sort of made it more mainstream, at least this time around, to call the other guys on the other side of the political aisle just weird guys. This has been an effective political messaging tool coming from Democrats. And I do think whether or not he was doing this deliberately or not, there has been an audition process, Jim, the last couple of days, and that is something that was appealing to Kamala Harris.

Last of all, and I think probably one of the most important things, I am told that there was a good rapport between the vice president and Tim Walz. That personal chemistry was really, really important, a huge factor, given that she was going to want someone that she could trust, to govern with her, someone that she could really lean on no matter the circumstances. So, we are starting to get sort of a fuller picture of why she ended up choosing him over everybody else that was on the table, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Jeff, I mean, I'm also hearing you know, from my sources that this Walz boomlet was real, you know, that this really kind of happened suddenly towards the tail end of this process.

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But what about what M.J. was saying a few moments ago about Walz's popularizing the Trump is weird line? I guess that's, does that fit squarely with this vibes election that we're all feeling right now? Is that what was running through the Harris campaign during this final part of this election process?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Jim, there's no doubt that Governor Walz, his support grew like -- it crescendoed over the last week. And by Friday or so, it was clear that he was in the -- certainly had captured the attention and imagination full square of the Harris campaign.

They were hearing from a lot of Democrats really across the spectrum, from progressives to moderates, saying he is the running mate who can continue the momentum. But it was that chemistry that M.J. was talking about, but also his biography. We've talked for quite some time about geography. Would she pick someone from Pennsylvania? Jim, just yesterday, you and I were talking about this. And, of course, the 19 electoral votes are so central to her winning the White House and defeating Donald Trump. But they believe that Governor Shapiro will come back on board and be helpful to this ticket.

That, of course, will be the chemistry we're all watching tonight at that rally here in Philadelphia, because there is no question there are some bruised feelings. Governor Shapiro is a rising star in the party. There are some others who question if his ambitions were perhaps slightly too much to the fore, and that made the vice president uncomfortable.

History will show us more about this choice. But for now, it's the authenticity, we're told, and the geography of the country that Governor Walz brings to this. But, Jim, also his record in Congress, I'm told, this is something that also impressed the Harris team. He was not a show horse, if you will, he was a workhorse. But it was on the Veterans Affairs Committee that he did so much work and was a leader in that regard. And he served for 24 years in the National Guard, the Army National Guard, as a commander in the National Guard. So, he is very fluent on veterans' issues and he's also fluent talking and comfortable talking about abortion rights.

I am told this morning that Vice President Harris went back to -- in her mind, as she was making her decision here, went back to a meeting she had with him in March. She traveled to Minnesota to a Planned Parenthood clinic. The first time a vice president had visited a Planned Parenthood clinic, Governor Walz was there at her side, and she was impressed by how he carried himself. And he, of course, called her and they talked on that key Sunday in all of this, July 21st, when President Biden stepped aside. Those two had a phone call. No one would have ever expected that phone call to develop into what happened today. But over 16 days, Jim, that's exactly what happened.

ACOSTA: All right, very good, great reporting, as always, Jeff Zeleny and M.J. Lee.

And David Chalian is here with me in the studio. And, David, Jeff brings up a good point. If you're going to win the presidency, you have to win Pennsylvania. This is a little bit of a risk for Kamala Harris in going with Tim Walz and picking Josh Shapiro might have gone a long way in locking down Pennsylvania. What do you think?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Or not. We don't know that Josh Shapiro could have delivered Pennsylvania to Kamala Harris. People do tend to vote on the top of the ticket. Yes, Josh Shapiro is a popular sitting governor, but, again, that is no guarantee that those 19 electoral votes end up in Kamala Harris' column on election night, Jim.

And I don't know that this is a risky pick. It feels a rather safe pick, because in the sense that if the Harris campaign saw in the last couple of weeks that they sparked something among Democrats and got enthusiasm going and got a party that was far more engaged in this election than they had been when Joe Biden was atop the ticket, young people coming back, some key constituencies coming back.

This pick is something that's trying to double down on that, to keep that momentum. He has a lot of fans in the labor movement, in the progressive movement, key constituencies inside the party that have been electrified in the last couple weeks.

I will say this. Obviously, given the fact that he has a Democratic legislature in Minnesota, a trifecta, he passed a lot of progressive legislation. That is going to come under scrutiny from Republicans, no doubt, as will his management of the unrest in Minneapolis, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. There will be a lot of attention on that period in Walz's governorship and in his career, and he's going to need very solid answers. When he comes out of the gate and starts answering questions, I think that is going to be one area that is going to get a ton of focus.

ACOSTA: Oh, yes. And the Trump folks, I'm sure, are already, you know, going through all of that, and they probably have a lot of that already at the ready.

Let me go back to you, M.J. What are you hearing about the chemistry? I mean, obviously, at the end of the day, We're all hearing some of this, that when Kamala Harris sat down with Tim Walz, that it was just obvious they had a lot of chemistry and they could work together as a team.

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At the end of the day, that's what you want. That's what you need. You can't be thinking, well, you know, is this person too ambitious or might this person have vetting problems?

LEE: Yes. And, Jim, I mean, think about the last few weeks that Vice President Kamala Harris has had as she has been put in the position of having to defend President Biden, as he gradually came under increasing calls from other members of the Democratic Party for him to step out of the 2024 race. You have to imagine that had to have been sort of a formative experience for her.

Of course, this is a job that she has been in for 3.5 years already. But I think going through that process and seeing how important it is to have a right hand person, to have a deputy and a partner who is always going to have your back. You have to imagine that that must have been an important consideration and certainly top of mind for her.

We also do have some new reporting right now, Jim, on that phone call that the vice president made to the governor. I am told by a source familiar that on this phone call this morning, she told the governor that she sees them as the underdogs, but that still she feels confident that together they can have a winning message, particularly on two things, on reducing costs for middle class Americans and also protecting freedoms. The underdogs thing is so interesting because, you know, we've been talking so much about how within the Democratic Party, we have seen in enthusiasm, this burst of energy. But even still, we shouldn't take that to mean that Democrats are suddenly just extremely confident that this November election is in the bag for them.

In fact, you talk to anybody that works in politics and Democrats in particular will continue to insist. What they expect in November is a very, very close, a very challenging race. And what we know, again, now is that the vice president made that clear, that is her view still when she called Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to give him the news that she is choosing him as her running mate.

And I think just on the two issues that we highlighted that she believes that they can have a winning message on basically the economy and when it comes to freedoms, keep in mind, she has been sort of the leading voice on everything related to reproductive rights for this administration and the former Biden-Harris campaign.

I do think you are seeing a clear picture of the key core issues that she clearly wants to run on now together with Governor Walz as they head into November, Jim.

ACOSTA: And, Jeff -- I mean, M.J., that is great reporting. And, Jeff, I mean, just to jump off of what M.J. was saying, I mean, Walz and Harris, I guess they'll be taking the stage for the first time tonight in Philadelphia. He's been going after Trump and J.D. Vance as part of this, you know, sort of auditioning process, unofficial auditioning process that we've been seeing over the last several days. Let's listen to a bit of that.

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GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): What you saw out in St. Cloud yesterday with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance is the same old nonsense, just talking points and denigrating folks. And I think she's more, you know, boosted because she's bringing a positive vision. Look, we care about what happens to your kids. We care about the environment. We care about job creation.

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ACOSTA: I expect we'll hear more of that tonight, Jeff.

ZELENY: Jim, I expect we will. And the interesting thing, obviously, in Governor Walz, his criticism, of course, is very sharp toward Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and the MAGA movement writ large. But he also goes on to say, look, some of their voters, Republicans are my neighbors. They are my friends. They are my constituents.

So, he has definitely smoother edges. We will see if those edges become a bit sharper here in the coming weeks, because obviously the role of a vice presidential candidate is to be the proverbial attack dog, if you will, And he certainly has that in him, but he's very much more of a sunny side up kind of optimistic, happy warrior. We will see if that develops into more of a sharper edge criticism. But there's no doubt that his record, and as David was saying earlier, we've been hearing that as well, his time in the days after the George Floyd killing in May of 2020 will come under closer view. He knows that he's prepared to talk about that. But, Jim, if you look at the breadth of supporters who supported him, Bernie Sanders was a big supporter, because he believes the Democratic ticket needs to talk more about the working class. If the economy becomes front and central in this campaign, as it may, this will be certainly something interesting for him to watch -- for us to watch on Governor Walz. He does not have deep economic experience, but he comes from part of the country, a governor, of course, where he's had to have executive leadership.

So, suddenly he has a lot more on his plate, as Vice President Harris. We will see them tonight right here in Philadelphia.

ACOSTA: Yes. Jeff, absolutely right. And, David, I mean, I guess David's Tim Walz is going to be the point person for these Midwestern blue wall states.

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He's going to be front and center.

CHALIAN: There's no doubt. I mean, you talk to folks in the Harris camp. What they see in him is a direct answer to some of the voters that have left the Democratic party for Trump over these last nine years. And they believe he can speak to those voters in those critical places. There's no doubt about that.

You now are going to find a very compressed schedule here. We've been watching and observing and reporting on the last two weeks of this battle to define Kamala Harris, her trying to get out front with her own narrative to the country in this new context, and Donald Trump and his team trying to define her.

Now, you're going to add in a total unknown to most of the country, and the team is going to try and bring him into this narrative that they are shaping on the Harris side. At the end of the day, do I think this election is going to come down to Tim Walz versus J.D. Vance? I do not. I think it is going to come down to Kamala Harris versus Donald Trump.

But what you're going to see in these next few days, starting with this video, you know, that you said, she often just called, they shot a video. By the way, you know how T.V. is made right now. Right now, that video is being ingested, cut, put together to be rolled out, get donations off of, build this office, all in advance. That's what we'll first see before we see the ticket together tonight in Pennsylvania and through these five battleground states.

Originally, it's supposed to be seven, but the storm, Tropical Storm Debby in Georgia and North Carolina, took those off the map for this initial debut. But this is the beginning of the Harris team defining what this ticket means for America in contrast to the Trump-Vance team. ACOSTA: Yes. And the fact that Walz is a hunter, he's a football coach, I mean, all of those things that he's going to be deployed to all of those states where all of that is very important.

M.J., Jeff Zeleny, David Chalian, thanks to all of you very much. Obviously we're going to continue following this. Vice President Kamala Harris has picked her own vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a relative unknown on the national stage, not so much anymore. That's going to be changing very quickly. Much more in all of this breaking news in just a moment.

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ACOSTA: All right, back to the breaking news. You're looking at some live pictures right now at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's home there in Minnesota. Apparently, it is a house used by the University of Minnesota, and the governor has been staying there while the governor's mansion, we're told, has been under renovations. And so you're looking at some pictures right now of that house. We're waiting to see. You can see all those SUVs.

That's usually a pretty good sign that something is afoot, and we're waiting to see if the Minnesota governor and the vice presidential nominee if we can call him that at this point comes out at any moment. So, we're keeping an eye on all of that.

But after weeks of speculation, Kamala Harris has picked her running mate. She texted her supporters. We should note in just the last several minutes that she has picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Let's bring in CNN Senior Political Commentator Van Jones. Van, what do you think?

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, listen, man this guy comes out of nowhere. Two weeks ago, nobody even knew his name. And he lit up the grassroots. He lit up the internet, the first person to come out and define Donald Trump as weird. And suddenly people had a way to talk about him. We were, oh, he's a fascist, he's a dictator. We were actually giving him more power. This guy punctured the Donald Trump balloon and comes out of nowhere, the ultimate dark horse candidate.

So, it extends the honeymoon. A lot of people are excited. But it's not all one-way. You do have the other side of this thing, which is, first of all, what worries me is you see a lot of relief from the conservatives. They were scared of Josh Shapiro. They were scared of a Mark Kelly. They thought that would help define Kamala more to the middle. You see a lot of rejoicing on the right. That's not good.

Also, you've got some disquiet in the Jewish community. Some people had their hopes up. Maybe you're going to get another shot at a Jewish vice president. We haven't had that for two decades, and now that gets pulled away. Is it just because he's a moderate or is there some anti- Jewish bias here? So, the party is still digesting this. I think if you're a young, a Muslim or a young Arab, or someone who's concerned about Gaza, it gives you a reason to stay excited about Kamala, because that was going to be hard for the party to digest.

So, you've got a party now trying to figure out, is this good? Is this bad? What does it mean for the young people? Do they stay excited? But the most important thing I can say is, only in America can somebody who nobody literally heard of two weeks ago be on his way to being possibly the vice president of the United States, second to the most powerful person in the world because he made the argument for himself. He made the case against Donald Trump, he made the case against Republicans in a fresh way, and here we are. It just -- this is the most unpredictable race that you've seen, I think, in the past 50 years. It's just nuts.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Van, I think you make a great point about how I think the Harris campaign, the vice president wanted to keep the momentum going, wanted to keep the energy level up. That had been a certainly the case when the president stepped aside and Kamala Harris took the reins of the party. And Tim Walls, you're absolutely right, has been out there describing Donald Trump is weird. He's been talking about how Trump out on the campaign trail has been talking about Hannibal Lecter and so on, and Democrats eat that up.

But let's take a look at this recent poll of America's opinion of Governor Walz. 71 percent say they have no opinion. As you were saying, he's virtually unknown as a political figure.

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I mean, that does present some concerns, I would think, inside the Democratic Party once I guess some of the hangover wears off and the excitement wears off a little bit and they have to get down to the nitty-gritty of campaigning.

JONES: Look, you've now got a 24, 48-hour window to define this guy. And you already know the Republicans are going to say, you know, he's far left, et cetera. But what he actually is something new. He's a positive populist. He's a populist. He's an up with the people guy. He's an everyday guy. He's not an elite. He's not a coastal elite at all, but he's a positive populist.

The problem with the J.D. Vance, the problem with the Donald Trump, they call themselves populist, but they're negative populist. Why are they for the people? Because they're mad at the transgender people, they're mad at the left, they're mad at this, they're mad at that. This guy's not mad at anybody. He likes everybody. He loves everybody. He just wants people to be able to see a doctor when they're sick, to be able to send their kids to a good school, to be able to have a country that works well together. So he's a populist, but he's positive.

I think that's going to be very difficult for the Republicans to deal with because, when they try to paint him as some crazy extremist, he doesn't come across that way at all. Economically, he might be a little bit to the left. But, culturally, personally, he's right down the middle.

I think he's going to give them fits. I think J.D. Vance is going to look like an idiot trying to bait this guy. I think it's going to be a very, very fascinating race going forward.

ACOSTA: And, Van, we just got a statement from Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. He just said this, so we can show this to our viewers. Nearly two weeks ago, Vice President Harris asked me to work with her team to complete the vetting process to be considered as her running mate and following those conversations on Sunday. I was grateful to have the opportunity to speak with the vice president directly about her vision for the role in the campaign ahead. Vice President Kamala Harris has my enthusiastic support, and I know that Governor Tim Walz is an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket who will help Kamala move our country forward.

I suppose we might -- yes, we might see the governor out there in Philadelphia later today. Maybe we won't. We'll find out about that. But, I mean, it seems to be a stretch that there would be sour grapes here and that Shapiro's not going to offer his full support.

JONES: Look, Josh Shapiro is a class act from beginning to end. He's a rising star in this party. He's done an extraordinary job. He gets Republican votes, independent votes, moderate votes, Smurfs vote for him. Muppets vote for him. I mean, the guy is a vote magnet. And there's a reason for that. He is a class act. He's a true American and he's going to show up and he's going to --

ACOSTA: Do you think it was a little risky, though, Van, that she didn't go with Shapiro to kind of lock down Pennsylvania? I mean, yes, David Chalian was saying earlier, just cause you pick him as your running mate doesn't mean you automatically win Pennsylvania, but I got to think it would have helped just a little bit.

JONES: Hey, listen, that the conservatives, the right wing, the Republicans, they were chewing their fingernails down to the knuckle because they were afraid of a Josh Shapiro. They were afraid of a Mark Kelly. They're not as afraid of this new governor because they think they can define him.

So, here's the challenge you've got in this party, and people don't want to talk about it, but we've got to talk about it. On the one hand, you have a lot of young people who are concerned about Gaza. You have a lot of Muslims and Arabs and others. They have not felt seen by the Biden administration. You start right here in that genocide joke that was building. And so those folks needed to have a candidate that they could feel comfortable with. This helps them in that regard.

But you also have anti-Semitism that has gotten marbled into this party. You can be for the Palestinians without being an anti-Jewish bigot. But there are some anti-Jewish bigots out there. And there's some disquiet now, and there has to be, how much of what just happened is caving into some of these darker parts in the party. So, that's going to have to get worked out. It's going to have to get talked through. But I tell you what, if you have a Josh Shapiro who says, you know what, I give this my stamp, I give this my support, I believe in this ticket, that's going to help a great deal. And Josh Shapiro has a magnificent future in this party regardless, but it's mostly positive. You're seeing mostly enthusiasm, but there is some disquiet conversations we've got to have inside this party.

ACOSTA: Interesting. All right, Van Jones, I know that conversation will continue. I'm sure there are a lot of folks in the Harris campaign will push back on some of those notions there, but we'll keep that conversation going. Van Jones, I appreciate it.

JONES: I'm excited.

ACOSTA: All right. Thanks a lot. We'll be right back.

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